The Philadelphia Inquirer has endorsed our favorite Lt Gov candidate, Valerie McDonald Roberts. You should too.
Snips from the endorsement editorial:
Catherine Baker Knoll, the 75-year-old incumbent, should have retired after one term, to the applause of a commonwealth grateful for her long service. The veteran western Pennsylvania vote-getter, adored by senior citizens, won the Democratic nomination in 2003 over more qualified foes. She's running again.
Knoll is a wonderfully warm person who loves to chat with students visiting the Capitol or to delivering quilts to wounded servicemen.
The key test for this post, though, is to imagine a candidate being asked to step into the top job, as Mark Schweiker did in 2001 when Tom Ridge became secretary of homeland security.
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VALERIE MCDONALD ROBERTS . . . [a]s a former Pittsburgh city councilwoman and school board president who is now Allegheny County recorder of deeds, she is far and away the Democrats' most plausible choice.
She's had to balance government budgets and manage a bureaucracy. She's been on the front lines of decision-making about crime, community development and education.
The two main roles of the lieutenant governor are leading the state's emergency services and chairing the parole board. After the Hurricane Katrina debacle, no state should be cavalier about the former duty. Of the four, Roberts promises the steadiest hand in a crisis.
Roberts, 50, also promises to be a better salesperson for a state that must send a national message that it is about youth and the future, not just gray hair and the past.
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