Second chance. But he did admit that the ethics case against him, the largest fine in the history of the ethics board, which was exacted about a month ago, did become a distraction for him, so he wont seek reelection, and he also talked about how he as an orphan, as a child, went on to become the first africanamerican District Attorney in the history of the city of philadelphia. Harold, this a big surprise to you . It is a surprise, the announcement that hes not running. Id been convinced that he would run in the next election. I didnt know how successful he would be. For all of us who remember seth running for election against Lynne Abraham the first time, the animosity between the two, because he had worked for her, and the promise and the goals that he had as a young District Attorney. And he fulfilled a lot of that promise, but ethics matter, and i noted in his announcement he tried to make a big deal of the fact that there were so many questions about the ethics mistakes as opposed to the good that he had done in the office. But ethics do matter, and for the top lawenforcement official in the city to have ethics problems, i think that him stepping away from the race was the right thing to do. 62,000 in fines for failing to report gifts and income and also accepting gifts that he should not have accepted. Really, like, anyone right. So clearcut. He must be kicking himself. Right. Its so obvious that youre gonna get caught. Its so obvious this is gonna be known. Why do it . Or if you are gonna do it, then immediately report it. At least have that side of the argument. So, theres a certain as an outsider who lives in the burbs, has often worked in the city, though, all these years and i guess its a little bit in the suburbs, too but theres a callousness, if you will, among elected officials about what is okay. Yeah, you know, oh, yeah, i should do that, instead of just reading the rules. If you take the trip, report the trip. Thats it. Harold and brian actually point out the two poles here ethics and judgment. Seth is a smart man and an ambitious man, an accomplished man, and what i looked at when he was announcing that he wasnt going to run for reelection, it seemed like the summation that a criminal defense attorney would give for his client when youre saying, he may have done something wrong, but look at what he actually did as a mitigating factor. Sure. And theres a world of mitigating factors for rufus Seth Williams. He really did revolutionize the d. A. s office. By the same token, his judgment is really suspect with something that he simply could have just reported these gifts, and he didnt do it. The ethics issue that harold points out, i think is extremely important as well. And theres hubris there, too. A lot of the things that he said are true. He was in it for redemption, for diversionary programs which would redemption as opposed to punishment. Sure. The one thing that sticks out in my mind, though, and ive written about it so many times is where was the redemption for monsignor lynn . He had that case. He went after and i think that that was for the optics of it, and i think that that was for a sense of some kind of i dont know a notch on his belt with the catholic church. And this brings a whole new can of worms here to the table. It really does, and you wonder whats gonna happen with that case. Im gonna go to ajay. This is a man who almost ran for mayor of philadelphia who basically told people, you know, i probably could have won if i did run. Was ambition a big part of what we have seen here with the downfall of him as a politician . I dont think Seth Williams is unique. I think we have a history of public corruption in this city. So the word callousness comes to mind. The idea that once you acquire this power, hubris, or you acquire this allergic reaction to humility and bouts of delusion once you have that bubble that youre living in. And i think seth, like many others before him, was caught in that trap. Having said that, i think it does speak to proper judgment that he recognized that the pathway was not clean, that the best thing for this city and the best thing for his office, best thing for the work that he truly believed in doing and a lot of the good that he did do, the best thing was for him to step down. That is proper judgment. We all you know, america loves a redemption story. America loves folks who have fallen and have the ability to get up and acknowledge that they made a mistake, and i thought the speech, for what its worth, you know, was the first step to hopefully a new start. Along those lines, is he finished, politically . I think hes, you know he didnt have a lot of institutional, it seems like, strength. Like, it wasnt like hes bradys guy or this guys guy, and then you have these other issues and then new crops behind. Im not saying he couldnt have another opportunity, but i think its less likely than you might think. One other observation lots of times you see this around elected officials. Theyre hanging around with really successful men and women who have private jets, beautiful vacation homes, et cetera, et cetera. Thats where theyre getting their fundraising support and other friendship, also genuine. They start to feel like, im entitled to the jet, the apartment at the ritzcarlton, and youre not. Youre doing really well, but youre a Public Servant making low six figures. You cant afford a this and a this and a this. Im working the same hours and traveling with these guys, and that line really does start to blur, and weve seen it many times. All right. So, among the democrats running michael untermeyer, rich negrin, joe khan, and Teresa Carr Deni one republican Beth Grossman whos the frontrunner . Probably no one right now . I think its tough to say, but i would think that rich negrin, considering that managing director of the city high visibility, almost every neighborhood knows him. You know, when you look at the at least prosecutorial chops, you also have joe khan and others, so i think its going to be an interesting race now that seth has left the podium, because it now becomes a race of ideas, and whoever comes up with a clear and a new vision. Its no longer a race about integrity. Its now a race about future ideas. We could see a couple more people get into the race, too, now that this happened. I would imagine we could, but i think that thats exactly right, that it will become a race of ideas. Again, recalling young seth, when he ran against Lynne Abraham, he was an unknown. He had worked in her office, but beyond that, no one knew him. But he had ideas, and they resonated with the public, so i think youre absolutely right. If someone has the right idea, that name recognition might be overcome by the fact that heres someone new and fresh. And i think we still have room for new candidates, and i would not be surprised if a very prominent africanamerican candidate now coalesces and theres a candidate from that front. Now this is a wideopen race all of a sudden. And the landscape really has shifted with this now. I think, you know, that the republican candidates would have been thrilled before, because you have this incumbent democrat, and they really could have just gunned for him. You know, this is time for the gop to come and take its place. Now it completely shifts things, and, i mean, i think, to the disadvantage of the gop in a sense, because now you dont have its like nixon. You dont have seth to kick around anymore. It could end up being a very exciting race and could be one of ideas, too, right . Lets move on to governor wolf. He announced his budget proposal, his third of his governorship in harrisburg. Among the highlights increase in spending for education and pension costs, holds the line on personal income taxes. This is a governor who wanted to raise taxes. Now he doesnt really want to do it, but he want to hike some fees for state police, marcellus drilling, some business taxes, wants to streamline and consolidate state services to try and fill this 3 billion budget gap. Its very significant. Then you have state senator scott wagner, whos a potential foe for wolf in this years governors race. Warns state residents, dont be fooled. This budget raises spending. This is, you know, taxandspend democrats here. Looking back to wolfs first proposal a couple years ago, very activist, very confrontational. I mean, how would you describe this one, brian . Well, he definitely came in activist, confrontational, an aggressive chief of staff, as well bad relationships right from the getgo. Lots of times, when you get elected, you feel like, i am the governor, but you have to remember every state rep is, i am the state representative from this county. Im representing somebody, too, and i have to find ways to work together. So beginning very controversial, no budget changes the chief of staff, changes the tone, because i think he realizes, for me to have a possibility of getting reelected, i have to be the successful businessman, kindofaniceguy tom wolf, and thats what hes trying to do, and this budget begins to do it. I think youre hearing from some of the republicans the same sort of. And, lets try to find a way to work together, et cetera, et cetera, many of whom probably a little concerned by wagner, who they think is a little extreme, to be honest with you, if you shut some doors up in harrisburg. So i think theres a good chance. Unfortunately, for all of these budget plans, they kick the pension down the road in a major way. Thats what Senate Majority leader jake corman says. Its huge. It doesnt address it at all. No, and its something that like, its not like our kids kids. I mean, this is something in the next 5 to 10 years is gonna eat a big chunk of the budget of the state away, and we just have to deal with it now. And he seemed surprised that theres not enough attention bought to it. Its a 70billion elephant in the room, the pension problem. And its almost like buying more blankets because the draft is so cold instead of fixing the windows. We have to deal with the bigger problem, not just throw more money into ointment solutions, and i think its laughable. I think it needs to be discussed a lot more than it is. Its laughable to be talking about, what ajay said, to be talking about, oh, we saved 2 billion here, and we saved 545 million here, and youve got this giant pension problem. Actually and now im gonna contradict myself one of the things i really liked about the budget you know how pennsylvania in general is always attacking philadelphia for sucking the money out of the commonwealth . Well, one of the proposals that i really liked was the tax, the 25ahead tax on those citizens who live in municipalities that use the state police as their local criminaljustice authority. Which has been a big problem. It makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense. You know, if we have to pay for our own police force, let the guy in butler, let the guy in tioga, let the guy in beaver. That is a 70 million in a big budget, that is small change. A little drop in the bucket. So, the last year that you can ever try and figure out pension reform would be an election year, right . Its a very complex issue, which is why they dont really want to deal with it. Its one that they cant come to an agreement with. You know, this budget represented progress for governor wolf. It represented progress for him as a governor. He went away from the confrontational style he had the first goaround. He tried to propose some things that might be mutually acceptable. But, again, theres an element missing here. He pretended this budget, without any prior conversation with the republicans, which he could have done he could have actually gone before the republicans and had jake corman beside him and say, ive already gotten his support on these specific cuts and consolations. None of that was done. Theres still not the interaction we need to see between these two sides of the aisle of government where we can really get something done here. So im not sure, you know, what will happen with this budget. I imagine that most of the cuts and consolidations will be approved. Well see what happens to the new spending it has. These discussions happen, but its not just pennsylvania. If you look at the macro picture nationally in 1910, the size of government compared to gdp was only 6 . Today its approximately 40 . 1. 4 trillion in entitlements. It costs 460 billion to manage that entitlement. Thats a 35 tax on a 35 tax. The problem is that the government is too big. You have too many people, so you have to create other real or perceived boogeymen to protect the public from this thing, and the justification for the government is to remain that size, and thats the issue. There are a lot of redundancies. There are a lot of inefficiencies of government. Were not digitized, so there are a lot of things that are done manually. If you really wanted to take a scalpel to it, it is really about consolidation, eliminating redundancies, and theres money out there. Were not doing the macro picture. And combining some of these departments. This, i think, resonates in that sense. In the bureau of prisons so you think wolf could be successful in doing what he wants to do. No. Im saying the opposite. I think right now there is you can say these things. We can have the democrats and the republicans debate back and forth. The size of the government there is no incentive for either side to eliminate that, because their whole survival depends on keeping that status quo. John micek with pennlive made a really good comment about pennsylvania being a Feudal Society with 60, however many, counties we have, 66 little 2,500 municipalities, 500plus departments. And Everyone Wants to hold on as brian said, Everyone Wants to hold on to their piece of the pie, their power. And no one wants to work together. No, no. And to go back to your original point with all of that consolidation, it still wont solve the pension problem. Right. So, with governor rendell, with governor corbett, and now with governor wolf, is he suddenly realizing, mm, the state legislature holds a lot more power than i thought they did . I think this is the budget was a person who understands that he has a reelection, and this was also an attempt to make sure that youre less ideological, and as to brians point, that youre presenting yourself as a person who is fighting for reelection with dim chances of winning that. And, in fact, good things said about him by gop leaders, so, i mean, i think that there was some success there. You know, wagner aside, some gop leaders actually came out and said that they thought that he was working with them. He needs a win. On one of these issues, he needs something that he can point to the public and say, i won, and right now, he cant do that. You cant have an extended period where they dont have a budget, and its late in and this is doable. Under governor rendell, he spoke to the republicans, and when governor ridge was in there, he talked to the democrats. I mean, its not a bad way to get things done. Dont you find in every endeavor that i can think of, you have to have a relationship with somebody on the other side of the table. For some reason, certain elected officials. Life is about compromises. Act like theyve been elected king. You havent been. Youre elected the governor. Commercial break now. Well be right back. Inside story is presented by temple university. Remarkable change isnt easy, but for those who take charge, it comes naturally. Explore temples impact. Visit temple. Edu impact. Back with inside story. Toomey votes yes while racking up the calls and the faxes. The Pennsylvania Republican voted to confirm betsy devos as education secretary. Devos opponents had targeted the Senators Office through phone calls and faxes many, many of them in the hopes of denying confirmation of the schoolchoice advocate. A gofundme campaigned organized to buy toomeys no vote raised 72,000 out of its goal of 60,000. But in the end, toomey joined his party, defending devos qualifications, saying she has devoted her adult life to giving poor children more school options. So why did everyone target toomey . Why was he the one, it seems . Well, because there was the thought that he was one of the two or three possible gop votes that might vote against her, that might, you know, shift the balance, cause it was that close. Mike pence had to break the tie. Sure. So he was one that was reported as being a possible, you know, shift. My problem with this is that there is this almost nationalized attempted now to stymie pat toomey and to freeze him and to not allow him to do the job that he was elected to do. There are pennsylvanians who are angry at him and the women who go the tuesday for toomey, the toomey tuesday women who go outside of his office and stand there with the signs and everything. And toomey has come out and said this. There has been a concerted National Effort theres that group. Whats it called . Indivisible. I think its an online plan, blueprint for how do you resist donald trump . And toomey is looked at as someone who is in Donald Trumps camp now, so theres almost a national attempt to go after him, and thats why there are thousands and thousands and thousands and millions of faxes. And ill add to this, too. Why betsy devos, you know . When you about think about it i mean, you had the ceo of exxon who maybe had been a buddy of putins and that kind of got a little bit of a stir. And all these other contra wilbur ross. What was it about devos . Its cause she is really strong on school choice, so it was the teachers unions who see themselves and the teachers unions president s who see themselves threatened by this kind of change. Because 2 3 of the kids want to get out of a public school. Her opponents tell me, no, no. Its not about school choice. Its because shes not qualified. They are absolutely focusing on this one vulnerability, and because youve got its an important vulnerability, through, brian. I think shes gonna be terrific. The fact that we it is the department of education. Its not the department of education for teachers unions and their leadership. But its Public Education, which she seemed to have no familiarity with whatsoever. Its the department of education. Its education in all parts. It should be encouraging all kinds of experiments, Public Education being one of them. But if Public Education educates more poorly than a cheaper alternative, to go to a charter school, then we need to educate our children and say that comes first. Charter schools are Public Education, too, so im not arguing you in that point, but she seemed to not be