GOP frontrunners in Pennsylvania governor's race square off in debate

The four Republican frontrunners in the race for Pennsylvania governor took the debate stage in Harrisburg Wednesday with less than three weeks until the May 17 primary.

Former Congressman Lou Barletta, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, Delaware County businessman Dave White and former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain talked infrastructure, gun laws, abortion, regulations, election law and the man whose endorsement could make the difference in the race: former President Donald Trump.

More:Election 2022: Your guide to the primary election for Pennsylvania governor

The top four candidates in recent polls agreed they'd repeal Act 77, the two-year-old law that made mail-in voting universal, sign a bill that would allow people to carry a firearm without a concealed carry permit, lower corporate taxes to make Pennsylvania more competitive, invest in nursing homes and ban abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court reverses Roe v. Wade.

Here's what we learned from the four leading contenders for the GOP nomination:

On the defensive

Mastriano, a retired U.S. Army colonel and junior state lawmaker, who was one of 10 state senators who signed a letter asking Congress to delay the certification of Pennsylvania's Electoral College vote, was asked about being subpoenaed by the House Jan. 6 Committee and the potential legal ramifications he could face. Mastriano was filmed walking past police barricades at the U.S. Capitol with protesters on the day Congress met to certify the vote, but he has said he took no part in the violence that occurred that day.

"There are no legal issues," Mastriano said.

When asked about a Philadelphia Inquirer report that detailed his recent attendance of the "Patriots Arise for God and Country" conference, which was hosted by a couple that calls themselves "prophets of QAnon," Mastriano deflected.

"It's funny how the media likes to paint anyone they disagree with on the right, on the conservative side, as some kind of extremist," he said. "I don't know that those two ever said that. I was there, of course, to speak with many of my constituents and people from across the state. And it's very unfair, and people across the state are sick and tired of being labeled something because you disagree with them politically."

Chippy exchanges

McSwain, the former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, was the one candidate on stage who is not in the running for Trump's endorsement after the former president recently called him "a coward, who let our country down" for not stopping what Trump has baselessly called "massive" fraud in the 2020 election.

Trump's anti-endorsement of McSwain positioned the candidate to play the role of a "conservative outsider," as he called himself throughout the night as Barletta, Mastriano and White touted their support of Trump.

More:Spurred on by Trump, state Sen. Jake Corman wants "to give power back to the people"

"What you've just heard is a bunch of double talk from three politicians," McSwain said just minutes into the debate when called on last to discuss infrastructure. "They say one thing and then they do another. That's why people don't trust politicians. What we need in Pennsylvania is a conservative outsider as governor to deal with the infrastructure problems and everything else. I'm a U.S. Marine, I'm a federal prosecutor. I've lived a life of public service, but unlike these guys, I am not a politician. I have never run for office before."

McSwain battered Mastriano for voting "again and again for governor Wolf's spending increases," proposing income tax increases and a COVID-19 registry.

"Nonsense is still nonsense, especially when it's spoken from an attorney," Mastriano clapped back, doubling down on Trump's claim that McSwain is a "coward" who wouldn't back Mastriano's efforts to address voting integrity. "My colleague here had the opportunity, and as Donald Trump said, he checked out."

McSwain later targeted Barletta.

"We're going get a career politician who raises taxes, who approved increased spending," McSwain said of the former Hazleton mayor about his time in Congress. "He approved Obama's budgets, and you're going to get somebody who gets wiped out in general elections. He lost by 14 points to Bob Casey" in the 2018 U.S. Senate race.

"When I hear someone say they're not a politician, that means they have no experience," Barletta responded, noting he was one of the first members of Congress to back Trump in 2016. "And you want to say that I voted for Obama's budget. It's probably not as bad as you, who voted for Obama," a point that McSwain would deny and Barletta, too, would correct, saying that it was President Bill Clinton who McSwain had backed.

More:Bill McSwain still touts Trump connection even though the ex-president trashed him

But even with Trump's endorsement off the table, McSwain attempted to tie himself to the former president, saying he was the only candidate to work under Trump as an appointee.

"I served President Trump's law-and-order agenda. I put rioters and looters in jail. I put violent criminals in jail. I put corrupt public officials in jail," he said. "I stopped heroin injection sites from invading Pennsylvania neighborhoods. I pushed back against Philadelphia's dangerous sanctuary city policies all day, every day, I was standing up for the law-abiding citizens of this commonwealth. And that's also what I would do as governor."

'Someone that is like the people of Pennsylvania'

While Barletta and Mastriano, who are the top two GOP candidates in the polls, steered clear of attacking one another, Dave White, the Delaware County businessman and longtime pipefitter, tried to set himself apart from the pack.

"We need someone that is like the people of Pennsylvania, a blue-collar worker that worked hard to grow business," White said in his closing remarks. "I'll work just as hard for the people of Pennsylvania. We've tried attorneys. We've tried prosecutors and we've tried politicians, and it just doesn't work."

Minutes earlier White made an emotional case for banning abortion. He told viewers about his son Brian, "a 33-year-old, beautiful young boy with the mentality of about a 5-year-old.

"When I was 26 and Brian was born, I had no idea what future was going to be or our future," White said. "I was probably making five, six, $7 an hour and was worried about what was ahead of us. But you found out very quickly what a gift from God Brian is. Brian has a smile and smiles all day. And I tell people this, Brian has never had a bad day in his life, and we should all be so lucky. But you learn very quickly in a smile. You can see the presence of God. So I believe every child is a gift."

White said he would "work down to no exceptions" for rape, incest of the life of the mother.

McSwain, Barletta and Mastriano said they would make exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother, but would otherwise ban abortion if the decision is put in the hands of the state. Currently, Pennsylvania bans abortion after 24 weeks.

Mastriano noted that he previously introduced a bill to ban the practice if a fetal heartbeat is detected.

Election reform

The candidates not only said they would repeal Act 77 and that lower courts have found it unconstitutional, they also said they would insist on requiring voters to show ID at the polls.

"We know that dead people have been voting in Pennsylvania all of our lives," Barletta said, even though there is no evidence to support that such fraud is widespread. "Now they don't even have to leave the cemetery to vote. They can mail in their ballots. I'm going get rid of it."

Mastriano, who has made other false claims about voter fraud and the 2020 election, acknowledged having voted for Act 77, but said the law was "hijacked" by Wolf, former Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and the Democratic-leaning Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He has "seven or eight" bills that would address election reform, he said.

"The most important thing is I get to appoint secretary state and that secretary state is going to clean up the election laws," Mastriano said. "We're going reset. In fact, registration, you'll have to re-register (to vote). We're going start all over again."

Wednesday's debate excluded five other Republican candidates for governor who did not meet a polling threshold of 5% support. Those candidates, Jake Corman, Joe Gale, Charlie Gerow, Melissa Hart and Nche Zama, debated on April 19 at Gettysburg College. Mastriano, Barletta, White and McSwain declined invitations to that debate.

The winner of the May 17 primary will face Attorney General Josh Shapiro in the general election. Shapiro is unopposed in the Democratic primary. Gov. Tom Wolf, also a Democrat, is term-limited.

Contact Matthew Rink at mrink@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ETNrink.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: GOP frontrunners in governor's race square off in debate