Never doubt the power of money - and TV advertising - in politics.
Don't believe it? I give you Exhibit A - Tom Wolf.
I'm guessing a month ago if I asked you who Tom Wolf is you might have responded, "Isn't he the guy who wrote 'The Right Stuff' and 'Bonfire of the Vanities?'
No, not that guy. He spells his name with an 'e.'
Today, in Pennsylvania, everyone knows who Tom Wolf is. Especially Democrats.
Tom Wolf is the millionaire businessman and former state Secretary of Revenue from York County. He was one of the first to announce for the Democratic nomination for governor, the race to oppose embattled Republican incumbent Tom Corbett.
Nobody in the state knew who Tom Wolf is.
Then he sunk $10 million of his own money into his campaign and was the first candidate to hit TV with a wave of ads.
Voila! Today Tom Wolf is the Democratic front-runner, crushing better known names such as Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz.
Wolf pulled off a miraculous worst-to-first showing on the strength of those folksy TV ads he used to introduce himself to the state.
Two different polls showing him not just leapfrogging the others in the crowded Democratic pack, but leaving them behind.
First out Tuesday was the Harper poll, which showed Wolf at 40 percent and a huge chasm between him and runner-up Schwartz at 14 percent. The news was even worse for state Treasurer Rob McCord at 8 percent, followed by former Auditor General Jack Wagner, who got 7 percent even though he only officially got into the race last week. Two former DEP secretaries, John Hanger and Katie McGinty, were dead last at 6 percent. Another 19 percent are undecided.
Then this morning more confirmation for the Wolf surge came from the better known Franklin & Marshall poll, which showed Wolf now with a bulging 25-point cushion, 36-9 over Schwartz.
One other very interesting aspect of the F&M poll: 48 percent of Dems indicate they do not yet have a choice in the primary.
Which can only mean one thing, you can expect a lot more political advertising from all sides.
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