We learned this morning that William Scranton, the best governor Pennsylvania has had in the past 50 years, died at age 96 in California.
He was a fine governor. He could have been a fine president.
Scranton was one of several Republican governors from similar backgrounds, including Nelson Rockefeller of New York and George Romney of Michigan, who were wealthy businessmen and successful governors in the 1960s.
Scranton’s career in politics was brief but memorable. He served one term as a U.S. Representative from a heavily Democratic district — and yes, the city of Scranton was named for one of Scranton’s ancestors — before former President Dwight Eisenhower urged him to run for governor in 1962.
Scranton won a huge victory and, two years into his term, he was convinced to stage a last-minute campaign to try to wrest the Republican presidential nomination from Barry Goldwater. Although he entered the race just a month before the Republican national convention — back then, nominees were selected at conventions and not during primaries — Scranton won the support of 10 state delegations totaling 20 percent of the delegates.
That was not nearly enough to derail Goldwater, who was then crushed by Lyndon Johnson in November 1964.
At the time, Pennsylvania governors were limited to one term. Although his belated challenge to Goldwater failed, Scranton’s effort gave him a national profile and he certainly could have run for U.S. Senate or other high office. He was just 50 when he left the governor’s mansion. But Scranton said he would not run for public office again, and Scranton was true to his word. He did serve in appointed positions under Republican and Democratic presidents, notably as ambassador to the United Nations under Gerald Ford.
Scranton was a moderate Republican, fiscally conservative but socially liberal. As a Congressman, Scranton was considered a “Kennedy Republican,” voting in favor of civil rights and Peace Corps legislation.
As governor, according to the New York Times, “Mr. Scranton pushed education reforms, creating a state community college system, a state Board of Education and a Higher Education Assistance Agency. He increased the sales tax to subdue a deficit, brought unemployment to new lows and promoted state trade nationally and abroad. He could not run for re-election in 1966, but helped write a new Constitution that allowed governors a second term.”
Imagine that: a Republican who supported public education and who was willing to raise taxes to address a deficit (which helped reduce unemployment) .
There was a time when this nation was prosperous, growing and optimistic. We were building the interstate highway system, we were sending a man to the moon (and then enjoying the benefit of all the scientific innovation that accompanied that effort) and we were exporting democratic ideals around the world in the best way possible. A century after the Civil War ended, we were tearing down the South’s Jim Crow laws and moving toward true freedom for full rights for all.
Then came Dallas, Vietnam, Watergate, and, well, we never did completely regain our footing, did we?
Fiscal conservatism + social tolerance. It worked for Republicans before. It could work again.
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