Biography
Career: Born in Pittsburgh's Steel Valley, Governor Ridge was
raised in a working-class family in veterans' public housing in Erie. He earned a scholarship to Harvard,
graduating with honors in 1967. After his first year at
The Dickinson School of Law, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he served as an infantry staff
sergeant in Vietnam, earning the Bronze Star for Valor. After returning to Pennsylvania and earning his law degree,
he became an assistant district attorney in Erie County. He was elected to Congress in 1982, a Republican in a heavily
Democratic district. He was the first enlisted Vietnam combat veteran elected to the U.S. House, and
was overwhelmingly re-elected six times.
Election History:
Governor Ridge was sworn in as Pennsylvania's 43rd governor on January 17, 1995. Ridge's performance was affirmed
decisively on November 3, 1998, when voters re-elected him with 57 percent of the vote in a
four-way race. Ridge's vote percentage was the highest for a Republican governor in Pennsylvania
(where Democrats outnumber Republicans by almost 500,000) in more than half a century. His 780,000-vote victory margin
was the largest for a Republican governor in state history.
Accomplishments:
Governor Ridge has kept his promise to make Pennsylvania
"a leader among states and a competitor among nations." In May 2000, he signed the largest tax cut in
state history -- nearly $775 million. Governor Ridge has cut taxes every year he's been in office. Since 1995,
Pennsylvania families and employers have saved nearly $15 billion through tax cuts, workers' compensation reform,
reduced red tape and electric competition. These savings helped to create more than 350,000 new jobs.
PA has one of the nation's lowest personal income tax rates and the most competitive utility markets -- the first state
to enable consumers to shop competitively for both electricity and natural gas. PA has been named the No. 1 state
for electric deregulation. And PA's tax-free Keystone Opportunity Zones were named the No. 1 statewide economic-development strategy. Governor Ridge
signed the nation's first model E-commerce law. He eliminated the state tax on computer services.
And, to close PA's "Digital Divide," he created a first-in-the-nation "Tax-Free PC" holiday.
Education reform always will be Governor Ridge's top priority. In May 2000, he signed into law the Education
Empowerment Act, to help more than a quarter-million kids in PA's lowest-performing schools. He won passage of charter public schools;
alternative education for disruptive students; professional development for teachers; and new standards requiring
future teachers to earn higher grades in harder courses. He made an historic $125 million investment in
reading and libraries, and he invested more than $200 million in education technology. In all, state support of
Pennsylvania public schools has increased at nearly twice the rate of inflation. And Governor Ridge continues to fight for
school choice for Pennsylvania parents and children.
Pennsylvania also has become a national leader in developing a new environmental partnership.
Governor Ridge's common-sense Land Recycling Program is a national model;
there now are more than 20,000 people working on nearly 800 formerly abandoned industrial sites.
In 1999, he won passage of "Growing Greener," to make PA's largest environmental investment ever, nearly $650 million.
In 2000, Governor Ridge won his "Growing Smarter" land-use plan, to give communities
new land-use tools to control sprawl, while still respecting private property rights.
More than 100,000 children now get free or low-cost health care since Governor Ridge took office in 1995. And Pennsylvania's welfare rolls are at their lowest point in three decades.
Since Governor Ridge and the General Assembly made sweeping changes
to the state's welfare system in 1996, more than 210,000 families have left the welfare rolls and have not returned.
Pennsylvania State Government Page
Did they go to Maryland? Hehehehe