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And so. the campaign's savage exchanges stem in great part from Dilworth's proven ability to demoralize an opponent on the stump and bury him in a bluster of verbiage. Scranton simply means to stay cool, let Dilworth blurt himself into a fatal political blunder. In 1958 Dilworth made just such an error when he advocated the admission of Red China into the United Nations—an issue that had nothing to do with the Democratic gubernatorial nomination he was then seeking. (He has since changed his mind.)
Dilworth's emotionalism is even the subject of jokes within his own party. Quips former Democratic Governor George Leader: "Nobody controls Dick Dilworth. Sometimes he can't even control himself." Dilworth, however, makes no apology for this facet of his personality. Says he: "I am emotional, and I'm damn proud of it. If it hadn't been for emotional men, Philadelphia wouldn't have moved in the last eleven years."
"Like Cutting Your Throat." Pennsylvania's economic ailments are a ready-made issue for a challenger, and Scranton is making the most of this issue. "The other states are getting ahead of us," he stresses in speech after speech. "They're getting ahead of us in their economy; they're growing faster; they have more jobs; their people are making more money. We are going behind and drifting. And it's all because the last administration has been handled on a power-politics basis and for political purposes primarily, and not as a service to the people, which is what government is supposed to be. They have, in the last seven years, doubled taxation in this state; they have doubled expenditures, and we certainly haven't doubled services."
Scranton is plugging a ten-point "program of recovery," which ranges from new state programs for community colleges, commuter transportation and middle-income housing to "unceasing effort to improve the industrial climate of Pennsylvania to entice more industries and thus more jobs." He promises that state agencies will help "eliminate corrupt city government in Philadelphia." On the touchy patronage issue, Scranton pledges that he will push to expand civil service. With characteristic bluntness he adds: "I don't know of a single county leader in either party who shares my views on this." He maintains that he can save millions of dollars by administrative efficiency, steers very clear of talk about possible tax increases to finance his programs.
Similarly, Dilworth is too smart to mention specific increases, says candidly: "That would be like cutting your own throat." His main pitch has been to point to his own really outstanding record in revitalizing Philadelphia. He also fends off any ties to the Lawrence administration. "This state has been inflicted for years with miserable state governments," says Dilworth. "It's been the history of this state to load up the payroll with political hacks who got miserable salaries and stole the rest."