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And the generous support of Thomas B. Hagen.

This is WQLN.

Well, you know, I had lived in Washington, and it's not a great place to raise kids.

I was a county official.

I had a job.

We needed my job.

We know we needed my job.

We made a decision that I would stay here.

And we had a commuter marriage for 12 years.

[MUSIC] We have six branches and a brickmobile, which all have children's collections, which are available to children of Erie County.

They can borrow materials.

There are selective children's programming that goes on... My job, it was all consuming.

My job was all consuming.

A lot of the other things that I did had to fall away.

Mom was the rock that kept, you know, all things running, all trains going on time, kind of ever present, just getting us to where we needed to go and keeping the household running while dad was gone and being that support for him.

I'm sure it was difficult.

Mom just tried to not hide it, but, you know, she had a full-time job as a librarian.

So sometimes it was her mom or grandmother watching us.

You don't notice it when you're that young.

Like for us, this was just our parents' jobs.

It just so happens that was in politics.

It was just a job.

It was a little scary because between my job and children, Tom's career and, you know, didn't leave a lot of time for other things.

I don't know how we pulled it off, but we pulled it off.

They were doing their best with this in a public eye.

I think it was really a difficult thing to work through for anybody, but I think they did it very well.

You know when you're a mom, you serve.

So that's, I would say that she knew how to be a good mom.

Tom, he knew.

If everything would be taken care of at home, you didn't have to worry because she was there.

He had a lot of faith in her to do what was necessary when he wasn't there.

I respected her a lot for that because she had to.. all on her own, especially when he was in Congress.

I would give Tom credit for crediting Michele for how well the kids turned out, and he's right.

I had been to the moon and back in terms of driving around the congressional district.

And I was on the road all the time.

And I think I enjoyed some political success over the years.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Go.

Yes, go.

If you couldn't catch Ridge's lightning-fast hands in action, here they are again in slow motion.

Don't worry, he's promised to use this newfound power only for good.

I could not imagine enjoying that success without being secure and confident in my knowledge that my family was well-loved and well-cared for at home.

I know they got their library books back on time, and I know they were under the love and guidance of Michele Ridge.

Welcome to Pennsylvania Legislative Update.

Our guest today is U.S.

Congressman Tom Ridge.

Okay, of course there was a speculation several months ago that you might be a candidate for governor in the Republican Party.

Do you have any feeling now about Barbara Hafer or anyone else who may be in that primary race?

Some people have said, "Well, what if Governor Casey doesn't run?

And I said, "Well, that's fine.

That would be his decision, and he would make that under the same set of circumstances.

But I have no regrets whatsoever.

Now, I am committed to Congress for the next couple of terms.

I do like my job in Congress and hope to keep it for a while.

Another classic example, I got a call yesterday from a friend of mine, and there are six or eight of us that are going to go to the White House on Wednesday to talk to the president about some environmental issues.

Now, we've been down there talking to him about minimum wage-- You know, I think there was a time off and on where people would say to him, "Oh, you should run for governor."

And of course, any of us that really believed in him also thought he should run for governor.

But, you know, he was busy serving in the Congress.

They made the decision, and so they were laying groundwork and doing grassroots.

We started thinking about that and really thought about running against Governor Casey, incumbent Governor Casey, and we had a plan to put Congressman Ridge in a position to be the Republican nominee should he want to be.

Many people know that in addition to serving my constituents in Northwestern Pennsylvania, I've been looking down the road toward serving Pennsylvanians in Pennsylvania, trying to provide maybe in the future some leadership that's presently not in the governor's ma.. You know, it became fairly clear to Tom and to the rest of us that Bob Casey wasn't gettable.

And so we would bide our time.

There were so many good things that we were doing back here, and we were intensely focused on that.

He's got a gear problem.

I'm not going to seven.

Air first to the helicopter behind you.

We're going to come up behind you on your left side.

Just hold your head.

Ground star, three, six, four, five, Outta of Phildelphia.

None of the passengers invited to the helicopter where the fixed-wing aircraft survived.

We had seven fatalities in all, two of which included schoolchildren who were at outdoor recess here at Merion Elementary School.

When he passed away, I found out from his chief, Cliff Shannon, that Heinz intended to run for governor.

We understand that the senator and the two pilots were killed in the crash.

He was on his way from a town meeting, business leaders' meetings, in the central part of the state, to town meetings and a member of the board meeting... He will always be remembered in our prayers not so much as the probably the most popular public figure that has ever served the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but a man who was deeply, deeply cared about people and issues that affected people.

And frankly, in the process of reaching out and being with those people in a very untimely and tragic way, he gave his life in that profession.

Heinz's death has led to speculation that Governor Casey may appoint Lieutenant Governor Mark Singleton to fill out Heinz' term, and Republicans will meet to see who they'll select to run for the office in November.

Possible candidates are Erie Congressman Tom Ridge, who declined any comment today until the funeral is over, and former Pennsylvania Governor Richard Thornburg, the present United States Attorney General.

John Heinz's work ethic, credible dedication to public service, very tough boss, but if you kind of stood up to him, he respected you, and what a tragic loss.

I met Tom Ridge in 1993.

I was always very aggressive about going after people who I wanted to work for, and I basically co-called him and said, "I want to come in and talk to you."

And at the time, you know, there was an open Senate seat, and there was a lot of pressure for Tom to run for the Senate, and the Republicans were telling him that if he ran, they would clear the field.

And I asked him about that, and he goes, "There's a problem with that."

I said, "What?"

And he goes, "I might win."

And all those guys over there, they all think they're wearing togas.

"I'd hate it.

I don't want to be a... I'd rather run for governor and lose."

I said, "Okay."

So then he asked me, "So how do I win this?"

It is with great love and great honour that I introduce the next governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge!

I see at Pennsylvania that working together with a new kind of leadership can be America's leader.

I want to be that leader, and I want our goal to be Pennsylvania first, Pennsylvanians first.

A newcomer to statewide politics, Ridge says he's getting a head start in the campaign to take his name and his message across the Commonwealth.

He had this much name recognition across the rest of the state.

You know, there's a reason that there had never been a governor from Erie, Pennsylvania.

So we knew that in order to be successful, he knew in order to be successful that we had to get up early.

And we had to work every corner of this state, and we had to work the Republican State Committee to get their endorsement.

And if all of those pieces fell into place, then maybe by, you know, that much, we could win that primary.

Our governor from a very proud past, and our senator for a very bright future, Dick Thornburgh.

Thanks, Tom.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tom Ridge.

'93 was this exploratory year.

I think out of 52 weekends, he might have been home one or two weekends that whole year, because he had to be over here, he had to be over here.

He had to be crisscrossed the state to introduce himself to people, to talk about what he'd like to accomplish as a governor.

You know, I enjoyed campaigning.

I enjoyed campaigning.

The opportunity to move around the state and interact with people, I think that's the ultimate gift any candidate can receive from any supporter.

When they open their homes to their friends in the neighborhood, for you to come in and make your case.

We're looking toward a primary, a contested primary.

We're looking in the vicinity of three and a half million dollars.

I mean, that's the goal, whether or not you get to the goal remains to be seen.

But I think in a competitive race and I certainly anticipate there'll be competition, that would be the goal that I would try to attain.

It was a very competitive primary.

You had state attorney general Ernie Preate, who coming in was by far the favorite and was assumed to be the victor.

You had then state senator Mike Fisher, you had Sam Katz, a Philadelphia businessman who was the only candidate from the Southeast.

It was it was very, very competitive.

I mean, you know, you've been down in Congress for 12 years.

It's still having passed a crime bill down there yet.

But we've got we're working with Mike Fisher and other leaders of the legislature.

We passed 55 laws to protect people.

In fact, the law that you mentioned, "The Boot Camp Law", we helped to design that with with other people in the legislature a couple of years ago on the and the protection of women and "The Rape Law" that was designed by my office.

I hope you support it when it gets through the legislature now.

(Cross talk) That's why I suggest you look very closely.

I'm sure you're going to tell the people now how you got that two billion dollar tax cut.

Where are you outlined to spend... My friend Bob Holste, Ernie Preate's chief, sent us a cake at the campaign headquarters with 11 candles on it.

We only had 11 percent name recognition in January before an April primary.

We knew we had to get on TV to get the name recognition.

In the very beginning there was this question of why there never been a governor from the Erie, maybe there was a reason, maybe because Erie's like closer to Toronto, than Philadelphia.

[Music] The guy nobody's ever heard from from the city, nobody's ever visited.

I think there is sort of a feeling that we're overlooked.

I mean, I can tell you the people in Philadelphia think we live in caves up here.

That sums it all up, the Philadelphia attitude.

I mean, I met people from Philadelphia who were very wealthy, who had never been as far west as Harrisburg.

One thing about Tom, when I say military background, when he reacts, he works.

I was raised the same way.

I was raised in a steel town.

You earn your way.

You work eight hours a day and for overtime, you take it, but you work at it.

You're jazzed.

And certainly we, both of us as born and bread Pennsylvanians, wanted the honor of competing and won it the honor of serving.

So we worked it.

We were morning, noon and night.

And with all due respect to our rivals, I feel like we outworked them.

[Music] One of the great qualities in life but politics particularly is an ability to listen and to take in information and to consider what people are saying, not just hear it.

And that's a quality that Tom always had.

And I think it goes to the sense that he doesn't have this ego need to prove that he's smarter than everybody, to prove that he's, you know, only good ideas originate from him.

And it's kind of a superpower.

What we liked about Stewart is Stewart was more of a storyteller.

Stewart had experience outside of politics and campaigns.

His commercials just had a different look to them.

He filmed on film, not on tape.

I mean, he was really very artistic when it came to the way in which he presented Tom and other candidates at the time.

But I mean, I think Stewart was an inc.. So if you go back and you look at the first commercial, Tom is standing out on basically frozen Lake Erie holding a sign and a bomber jackers and the guy no one ever heard of known that he's seen.

He just embraced it and he ran as an underdog.

And there's a there's an American character who's an underdog who embraces that who that resonates with people.

I grew up in public housing until my mom and dad could move here.

Tom, put your hat on.

That's my mom.

She and my dad worked real hard to make sure their three .. This is my wife, Michelle.

She works full time running the library.

These are our two great children, Leslie and Tommy, or Tommy and Leslie.

You know, at a certain point in politics, it's like sports.

The best athlete tends to win.

And Tom was just a better candidate than anybody else in that race.

He knew why he wanted to run.

He was unafraid.

He enjoyed it.

He'd work his ass off.

There's always moments when like the candidates out there and they have the ball and they're either going to find the hole or not.

And Tom would.

Polls were coming out and you could see, you know, the Tom was .. Ernie Preate were running neck and neck.

And I think Sam was trying to come after Tom.

And a week or two before the primary in 1994, Congress scheduled a vote on a ban of assault weapons.

This is not a complicated issue.

And we will have more issues like this.

Every great society is going to face for the foreseeable future these incredible tensions between our freedom and our abuse of our freedom.

Between the need for liberty and the need for order.

Between our desire to have an entrepreneurial, free flowing society and the absolute need for some discipline that enables us to live as human beings civilly together and give our children a chance to grow up.

And some of the decisions we'll have to make will be more difficult than this.

But this is a lay down no brainer and the Congress must not walk away from it.

Please help us to pass it.

The vote on that measure was one of the most difficult and personal votes I've ever cast in Washington.

I do remember saying somebody if I lose because I don't think people should have easy access to assault weapons.

I've used them.

I've used them against other people.

I know what they can do.

I'm not sure you need to take them into a into the wilderness in the countryside to go hunting.

You're not going to shoot Bambi's mother with an assault weapon.

I just believe that if you're in simple for me it was open and shut.

And a lot of other people, It wasn't.

It was part of their heritage.

It was part of their comfort zone.

They knew how to use them and use them properly.

That wasn't the point.

There was a bigger issue as far as I'm concerned was the assault weapons.

Honestly we didn't know how he was going to vote.

I can still remember him leaving to go over and vote.

And it wasn't until he came back that we knew that he had voted for the ban.

And to a certain extent at that moment and for several days thereafter the bottom dropped out of the primary campaign.

He wasn't willing to sacrifice that conviction that in that instance those weapons needed to be prohibited.

He wasn't willing to sacrifice his support for the assault weapon band to benefit his primary.

And if it cost him if it cost him the primary then it cost him the primary.

And I think you know I still think back on that moment very very often.

He didn't believe that his Vietnam era assault weapon was really needed on the streets and you know history keeps repeating itself on that point.

But we knew it was a vote that was going to cost us.

And that's probably the best example of courage of conviction on a vote given the timing of it.

You remember one night just the two of us sitting in McDonald's 10 o'clock at night to have the proverbial cup of coffee you know in the plastic chairs other than the you know the workers were the only two there.

And I can remember Tom and I looked at each other just started laughing because this is some campaign we're by ourselves in a McDonald's drinking some cheap coffee.

And that's the way the day ended not a lot of fanfare.

You know if you're truly friends and allies and a brotherhood no one gets in the middle of that no one.

And you know as Tom knows it's the same with him I don't cut and run.

I don't give a shit whatever the people say.

Most of us received this fax this morning from the gun owners of America threatening anyone who votes in favor of the assault weapons ban that we will become their political defeats in November and they list out a long list of people that they are proud to have defeated.

It's pathetic for the gun lobby to be talking about its short list of alleged political victims when they should be concerned about the much longer list of gun victims in America.

The American people know what's going on in their own streets outside the beltway they shouldn't be denied the relief because of what's going on inside the beltway.

Thank you.

I had.

Every NRA member in Pennsylvania was trying to reach me I think they must have put out my phone on an alert.

So the next day I got my phone unlisted.

I always thought two things I either admire him or thought he was crazy because during that whole time in Congress their home phone was listed.

And the thing is Michele is the one that was home so and he was in Washington most of the time we're on the road.

So she got the brunt of the phone calls.

I would come home from the library and in the evening and the phone would ring it would be a constituent with an issue.

His colleagues thought he was nuts.

They couldn't believe that he had a list of telephone number.

The state bringing our democratic friends and make a change in the direction of Pennsylvania's government and make Pennsylvania proud again.

It's so reaffirming and the team worked hard and we had to work hard.

No election should ever be easy.

No election ever is.

You never never take them for granted.

I never did.

This is his home base.

And it'd be easier just to take the home base for granted.

But he didn't.

And we didn't.

Even if many people disagreed with a lot of his positions they felt this is someone we can trust.

This is someone we know.

This is someone who will not forget these Tom Ridge from Erie and the support.

Northwest of Pennsylvania here he kind of is just overwhelming.

I remember when he was running for governor and I remember that many of us in the Democratic Party we changed our political affiliation.

We I mean when I say many of us I mean many of us.

It was a movement to change our political affiliation just to get him in as governor.

And that's what we did.

And it worked.

The day after the election on the 11th you can go back to the you know you can't change party again.

All I know is that my father in law who was absolutely a dye in the wool Democrat ran into the courthouse the last day you could change your registration to change his registration to Republican so he could vote for his son in the primary.

And the first day you could change back.

He was right there when the door opened to change himself back to Democrat.

So when we won the primary we had spent all of our money.

And my friend and he is my friend Governor Singel they made a big mistake by not attacking us right away when we didn't have any money.

We could have had a problem.

Not that we wouldn't have figured out a way to get around it but our powder was dry.

We had spent all our money so we had to start raising it.

Maybe three weeks after the primary we went in with a poll.

And it was the most depressing they'd ever seen like all this money we'd spent on television all this campaign is like nobody knew who the hell Tom was.

State wide Singel holds a narrow lead over Republican Tom Ridge but Singel's margin appears to be coming from the votes that Pro-life candidate Peg Luksik is drawing away from Ridge.

Get a lot of pressure from donors.

"Tom raising all this money I come here five points back."

And you know I used to tell these donors is the reason corn - you don't harvest corn in June.

You have to be patient.

The key to winning the primary and winning the general in a strategic sense was pa.. that you didn't try to win the race six weeks out that you would be comfortable losing until you had to win.

Tom bought into that he believed in it.

And ultimately campaigns reflect the candidate.

Our top story the final frantic hours of campaign '94 the two leading candidates for governor of Pennsylvania stage last minute rallies in Philadelphia Democrat Mark Singel and Republican Tom Ridge are in a knockdown drag out battle.

Instead of lobbying for Pennsylvania.

I can't.

Can't let him get away w.. I've got to tell you that you've been getting preferential treatment.

Virginia get an option.

You are not going to expand your campaign of distortion and hypocrisy here.

Tom knows when to pick his time.

And he knows and I can't say enough about knowing what it is you want to accomplish what you want to do.

Why are you why are you doing this.

Why are you putting yourself and your family through this.

You have to have a reason besides power ego or whatever.

It has to be there has to be something more basic than that that motivates you.

I just think that Tom's fulfilled everything he should have done as a candidate.

Is he going to win today.

You betcha.

Absolutely.

If anybody told you the day of election that we were confident victory it was not true.

But then I mean I remember this vividly we started getting the first numbers back from Erie.

And you could see that there was a path that if he was getting the percentages that he needed to get to enable him to win.

It didn't mean he would win still could change it still you know what was Harrisburg going to do.

But there was a path and personally when I saw Erie and I saw these collar counties I said we're going to win.

It was a case where the better candidate won.

The guy who worked harder had a better message.

More compelling.

He won.

Nobody has better friends than I do in Northwestern Pennsylvania.

Nobody does!

Chronicles is made possible by Springhill Senior Living.

The Regional Science Consortium.

And the generous support of Thomas B. Hagen.

We question to learn.