Chronicles is made possible by Springhill Senior Living.

The Regional Science Consortium.

And the generous support of Thomas B. Hagen.

This is WQLN.

Erie loves Tom Ridge.

Pennsylvanians love Tom Ridge.

We have busloads coming in from across the state.

People that have worked long and hard on Tom Ridge's campaign to see him become our next governor.

Last night's victory ended 21 months of campaigning.

Now there's little more than two months to put the Ridge administration together.

That work has already begun.

Tom and Michele Ridge were such a unique team.

They were true partners.

And Michele really complimented Tom and complimented his entire journey.

They really wanted to work toward doing all they could at the time for Pennsylvania, but also keeping in mind they had young children that they were raising and they wanted to give them great experiences.

So I always marveled at that bond.

I loved being governor.

The breadth and scope of your responsibilities is a lot broader.

And the other plus-up was you can do it with your family at your side.

There's nothing more important than that, I don't think.

He was really ready to lead on a different level.

And for us as a family, it meant that we got to be living all together again under one roof.

It's hard as he was working.

He was still coming home at night.

The kids were there.

Michele was there.

So from his family standpoint, the governorship was the best at times, too.

So when dad was in Congress, he's gone most of the week.

He traveled significantly as governor, but he was home more.

He might be late, but he could come home for dinners and then go back into his office and the residence and continue working.

So we actually had, I think, more normal family time and more of a normal schedule in Harrisburg than we did.

Again, it was just great to have that normal, as normal as it could be, experience of him.

You know, coaching on first base and trying to keep me from swinging too high.

Yeah.

We were a crowd.

We were a crowd.

Even when I go down now for an event at the governor's resi.. there's a few staff people left who've told Tommy Ridge stories.

I'll never forget Tommy's headstand on inaugural day on the governor's couch.

And I think the media love that.

I still remember the first day we walked in.

Everybody's there to greet you and the first family.

I immediately ran upstairs and bypassed everybody to pick out my room that I wanted.

And there was this huge banister and everybody is asked, "Did you slide down it?"

"Yes, I did."

We immediately just heard about st.. throwing himself down the laundry chute.

And our kids rely on Tommy Ridge as the excuse for doing anything wrong over against the rules in the house.

They're like, "Well, Tommy did this."

And I'm fairly certain at this point Tommy didn't do any of this stuff, but he is now the excuse our children use.

Well, and Governor Ridge, on the day of our inauguration, told our kids that the state dining room is a great place to play football.

So anytime you find them in there being a little too rowdy, they said, "Well, Governor Ridge told us we could do this in here."

Yeah, the Ridges have really become the excuse for us to bend any rule at the residence.

- Sports in the house.

- Yes.

The kids, of course, had to juggle sharing dad and mom with all.. So I remember that time as very exciting and exhilarating and the whole country wanting to talk to Tom Ridge practically, but there was a lot.

There were a lot of balls in the air.

The very end of 1994, Tom Ridge has won the election and he is assembling his team.

And I remember Mark Holman shuffled over after an event I had covered for the Post Gazette and said, "Hey, Tim, have you ever thought about coming over?"

And clueless dude that I am, I said, "Oh, yeah, I'll come over to the campaign office.

It'd be good to see where you guys set up shop or the transition office, I guess it would have been."

And Mark said, "No, I'm talking about coming over."

I had this view of Governor elect Ridge now and his team very positively and I had decided this was something I really needed to do and most importantly wanted to do.

Tim, is Governor Ridge going to be on the shortlist for national office in America?

This is quite possibly the most overblown story of Pennsylvania politics this decade.

Here's the deal.

The attention is flattering and gratifying, but at the end of the day there's going to be a Republican nominee.

They'll have a profile of who can help them win.

If you fit it, you get a call.

If you don't, you won't.

The first year, it was very dramatic because we passed like 55 bills in the special section, but we tried in the campaign not to promise anything that we didn't intend to do or felt we were going to be able to do.

Hello.

In your campaign, you had brought forth some issues of DER.

How can you as a governor help us quicken the pace of getting permits and the cost of getting permits instead of taking three, four, five years?

Well, first of all, before I answer the specifics of the question, I hope you and I agree that not only does Pennsylvania's Constitution say we have to be good stewards of our environment, but as citizens who believe that we don't inherit the ground and the land and the air and the water from our ancestors, but we're borrowing it from our kids, and we've got to make sure that when they get an opportunity to use it, it is at least as good a shape as you and I have had it.

And that is where government has a legitimate role of oversight.

And I said during the campaign that the Department of Environmental Resources harassed communities.

I think it was responsible for job losses throughout Pennsylvania that I was going to change it.

Tom had seen a few business deals that he had worked on to put together to bring jobs and development cratered by DER.

He made speeches about the - job-crushing - community-bashing -harassing - bureaucratic - regulatory nightmare.

I don't care whether you're dealing with a county commissioner, a small farmer, a small business person, DER comes in and treats everybody as if they're a convicted felon.

The basic thing about the department through the previous administration was that it was a cop with a billy club.

Enforcement was its only tool.

The DER should focus its resources, its energy, not on treating people as felons, but treating them as the decent law-abiding people they are.

Take those resources and take them from the enforcement side, move over to the compliance side.

We have enough environmental police.

We need a lot more environmental partners.

Pennsylvanians want to be and will be good stewards of their environment.

DER to be helping them.

We began to recognize that it wasn't us versus them.

It wasn't cops and robbers and courtrooms.

Those are important, and Tom pointed this out many a time.

If someone dumps poison in a trot stream, you beat them up.

It's an enforcement case.

But so many other environmental problems were economic, agri.. One of the things that people forget, and I think is a real legacy of the administration, is Tom was the first one to say that part of that asset we have in our state parks, and that was buried in DER.

[music] It was Tom Ridge who said, "Hey, let's market it.

Let's expose all that we have in Pennsylvania."

And he saw the connection between these natural resources and the state's economy.

We created the Department of Environmental Protection, and we created the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and we were able to bring a focus to the wonderful, wonderful parks and lakes and rivers that crisscross this Commonwealth, including Presque Isle, and had a great leader in John Oliver lead that department all eight years, and really very proud of that work as well.

We devised the principles of the agency, which was stewardship, partnership, and service.

And it was sort of in the mid-years that Jim Seif and I got together and came up with a program called Growing Greener.

People said that John Oliver got "the birds and bunnies department "and Seif got "the sludge department," but what were we most proud of?

Growing Greener, in which we gathered $650 million of money for farmland preservation, for mine reclamation, especially acid mine drainage, all over Pennsylvania, and projects to equip people, real people, not bureaucrats, to clean up their own stream, to think, "I don't live in such and such a township.

I live in the Juniata Watershed."

And when you get people thinking that way, it's real people doing real stuff, and we funded those.

It was our view, rhetorically, that if Pennsylvania needs good schools and good roads, it needs good fields and good streams too.

I'll tell you what, Governor Ridge did a great job setting in motion the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources as it exists today.

By the way - all of our state parks are free - a legacy of that Ridge era.

You know, he really put us in motion to make outdoor recreation.

And our state parks just an incredibly important outlet for Pennsylvania to go and just enjoy, and an incredibly important driver of our state's economy.

So we continue to benefit from the wisdom that Governor Ridge imparted on the Commonwealth during his tenure here.

It's very hard to reorganize bureaucracies, but we pulled that off, and then the Governor decides to pull school choice out of his pocket.

It is about time we started debating whether or not we believe that the real passport to the success of a child, that the real key to their future is a quality education.

Hopefully we all believe that.

And then do we believe that parents should have more say, more input, should families be empowered to make more decisions as to where their children should go to school.

Our higher education system is the envy of the world, and remains so, even though it's under duress today.

And that is an education system where prospective students get the money and they decide where they're going to take it.

And that system flourishes.

Our K-12 system does not have that element, and while we have incredibly wonderful public schools, we also have schools where the kids that go there really don't have a shot at a prosperous life.

When we moved to Erie, we lived in public housing for a couple of years.

My dad always worked two jobs.

Education was a priority, and family was everything.

There are people of good will who care about kids who believe that if you start to inject competition into public education, you're going to have winners and losers, and we can't have losers in public education.

And that's a valid argument.

We, of course, would respond in saying we have incredible losers who are being burdened for life by the current system, and we can't be okay with that.

And that was one aspect of the fundamental conflict that existed on that issue.

And Governor Ridge was very serious about that, and saw school choice as the way not to just make an incremental change, but to really improve K-12 education performance.

But man, it was so contentious.

Forget the numbers.

These are kids.

If you walk into a fifth and sixth grade class and say, "Half these children are failing in reading the most fundamental skill required for any child to be a success," then there's something wrong.

And all we're saying is that there's a toolbox out here.

We're going to give you some new tools to help you.

We also give the parents the opportunity from day one to take the state's share of the money going into that school district, and they can pick another school if they choose.

I ended up before the House Republican caucus, the whole caucus, and they're grilling me on school choice.

And I'm a public school guy.

So this is not my battle.

It's my battle because it's the governor's battle.

And there were a couple of votes that were on the board that never made it.

There was a contentious debate on the House floor.

They called the vote, and we were short.

The Republican leadership, our fellow Republicans, leading the House said, "The clerk will strike the vote."

They just canceled it.

So the vote was never recorded.

Our adversaries went bonkers, understandably.

They wanted to have a memorialized vote that they could use in subsequent campaigns, and we flipped the switch and the vote was gone, never recorded.

Quite frankly, you owe this chamber an apology for that kind of parliamentary bushwhacking.

Governor Ridge had promised to give a press conference immediately after the vote, and the legislative leaders are adamant.

"You cannot say that we lost."

And Governor Ridge listened to their counsel.

So Tom Ridge went out to that podium, and his first words were, "We lost fair and square."

The governor withdrew his school voucher plan late today after failing to gain the support he needed for approval.

The plan included a controversial provision that would give needy families money to send their children to the school of their choice.

As part of our commitment to learning matters, we've invited Governor Ridge to join us live tonight, and we are waiting to see if he is there with us.

Good evening, Governor.

Good evening, Mary.

I guess a big disappointment f.. Really not that much of a disappointment, though I think we fell about one vote short.

We got our arms around 101 last night, couldn't find them... Look, very few people are afforded the privilege that we have to serve in these roles.

And very few people, I think, understand the pressures of it.

And so in many ways, you're in these jobs, and you're exposed to so many people, which is an extraordinary blessing, I feel.

But it can also be a little bit lonely, because there's only a few people who know what you're going through and what the challenges are.

That moment showed Pennsylvania, and most certainly the newsroom, that this guy was different.

He was not going to set aside integrity or reality to try to achieve something for himself.

[Music] Early initiatives we did when I was Secretary of Commerce was to start Team Pennsylvania.

It was just business leaders and other thought leaders throughout the Commonwealth coming together to talk about how we can make Pennsylvania more attractive to bringing in business.

If we heard it once, we heard it 10,000 times during those years, Tom wanted Pennsylvania to be... A leader among states.

And a competitor among nations.

I mean, he said it so much that I don't have a tattoo, but if I ever got a tattoo, I would probably tattoo that.

But I think what he realized is that, yes, we are in this competition with Ohio and with New York and New Jersey and California, and we need to bring our A-game to compete with those other states.

Compared to the other 49 states, Pennsylvania had become a laggard.

The world of business changes quickly, every day, every second.

The same for government.

And the idea that you're going to use the same old approach, because that's the way it's always been done, is foolish.

And over time, inefficiencies creep into the system.

We're planting the seeds of growth, smart products.

We've got the talent, the design engineers with these university degrees, and we're going to develop training modules.

To go out with other computer design engineers and bring them into the new next generation of system-on-a-chip design.

It's all going to be done right here in southwestern Pennsylvania.

One of the unique opportunities governors have is to rally the small and medium-sized businesses and do everything you possibly can to enhance their success.

If the businesses could grow, that means if added employment, you change the quality of life for people.

And I really thought it was important, and we took several trade missions, to elevate our presence in some critical markets.

At the end of the day, this is the best demonstration of how important trade and exports are.

Jobs, jobs, jobs.

We dramatically expanded our Pennsylvania promotional effort, opening a number of offices around the world in order to solicit foreign companies to invest in Pennsylvania, to expand operations here, which means jobs for Pennsylvanians, and net new jobs.

I had the opportunity to collaborate with one of Pennsylvania's finest lieutenant governors ever, Mark Schweiker.

When you work as a unit, as an individual with a unit, you're only as good or as effective or as impactful as the quality of the men and women around you.

We saw the lack of relationship and respect between the prior governor and his lieutenant governor.

It was a vastly known secret.

They did not like working with each other.

And I have to say that Tom Ridge, if anything, is a gracious person.

Certainly was not about hoarding gubernatorial responsibilities.

And I, you know, at this point in our lives, it's nothing but appreciation and fondness of each other.

And I think Kathy and Michele feel the same way.

And, you know, we had a chance to serve Pennsylvanians together.

It's a unique honor and a bond that will never be broken.

I think one of Tom's qualities is his ability to relate to the audiences.

And to top that off, Michele brought her professionalism and her ability to relate to people to the governor's residence and was a great help to Tom during his whole time as governor.

I remember one year, I don't remember which year it was, Michele did 150 public appearances.

You know, the benefit of an articulate first lady being out there on behalf of the governor of her husband.

The first lady in Pennsylvania, unlike some other states, is really an honorific.

So there's no line item budget for the first lady's office.

There's no staff for the first lady's office.

You're just sort of minister without portfolio.

That's how I used to describe myself.

But what Tom did is he didn't create a new line item.

He didn't create new staffing.

What he did is he allocated some of his senior staff positions to the first lady's office.

So I had a chief of staff, Lucy Gnazzo, who was was fabulous.

Nobody worked harder than Lucy and she made me work hard too.

It was sort of the deal.

So when I got to pick a chief of staff, I picked her.

Michele to this day is one of the most respected first ladies, not only in Pennsylvania, but in the country.

And to her credit, she gave it 100 percent and beyond.

And she wanted to create a complimentary legacy with the governors to make a difference and, of course, develop a signature project which had true meaning.

Michele's been so gracious with her time and she sort of planted a seed in me that reminded me that you can be impactful in your own way.

So she really set the standard high, but she made clear that you can't miss the opportunity to have an impact, but you can really do it in your own way.

And I really appreciated that advice.

And Michele, by the way, has a very nice way of getting you to do things.

Like she will say to me, "you know, libraries are important, Governor."

And next thing you know, our library budget went up.

But she's had a number of things that she cared deeply about during her time as first lady and libraries are one of them.

There were other issues that I was involved in, like the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition, Pat Halpin Murphy, who is one of the most brilliant advocates I've ever met in my entire life.

Bar none.

Pennsylvania was renowned for the quality of the advocacy for women and men who get breast cancer.

So many times she would be having a conversation at an event we were at and I would just listen and Michele would listen intently.

She would then in the car on our way back, right away write a note.

I've got to write a note or contact so and so right away her her brain clicked and she took action.

She wanted to do something for somebody that she met.

And that was Michele.

I think one of the things that I learned from Michele was to make sure that I got out in the community and got my kids out in the community.

And that has really been the privilege of this being out every day meeting people in their communities who are doing amazing work and really seeing all the goodness that is out there in our Commonwealth.

And that has been really, really amazing.

And I would say I really was unsure of what this role was going to look like.

And the advice she gave me about sort of how to find my way and how to engage with people was really meaningful.

And it has really set the stage for me to really go out there and do things I think I never thought I would do.

There was so much passion, so much commitment among the governor's team because Tom Ridge and Michele Ridge were the ones that were empowering all of us to helping them carry out their responsibilities, but with a greater purpose.

You are popular these days, Governor Ridge, and the odds are you're going to get reelected in 1998.

Hopefully.

You're from a large state.

Don't you auto.. about running for the Republican nomination for president in 2000?

No, not at all.

I mean, I think that you've got some very good contenders who are already putting together campaign organizations, fundraising, and they'll have a two-year head start on any governor that's not engaged in doing that.

And I'm not engaged in doing that.

We've been in the process of cutting taxes and dealing with our regulatory environment and workers comp reform and education reform and all these things.

And I'm trying to build a new Pennsylvania.

That's where my priorities have been and where they got to be.

I wasn't suggesting you had to run.

I just said you had to think about it.

- Well, I think... - After you're reelected.

But I think in this this environment of other people think about it for you and I worry about Pennsylvania right now.

Tom was a respectful soul.

He wasn't chasing the nomination.

His resume and body of work elevated the notoriety and attraction of Tom Ridge, at least in my view.

So I'm not surprised that when the presidential cycle came around, the name was often mentioned.

He and Senator Dole were friends.

And all of a sudden they started floating trial balloons on Ridge.

Well, when the Republicans meet in California next month, Pennsylvania will have a voice.

Governor Tom Ridge has been invited to speak on the second day of the National Republican Convention.

Dole in 96.

I think Tom felt that he had a responsibility to fill that whole first term, those first four years.

He really felt after two years in office that it was just it was too soon for him to to take that step.

I think of all the vice presidential considerations, which included Bush and McCain - I think Dole would have picked him and wanted to pick him and would have picked him independent of the fact that Tom was a Pro-choice Republican.

That was always the issue.

All right.

So what Pro-life folks say is that the core they believe in your beliefs is that the woman's right to choose supersedes a baby's right to live.

How did you arrive at your positions on abortion?

The decision effect of affecting the individual, affecting the woman ultimately is her decision.

And I've said that before and I continue to say it, notwithstanding all the other things that go into making that decision.

It's who do you trust to make the decision?

The woman, not the government, Do you think that if George W. Bush picks you, you have the potential of alienating those pro-lifers and do you think they will walk away from the governor?

I moved down to Austin to work for the Bush campaign.

I wanted to push Tom Ridge as vice president.

And I said to him, "So, Governor, would it be appropriate if I talked to you about vice president?"

Without messing about he goes, "Like, why the hell would I care what you think?"

And it was hysterical, like... And later he came up to me and he goes, "Look, Stevens, let me give you some advice.

When a guy's getting married, wait until he asks you what you think about the chick before you tell him."

I go, "That's pretty good advice."

But Tom was Pro-choice in that Pennsylvania way.

So it was never going to happen.

There was no path.

It was just a non-starter, giving away the party was.

The higher you climb on that aspirational political ladder, the harder it is to grab that next rung.

I believe, and I will believe for the rest of my life, that Tom Ridge should have been President of the United States, that Tom Ridge would have been an incredibly effective President of the United States.

But ultimately, it was not attainable.

The better angels of America are waiting, waiting for a new leader to help them soar.

That new leader, that new leader is my friend and our next president, George W. Bush.

Chronicles is made possible by Springhill Senior Living.

The Regional Science Consortium.

And the generous support of Thomas B. Hagen.

We question to learn.