Cawley goes on offense…against Rohrer

Republican lieutenant governor candidate Jim Cawley is taking sides in the GOP’s gubernatorial primary.

Cawley, the endorsed candidate in the nine-way Republican lieutenant governor primary, took a not-so-veiled shot at state Representative Sam Rohrer during a Tuesday morning interview.

Just an hour before our interview, Cawley told PoliticsPA, “I adopt Ronald Reagan’s 11^th Commandment: Thou shall not speak ill of a fellow Republican. …And I haven’t.”

Cawley has made his support for Attorney General Tom Corbett clear from the beginning of his campaign. The Bucks County commissioner refers to the Attorney General as his “running mate” in a television ad, and has already reserved the domain name www.corbettcawley.com. When asked to explain why he calls Corbett a “running mate” before either of them have won a contested primary, Cawley said he uses the phrase because both men are the Republican Party’s endorsed candidates.

Cawley also defended himself against attacks he’s too liberal. A recent mailer from Chet Beiler’s campaign charges Cawley with supporting Planned Parenthood and raising taxes. Cawley says that’s not true.

He says some of the attacks are due to the fact he’s from Bucks County.

During the session, Cawley twice ducked the question of whether he thinks Pennsylvania can balance its budget without raising taxes, saying, “I think what we need to do first is figure out where the money is that people are sending us now. Once we’ve identified how money is being spent, where it’s being spent and whether it can be spent better elsewhere, then we can broaden the discussion.” He returned to the topic later on, though, saying, “increasing taxes is not the answer. Period.”

Here’s Cawley’s tv ad: