John Hanger May Be First To Challenge Corbett in 2014

Exclusive: Former DEP Hanger Looking to Challenge Corbett

Written by Keegan Gibson, Managing Editor

Politics PA

John Hanger

If a person’s command of campaign messaging is a good barometer for interest in running for office, then John Hanger is all but in the 2014 race for Governor.

“I’m seriously looking at running for Governor,” Hanger told PoliticsPA. “I’m engaged in a number of important meetings in the next 10 days. If they go well, I think I’ll have something definitive to say by the end of November or early December.”
The former Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection under Governor Ed Rendell, Hanger offered incisive criticism of Gov. Tom Corbett’s record during a conversation with PoliticsPA Thursday.

“We were 1.6 percent below the national [unemployment] rate in May 2011. All of the budgets go into effect, and it’s been devastating,” Hanger said. “We’ve gone from leading the nation in job creation to bringing up the rear, all in the space of two years of the mistakes of Tom Corbett.”

Hanger, 55, served as the Commissioner of Pennsylvania’s Public Utilities Commission during the Ridge administration from 1993 to 1998. In 2008, he took the helm of DEP, the state’s environmental watchdog agency. He lives in Hershey with his family.  Read more...