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Last lap: Wolf hits populist notes with steelworkers

PITTSBURGH - When Tom Wolf walked into the United Steelworkers headquarters in Downtown Pittsburgh after the 2013 Labor Day parade, he was still "Tom Who?" to most rank-and-file union members.

Pennsylvania Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf speaks during a rally at the United Steelworkers of America headquarters in downtown Pittsburgh, Monday, Nov. 3, 2014. Wolf is looking to unseat incumbent Republican Governor Tom Corbett in Tuesday's mid-term election. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Pennsylvania Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf speaks during a rally at the United Steelworkers of America headquarters in downtown Pittsburgh, Monday, Nov. 3, 2014. Wolf is looking to unseat incumbent Republican Governor Tom Corbett in Tuesday's mid-term election. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)Read moreAP

PITTSBURGH - When Tom Wolf walked into the United Steelworkers headquarters in Downtown Pittsburgh after the 2013 Labor Day parade, he was still "Tom Who?" to most rank-and-file union members.

In the following spring, almost all of the state's institutional labor support went to Wolf's opponents in the Democratic primary.

But Pennsylvania labor knows him now.

In an election-eve rally Monday in the lobby of the steelworkers' building, cheers for the candidate alternated with warnings against complacency bred by his consistent polling advantage.

"The polls are looking pretty good, but the polls don't matter,'' said Wolf as he urged the crowd to make sure that they show up at the polls Tuesday.

The York businessman's words echoed the message conveyed by a half dozen earlier speakers from Pittsburgh union and Democratic Party hierarchies. "We can't lose tomorrow; they can't beat us unless we don't show up," said Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto.

Steelworkers President Leo Gerard strictly enforced a one-minute limit on preliminary speeches by a range of officials, including U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, who predicted, "Tom Wolf tomorrow is going to have a victory like the Steelers had last night." The Steelers beat the Baltimore Ravens 43-23.

Wolf, wearing a blue United Steelworkers windbreaker, drew cheers from the partisan audience with denunciations of the rule of "the one percent," and the effects of "trickle-down economics."

He also offered a tongue-in-cheek condemnation of politicians who pander to their audiences - immediately before whipping a "terrible towel" from a pocket and twirling it aloft in the approved Steelers football fan fashion.

Wolf, who plans a series of get-out-the-vote stops Tuesday in Philadelphia, spoke just hours before his opponent, Gov. Corbett, was to greet a crowd of his own supporters here at an airport motel, the last stop on the GOP ticket's cross-state fly-around.

The dueling rallies come in the final hours of a campaign that surpassed records for spending, if not for apparent voter interest. One way or another, Corbett was poised to make history Tuesday. He will be remembered either for an unprecedented comeback against a persistent polling deficit or as the first modern Pennsylvania governor to lose a bid for reelection.

jotoole@post-gazette.com

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