Good Monday Morning, Fellow Seekers.

If you're of a certain frame of mind, Republican governor candidate Scott Wagner can be criticized for any number of things. But one of the things you can't accuse him of is a lack of initiative.

For instance, while most of us have one eye on Wednesday, and the mid-week languor of the July 4 holiday, Wagner is starting off his working week by accusing Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and running-mate John Fetterman of a good, old-fashioned flip-flop on taxes and fracking.

In an email to PennLive this morning, Wagner's campaign points to a Sunday Associated Press story where Wolf seemingly takes credit for holding the line on Pennsylvania's 3.07 percent personal income tax.

The piece reads, in part:

"Gone is the governor who had ambitious plans to overhaul Pennsylvania's tax structure and pump billions more into the state treasury to fix deficits and public school funding disparities. Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat running for a second term, doesn't talk about that anymore.

"'Who's talking about raising taxes?' he questioned a TV reporter last month who asked Wolf about the prospect of raising taxes this year.

"Actually, Wolf does still talk about raising one tax: on Pennsylvania's booming natural gas industry, a tax that is politically popular and, according to the state's Independent Fiscal Office, one that would largely be paid by out-of-state customers."



And referring to Wolf's first two budgets, where he enthusiastically proposed raising new revenues to balance the state's books, the piece notes that:

"Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, rejected nearly every tax increase Wolf sought, although Wolf, to some degree, now takes credit for taxes on sales and income, the state's two biggest sources of income, staying put. 'The tax when I got here, the personal income tax, was 3.07 percent. It's still 3.07. The sales tax was 6. It's still 6,' he told reporters."

Wagner's campaign email does correctly note that Wolf sought income and sales tax hikes in his first, two budgets. But the facts are a tad more nuanced. By his third budget, facing a wall of GOP opposition, Wolf dropped that push.

Which doesn't mean, of course, that the Republican's campaign isn't going to make an issue out of it.

"Tom Wolf can try to click his heels all he wants, but he still enacted a $1 billion dollar tax increase, pushed for billions more hikes and would have been successful in sucking Pennsylvanians dry if Scott wasn't there to stop him," Wagner's spokesman, Andrew Romeo, said.

"There to stop him?"

Well, until recently, yes ...

The attack on Fetterman, meanwhile, focuses on what has become an issue for the Braddock, Pa. mayor - even among his progressive base.

Let's start with the basics: In 2016, when Fetterman was seeking the Democratic nomination, he cast himself as an ardent opponent of the controversial natural gas extraction process.

That, in part, was to appear a counterweight to eventual Democratic nominee Katie McGinty, who took heat for being too cozy with Big Energy.

In the intervening two years, Fetterman's position on the issue has become more nuanced. He also supported two wells that he said would save 3,000 jobs in his home area.

The Wagner email takes specific issue with Fetterman's recent appearance on ABC-27's "This Week in Pennsylvania," where he said that:

"I think fracking overall, if it's done properly and with strict environmental regulations where it currently exists, I think can be part of the energy portfolio," Fetterman said.

Fetterman, who netted Bernie Sanders' endorsement in 2016, offered a fuller explanation to The Washington Post last month after a Pittsburgh progressive group shunned him:

"'We don't know why Sanders endorsed him,' said Adam Shuck, a member of Our Revolution's Pittsburgh chapter.

"Shuck said Fetterman came to the local chapter seeking an endorsement but wouldn't identify as a "socialist." He'd thrown support to centrist candidates. He's a gun owner. And, the group decided, Fetterman had been flimsy on fracking.

"'I was progressive enough for a Sanders endorsement, [but] not the organization? It's extraordinary,' Fetterman said. 'I'm not pro-fracking. But sometimes there's got to be some pragmatism.'"

Which doesn't mean, again, that Wagner's campaign is going to let it slide - even if it's not coming from an entirely altruistic place (as we noted last year):

"Any effort John Fetterman goes through to try to reassure voters he won't try to ban fracking is deceptive politics at its worst. It's clear that the Wolf-Fetterman ticket knows that their only chance to win in November is to insult the intelligence of the people of Pennsylvania by pretending their positions are the opposite of the failed and out of touch liberal policies they have always stood for," Romeo said.

Wagner "has shown time and again that he is the very worst of Harrisburg and the ultimate obstructionist," Wolf's spokeswoman, Beth Melena, said. "Wagner blocked a commonsense severance tax to further his own political ambitions, and he let corporations off the hook at the expense of middle-class taxpayers."

Wolf has been "fighting to change Harrisburg and to take special interests," Melena continued. Wolf "restored the Republicans' ... cut to education [funding] and expanded workforce development opportunities to thousands of Pennsylvanians, and pushed for a policy that will allow more than 50,000 seniors to remain in their homes as they age."

The rest of the day's news starts now.

Our pal, Jon Geeting, of Philly 3.0, argues that Pennsylvania would be better off with a unicameral Legislature. He's onto something ...

AG Josh Shapiro, along with some Pa. newspapers, has filed suit to get the state to release the clergy sex abuse report, The Inquirer reports.

The race for Bucks County's 1st Congressional District, between GOP incumbent U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, and Democrat Scott Wallace, is getting pretty intense, WHYY-FM reports.

A march in downtown Pittsburgh addressed social justice concerns, The Post-Gazette reports.

We're going vintage for today's #Harrisburg Instagram of the Day:

Hundreds rallied for the reunification of families on Sunday, PennLive's Jan Murphy reports.

Legislative support is waning for a bill that would open a broader window for sexual assault victims to sue in civil court, The Morning Call reports.

Pennsylvania is among the states more skeptical of free trade, Bucknell University researchers have found (via WITF-FM).

WolfWatch.

Gov. Tom Wolf has no public schedule today.

Heavy Rotation.

Here's a bit of delightful weirdness to get your Monday morning going.

And now you're up to date.