The people have spoken. Democrat and former New Yorker, Edward G. Rendell has been elected as Pennsylvania’s 45th governor. He is also the first Philadelphian elected in nearly 90 years.

“Make no mistake,” Rendell said on Tuesday, November 5, “all over the state tonight the people of Pennsylvania voted for a change.”

After successfully defeating Republican state Attorney General, Mike Fisher, 58, of Upper St. Clair, by a 53 to 44 percent margin on Tuesday, November 5, Rendell, 58, the former mayor of Philadelphia and former chairman of the democratic national committee will be will be sworn into office on January 21.

Countless Rendell supporters have pointed out that in more than three decades, Rendell has the largest victory margin for a Pennsylvania governor’s seat. Usually, in this state, candidates win by 2-3%, but Rendell won by nine.

Rendell’s campaign had basically run on the belief that “Pennsylvania can and will do better,” and that he will “lead Pennsylvania to prosperity.” Along the campaign road, Rendell has made a lot of promises to change the Keystone state. He has promised to reform public education by spending more money on it and also by promising to reform property taxes by lowering them. Although he wants to lower the property taxes, he doesn’t necessarily want to lower the rest of the rising taxes in Pennsylvania. Raising taxes may be his only option to cover all the costs of his reforms.

Pennsylvanians can only sit back and wait for Rendell to take action on all the promises he has made. Many believe that this will be our state’s saving grace, our turn-around, but on the other side, some also believe that he will lead tax payers to the poor house.

One of Rendell’s greatest worries is that the General Assembly will be controlled by Republicans, but supporter and former state House member, Mayor Tom Murphy disagrees and claims that “Rendell will get things done.” Some others disagree as they bring up the point that he may have a tough time with the Legislature. This may be because the majority is Republican, and he may have to do a lot of pushing and shoving because the majority is Republican, and he may have to do a lot of pushing and shoving to get his programs through.

Rendell has a plan to “shake up” the state government which he feels has “stagnated” over the last eight years due to the Republican leadership.