Early Political Career
Hafer was elected to the Allegheny County Board of Commissioners in 1983, after she defeated incumbent Republican William Hunt in the primary election. In 1988, she defeated incumbent Democratic State Auditor General Don Bailey, and went on to serve two four-year terms in the post. In 1990, she was the Republican nominee for Governor against Bob Casey. Hafer was defeated by thirty-six percentage points—one of the most lopsided defeats in state history. She later successfully ran for State Treasurer in 1996, and was re-elected in 2000.
The Pennsylvania Report said that "She has never marched to a regular drummer, but that is part of her long-running appeal." In a 2002 PoliticsPA Feature story designating politicians with yearbook superlatives, she was named the "Most Popular."
Read more about this topic: Barbara Hafer
Famous quotes containing the words early, political and/or career:
“When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed
And the great star early drooped in the western sky in the night,
I mourned, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring,
Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west,
And thought of him I love.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“All the territorial possessions of all the political establishments in the earth—including America, of course—consist of pilferings from other people’s wash.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)