Thursday’s service for Governor Leader was a beautiful tribute to a great man who led a life of love that served the "least of these." Leader, the son of a chicken farmer, won an upset election for governor in 1954 when he was only 36 years old. He was one of the first candidates to use television advertising to introduce himself to voters and take his message right into family living rooms.

One of the easiest decisions I would make as governor would be to accept the Affordable Care Act’s great deal for Medicaid expansion. I can see no moral or economic justification for denying health care coverage to hard-working Pennsylvania families.

Early polls show that almost any of the candidates are ahead of Governor Corbett right now, so Democrats do not have to settle for the second or third best candidate for governor. They can choose the best prepared candidate with the best ideas for moving Pennsylvania forward. But there are real differences among the seven good Democratic candidates running for governor.

I wish Admiral Sestak good luck in his race to unseat Pat Toomey. Admiral Sestak has already given great service to this country both in his military career and as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He will make a great U.S. senator. I wish him the best of luck as he seeks to unseat Pat Toomey, the fourth most conservative senator in the Senate.

A new study confirms that I’m on the right track when I call for Pennsylvania to double its renewable energy standard. Doubling the amount of wind power in Pennsylvania and the PJM Interconnection, the electricity grid in our region, would save consumers $6.9 billion by 2026. It would also cut carbon dioxide emissions by 14 percent.

I oversaw the creation of the Pennsylvania Climate Change Action Plan when I was secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection. If the 52 elements of the plan were all implemented, we would cut emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) by 30 percent by 2020 and create 65,000 new jobs as we do it.

I will authorize a $1 billion bond to invest in upgrading our sewer systems to address a long-standing water pollution problem – raw sewage overflows. Repairing our sewers to stop raw sewage overflows will protect our water and public health and create good-paying jobs.

Yesterday the Pennsylvania Supreme Court approved the redrawn political map of Pennsylvania. One look at the absurd shapes of some of the legislative districts confirms my belief that we should take legislative map-making out of the hands of politicians and give it to an independent commission as is done in 9 states.

I whole-heartedly support ending discrimination against the LGBT community. Guaranteeing basic rights to all of our citizens regardless of sexual orientation or identity is consistent with Pennsylvania’s traditional ideals of liberty and equality.

I was happy to be the first to accept the invitation to debate other Democratic candidates for governor from Harrisburg Hope, a grassroots community organization. The debate will be held June 5 at 6:00 p.m. at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg.