Here’s one of the least-known facts in Pennsylvania politics: In the primaries, gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial candidates do not necessarily run as a team.

This can lead to some strange bedfellows as the 2014 election showed. Political newcomer Tom Wolf captured the Democratic primary, handily crushing much better-known candidates such as state Treasurer Rob McCord and ex-U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz.

Michael J. Stack III, 55, a four-term state senator from Philadelphia, and part of the well-greased Philadelphia Democratic political machine, won the primary for lieutenant governor, besting four other candidates including a former U.S. representative, a state representative, a Harrisburg city councilman and a Bradford County commissioner.

Wolf and Stack were chilly toward each other before the primary, and after their respective wins put them on the same ticket for the general election, things got downright frosty.

The Democrats were hoping for a civil relationship between the odd couple, but it never happened, and although both put on happy faces throughout the campaign season, it was obvious even to casual observers that their styles and feelings for each other were light years apart.

State Sen. David Argall, R-Schuylkill-Berks, wants to put an end to this unusual practice and has introduced Senate Bill 133 to change how lieutenant governor candidates are chosen.

The bill is off to a good start, having passed the Senate last month by a 46-2 vote, but it has a long way to go before it becomes law, because it requires a constitutional change.

The bill is now in the House of Representatives. If it passes there in its present form, it must be voted on and passed again during the next legislative session in 2021-22, after which the voters must approve it in a referendum.

Argall said he has enlisted the support of fellow local legislator, state Rep. Jerry Knowles, R-Schuylkill-Carbon, and is “cautiously optimistic” of its successful journey through the House.

“In the past, we have seen a leadership team separate into two warring factions that spent weeks not talking to one another,” Argall said. “If we want to succeed in Pennsylvania, then the commonwealth’s top two executive officials need to see eye-to-eye on the issues and not get distracted by petty rivalries.”

Argall said he is “absolutely” referring to the Wolf-Stack situation, but he said another one was the contentiousness between former Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell and then-Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll.

Argall’s bill permits gubernatorial candidates to make their choice after the primaries, a process similar to how presidential candidates select their vice presidential running mates.

Many consider the lieutenant governor as a figurehead who does not have many official duties. The second-in-command’s main duty is to preside over the state Senate but has a vote only in the event of a tie, a rarity.

It wasn’t long after Stack and his wife, Tonya, took up residence at the official state home at Indiantown Gap that trouble started. They were accused of verbally abusing members of Stack’s state police security detail and their state-paid household staff. Some of his hotel expenses were questioned, too.

On top of that, troopers privately complained that Stack had them use their sirens and flashers in nonemergency situations, a violation of state law. Once, they said, this was to speed up the Stacks’ trip to a concert in Philadelphia.

The situation became so tense that Wolf privately met with Stack and told him to knock it off. Wolf curtailed Stack’s security detail and limited his use of household staff. The two didn’t speak for months.

As for Tonya Stack, she was accused of giving the finger and flinging a cup of soda at state Rep. Kevin Boyle, D-Philadelphia. Not long after this incident, she checked herself into a residential health facility to deal with “a difficult mental health issue.”

Some lieutenant governors are given jobs of real substance. For example, the incumbent second-in-command, John Fetterman, is conducting a 67-county listening tour on the issue of legalizing recreational marijuana.

Despite all of the negative publicity and bad blood between him and Wolf, Stack remained convinced that his Philadelphia base would pull him through, so he ran for re-election last year and learned how really unpopular he is among Democrats. He came in fourth in the five-person Democratic primary.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com