This article was originally published in The Notebook. In August 2020, The Notebook became Chalkbeat Philadelphia.
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State Rep. William Adolph, a Republican from Delaware County, has become a go-to guy for Pennsylvania lawmakers pursuing compromise, whether on school funding or other thorny issues.
In Pennsylvania – a state diverse in geography, wealth, ideology, and priority – the gears of the legislature often turn only when lawmakers engender confidence across party and parochial lines.
For the Philadelphia region, no lawmaker may be more important right now in this regard than Adolph, the sole Philadelphia-area legislator in a leadership position with the Republican majority.
Sitting in his no-frills office just beyond view of the city skyline, with Delco traffic buzzing by strip-mall sprawl, Adolph held forth on political sausage-making.
"It’s no different than any other business: You try to build those relationships based upon trust," said Adolph, elected in 1989. "If you’re not going to listen to anybody, they’re not going to listen to you."
He is chairman of the House appropriations committee – a powerful post during budget season. Both sides of the aisle view him as a pragmatic moderate who serves as a rare conduit between rural tea-party conservatives and urban liberals.
Speaker of the House Mike Turzai (R, Allegheny), who considers Adolph a friend, called him an "exceptionally bright, responsible, fair legislator to work with."
Philadelphia’s almost exclusively Democratic delegation knows that Adolph can be the key connector, especially when it comes to education funding.
One Philadelphia state lawmaker, surveying the recent rightward shift in legislative power, described Adolph as Philadelphia’s "last great hope" to advance its agenda in Harrisburg.
Adolph attributes his influence, in part, to a set of tires well worn by the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
"I know the commonwealth very well," he said. "I have an awful lot of one-on-ones with the various members."
Mark Twain wasn’t talking about the differences among Butler, Blair, and Bucks Counties when he wrote that "travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness," but Adolph’s career proves the quote’s relevance.
"There’s no cookie-cutter Republican, and there’s no cookie-cutter Democrat," he said. "You are where you are based upon where you reside."
To help his colleagues better understand their differences, he’s made a habit of inviting lawmakers from across the state to visit the Philadelphia metropolitan area with him.
He also travels to their counties.
"That really goes a long way," he said. "Absolutely."
Coach Adolph
Born and raised in Southwest Philadelphia, Adolph, 65, a Cardinal O’Hara High School graduate, is a partner in his own accounting firm and the father of three grown sons – one of whom teaches at Springfield High School.
He says with a laugh that his son "knows better than" to come to him with a list of resource needs.
In conversation, he switches easily between the smooth parlance of the executive boardroom and the down-on-the-corner gruff of street stickball. In his office, decades worth of framed photos show him aging as he poses with the generations he coached in C.Y.O football.
"That’s how I get back at my Democrats from Northeast Philly," he says. "I beat their teams in football."