David Kidwell, Associated Press Republican Bill Scranton announces his candidacy for governor of Pennsylvania yesterday in Scranton, Pa. Click photo for larger image.

Bill Scranton staged the ceremonial launch of his campaign for the GOP nomination for governor last night with a rally in the town named for his family, one that has already produced one governor of Pennsylvania.

His kickoff speech, in which he promised a leaner government and lower taxes, was a prelude to an across-the-state series of events, including a stop in Pittsburgh later today.

Mr. Scranton's circumnavigation of the commonwealth was the public debut of a campaign that has been under way for months, as the former lieutenant governor vies with three rivals for the right to challenge Gov. Ed Rendell.

The first true milepost in their marathon competition will come in February when the state Republican committee is scheduled to confer the considerable weight of its endorsement on one of them.

Anticipating that vote, Mr. Scranton, sports broadcaster Lynn Swann and Sen. Jeff Piccola, R-Dauphin, have been traveling throughout the state for months, speaking and schmoozing at GOP gatherings. James Panyard, former head of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association, is a more recent entrant in the GOP competition.

A staple of Mr. Scranton's appeal to fellow Republicans is a broad pledge to boost the state's economic competitiveness by eliminating wasteful spending. He has said that his first priorities for paring taxes are the elimination of the stock and franchise tax and a reduction in the corporate net income tax.

Mr. Scranton has joined calls for a drastic reduction in the property tax as a source of school revenue although he has not gone as far as Mr. Piccola, who proposes the complete elimination of the property levy for schools. While he has yet to offer his own specific plan, Mr. Scranton has generally endorsed the concept of replacing that revenue by extending the state sales tax to a broader base of goods and services while lowering its rate.

Mr. Scranton has also been a vociferous opponent of the government pay raises enacted by the Republican Legislature and signed by Mr. Rendell this past summer.

He made several references to the pay raises in his speech at the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel, promising, "When I'm governor, the days of sacrificing principle for political expediency will end."

Mr. Scranton has said he supports the state's strict abortion control act, but he is the only one of the three major GOP candidates who supports abortion rights. Mr. Swann describes himself as pro-life, while Mr. Piccola, an advocate of abortion rights earlier in his legislative career, has also embraced the pro-life position, a political evolution he has emphasized in a videotape distributed to Republican activists.

Mr. Scranton was the state's lieutenant governor from 1979 to 1986, in the administration of former Gov. Dick Thornburgh. He narrowly lost his first bid to be governor in a bruising race with the late Gov. Robert P. Casey.

After that 1986 defeat, Mr. Scranton retreated from politics, working in private business in California, then returning to Pennsylvania to help oversee the investments of a family fortune originally amassed in iron and steel production. He is also chairman of the Harleysville Group Inc., an insurance firm.

Two Western Pennsylvanians are at the top of Mr. Scranton's campaign team. Glenn Meakem, the former chief executive officer of FreeMarkets Inc., is co-chairman along with Leslie Gromis-Baker, who served as campaign manager for former Gov. Tom Ridge and later as Middle Atlantic chairman for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign.

Mr. Scranton, 58, told the hometown crowd that his campaign would end "Pennsylvania's tradition of automatic re-election."

Since the Pennsylvania Constitution was changed to allow governors to serve second terms, every one, starting with Gov. Milton Shapp, a Democrat elected in 1970, has been re-elected, and each eight-year administration has been followed by one of the opposite party.

Mr. Scranton's father, William W. Scranton, was elected governor in 1962, at a time when the state's chief executives were still limited to a single term.

Mr. Scranton's Pittsburgh kickoff rally is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at the Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel, Downtown.