Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski has announced his candidacy for governor in 2014 and pledged to work to bring the same positive results to Harrisburg.

Pawlowski held a formal campaign announcment and kick-off Sept. 9 at 7th and Hamilton streets in Allentown.

Pawlowski is currently running for a third term as mayor and has secured both the Democratic and Republican nomination for the November election.

"This is not a decision that was easily made, but as mayor of the third-largest city in the state and president of the Pennsylvania Municipal League, I have seen first-hand the damage that has been done to our Commonwealth over the past four years under the current administration.

"I cannot sit idly by and let our state continue to suffer," he continued. "As mayor I will continue to give my heart and soul to serve our city to the best of my ability. But the challenges facing Pennsylvania, like proper funding for education and rebuilding our infrastructure, demand an experienced leader in Harrisburg who has the proven know-how to get results.

"We have done many great things in Allentown, accomplishments made possible because we were able to work together across party lines at all levels of government. I want to bring that cooperation to Harrisburg, to break the gridlock that has brought our government to a stand-still, and to address the many issues that face our state, our municipalities, and most of all, our people."

A Quinnipiac Poll earlier this year identified the two-term Allentown mayor as the most likely of the current declared candidates statewide to beat incumbent Tom Corbett in a head-to-head race.

During the eight years since Pawlowski took office, Allentown has reversed an $8 million budget deficit, added 80 officers to its police force and reduced crime almost 30 percent, implemented a variety of neighborhood improvement projects that have helped restore vacant or deteriorating properties, and worked with local, state and federal officials to revitalize a downtown core once devastated by the loss of major retailers and locally owned businesses.

The centerpiece of the Allentown restoration is the new PPL Arena now under construction at 7th and Hamilton streets, created with bipartisan support in Harrisburg. In addition to the arena, which will be home to the AHL Phantoms, the chief minor league affiliate for the Philadelphia Flyers NHL hockey team, the $1 billion revitalization of Allentown's urban core includes an upscale hotel, more than a dozen restaurants and almost a half-dozen new high-rise office buildings that have already brought companies such as National Penn Bank, Lehigh Valley Hospital, Lehigh Gas and several others – with thousands of employees – back to Allentown's Center City business district.

Pawlowski also led the recent effort to lease the city's water-sewer facilities to Lehigh County Authority for $214 million – money that will be invested to offset the city's pension fund obligations – making Allentown one of the only cities in the Commonwealth to successfully address its pension obligations while protecting retirees.

In addition, the Pawlowski administration has leveraged local, state and federal funding to rebuild or refurbish three major bridges – including the American Parkway bridge, the only bridge now under construction in Pennsylvania funded solely through federal dollars. Once-blighted neighborhoods and public housing projects have been rebuilt or rehabilitated into attractive communities, a new firehouse is under construction in the city's East Side, parks have been refurbished and modernized and major streets in the city have been reconstructed to address 21st century traffic issues.

"None of this was easy. None of it came without significant discussion, debate and compromise," Pawlowski said. "But we did it. We reached out when needed, we found common ground, we sat down with the people from both parties who could help us and we found new ways to make things work. We have proven that you can cooperate, that you can make progress, you can make things better. If we can do it here, why can't it be done in Harrisburg? Pennsylvania lags the nation in economic recovery and employment; early childhood, elementary and secondary and post-secondary education has suffered significantly because of current administration's draconian budget cuts, and the state's roads and bridges are among the worst in the nation.

"Mr. Corbett has a Republican-controlled legislature. Republicans control both the House and the Senate, and yet he cannot find ways to work with them to accomplish his agenda," Pawlowski said. "If he can't even work with his own party, how can we expect him to reach across the aisle and find the compromises that are needed to move the Commonwealth ahead?"

Pawlowski has a master's degree in urban planning and public policy from the University of Illinois. He began his career as a community organizer on Chicago's southwest side and became executive director of Windows of Opportunity, a non-profit subsidiary of the Chicago Housing Authority, where he supervised the development of special programs and self-sufficiency projects created to help Chicago's public housing residents, which at the time numbered more than 100,000.

In 1996 he became executive director of Lehigh Housing Development Corporation, which under his leadership expanded to six counties, becoming a regional community development corporation now known as Alliance for Building Communities. Due to his success in reviving and strengthening this organization, he was recruited to work for the City of Allentown as the director of community and economic development before being elected and sworn in as the 41st mayor of the City of Allentown in January 2006.

Pawlowski and his wife, Lisa, a community activist and licensed social worker, live in Center City Allentown. They have two children, Mercy and Alex, who attend Allentown public schools.