William Worthington Scranton III (born July 20, 1947) is an American politician who served as the 26th lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1987 in the administration of Governor Richard Thornburgh. He is the son of the late Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton, and a member of the wealthy and politically influential Scranton family, the founders of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Early life Scranton was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the son of the late Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton and the late First Lady of Pennsylvania Mary Scranton. He attended Yale University. After college he became the editor of a local newspaper in Mountaintop, Pennsylvania. In 1970, he went to Europe to study Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation, and became a lifelong practitioner of the Transcendental Meditation technique. He then became president and managing editor of the Greenstreet News Company. He entered politics as a member of the Republican State Committee in 1976. Political career Lieutenant Governor 1979–1987 In 1978, he won the Republican primary for lieutenant governor and later that year became the youngest person ever elected lieutenant governor in Pennsylvania. His dual role as chairman of the Governor's Energy Council and chairman of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Council put him at the center of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station crisis in 1979. As lieutenant governor, Scranton hired Nat Goldhaber, a member of the Transcendental Meditation movement, as his top aide in Harrisburg. In 1982, he was unanimously elected as Chairman of the National Conference of Lieutenant Governors. Candidate for governor 1986 During his final term as lieutenant governor, Scranton ran for Governor of Pennsylvania in 1986 against Democratic former Auditor General Bob Casey Sr. The race was virtually tied until five days before election day when Casey's media consultants, led by a young James Carville, launched the now-infamous "guru" ad. This television advertisement portrayed Scranton as having been a regular drug user in the 1960s and mocked Scranton's interest in transcendental meditation and his ties to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The image of Scranton as a "long haired, dope-smoking hippie" is seen by political observers as having tipped the scales against Scranton in the socially conservative rural sections of Pennsylvania. Casey went on to win the election by a narrow margin of 79,216 out of 3.3 million votes cast. Candidate for governor 2006 On October 17, 2005, Scranton formally announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for Governor of Pennsylvania