HARRISBURG - Call it the first act of the governor's race.

The slow-motion arc of Pennsylvania's budget negotiations - with a backdrop of a huge deficit, potential credit downgrade and two-week-old deadlock - has served as a sort of first debate stage for Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the would-be contenders hoping to contest Wolf's re-election bid next year.It is an early opportunity to boost their candidacies, and hurt an opponent, in a setting being watched closely by insiders.The material is rich: Wolf unsuccessfully sought to get the huge Republican House majority to sign on to a tax increase that Wolf said would be big enough to avert another downgrade to Pennsylvania's battered credit rating.Wolf then allowed a nearly $32 billion budget bill to become law, despite the fact that his own budget office says the state's existing tax collections can't support it for a full fiscal year. He did not sign it, he did not veto it and he did not use his line-item veto power to strike out some of the spending in it to bring it into balance.How all the gubernatorial hopefuls are treating the matter is a study of contrasts.Wolf has kept a low public profile, saying as little as possible.Wolf has refused to discuss the ins and outs of negotiations, or cast blame, saying only that his administration continues to negotiate and that he is optimistic about getting a deal.House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, also has kept a low profile, and said little publicly. But given the chance to blame Wolf, Turzai leaped.Turzai pinned the spending increase on Wolf - a 3 percent bump that nevertheless won Turzai's vote as well as huge GOP majorities in the House and Senate - and for being unable to seal a deal that does not include a tax increase.Turzai - who has all but declared his candidacy - struck a similar theme as the two declared Republicans in the race: Paul Mango, a former health care consultant from suburban Pittsburgh; and state Sen. Scott Wagner, the founder of a trash-hauling company who won the York County seat in 2014.Mango lobbed criticism in a statement released through his campaign, saying "Wolf is hiding under his desk to avoid responsibility for our budget debacle by simply letting this sham become law without his signature."Even so, Wolf's letting the bill become law was quietly welcomed by many Republican lawmakers.Wagner - who voted against the spending bill - weighed in just hours before Wolf let it become law last midnight Monday."We're in there trying to balance and pass a budget for the state of Pennsylvania, but where's the governor?" Wagner said.Both Wolf's campaign and his office declined to comment on the question of whether they believed Republican gubernatorial hopefuls had sought to take advantage of the budget situation for political gain.