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Hoeffel pounces on a pro-life group’s Onorato claim

Democrat Joe Hoeffel this this week seized upon a news report that gubernatorial rival Dan Onorato was sending a campaign aide to an event sponsored by an organization that opposes abortion rights—a news report that was quickly struck down by the Onorato campaign but nonetheless underscored the challenge Onorato has faced in explaining his stance on abortion rights.

The hit from the Hoeffel campaign was prompted by an article in the The York Dispatch, which reported that Onorato would have a representative at the Values Voters Gubernatorial Breakfast this Saturday. The event is being held by the York County chapter of Americans for Christian Traditions in Our Nation (ACTION), and the group’s local president said only candidates who oppose abortion rights were being invited. An Onorato spokesman denied that the campaign had ever agreed to send anyone, and subsequent interviews indicated that it was nothing more than a misunderstanding. An ACTION board member who coordinated with the campaigns said that an Onorato volunteer had indicated the campaign would send a representative; volunteers are rarely if ever authorize to make such arrangements.

“Nobody from the campaign is attending the event,” spokesman Brian Herman said. “We never planned to attend.”

Nevertheless, the confusion created an opening for Hoeffel, who has made staunch support for abortion rights a pillar of his candidacy.

“I wasn’t invited,” Hoeffel said in a statement Monday afternoon, “because I am 100 percent pro-choice and believe that women can make the best decisions for themselves and their families. That Dan Onorato was invited and is actually sending a representative of his campaign to this breakfast, confirms that he’s pro-life.”

Onorato, the Democratic front-runner in next month’s primary, has taken pains in trying to draw a distinction between his personal beliefs on abortion and what he would do as governor, making it one of the first first issues he addressed when he formally declared his candidacy last year. He has repeatedly said that while, as a Catholic, he is personally opposed to abortion, he would not allow any change in current state law if he was governor. Such nuance is often lost in today’s political culture, and the latest flap underscored that confusion persists. In an interview with pa2010.com, York County ACTION president Ron Cohen reiterated that his group invited Onorato because they though he opposed abortion rights.

“We didn’t invite any of the candidates that were not openly pro-life candidates,” Cohen said. “We thought that was his position, but in politics today there’s a lot of doublespeak.”

Even though Onorato has said multiple times that he won’t sign any bill changing the current law, the confusion is hardly without merit. During his 2007 reelection bid as county executive, Onorato was endorsed by LifePAC, a political action committee that backs candidates who oppose abortion rights.

“Voters who want a governor to trust women to make their own decisions should vote for Joe Hoeffel,” Lauren Townsend, Hoeffel’s co-campaign manager, said in an interview Monday evening.

The persistent confusion about Onorato’s abortion stance aside, the one thing that seems clear is he never planned to attend. Cohen was out of town recently, and the local ACTION group appeared to have its own communications mix-up; the group also said that Auditor General Jack Wagner would attend, but he canceled about a week ago.

“We’re going to have a good time whoever shows up,” Cohen said.

April 20, 2010 at 8:15 am

--Dan Hirschhorn

Tags: Dan Onorato, Jack Wagner, Joe Hoeffel

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