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Onorato easily wins gubernatorial primary, setting up showdown with Corbett

PITTSBURGH—Dan Onorato, the Allegheny County Executive who started plotting a path to the Governor’s Mansion years ago, took a big step toward getting there Tuesday, easily winning the Democratic gubernatorial primary in a race he was favored to win from the start.

Onorato bested three primary rivals thanks to a campaign infrastructure he started building long before them and a massive TV blitz that introduced him to Pennsylvania Democrats at a time when the vast majority of them were still undecided and unengaged from the race. Polls had shown him holding large, double-digit leads going into primary day, and those voters who remained undecided appeared to have broken for him in large numbers. With nearly all precincts reporting, Onorato had won 45 percent of the vote. Auditor General Jack Wagner came in second with about 24 percent of the vote. And despite spending millions on TV ads after a late entrance into the race, state Senator Anthony Williams finished third at 18 percent.

Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel brought up the rear with less than 13 percent of the vote. State Attorney General Tom Corbett easily won the Republican primary for governor, and will face Onorato in what is sure to be a fiercely competitive general election.

“Pennsylvania needs a governor who understands reform,” Onorato told supporters assembled for his victory party at a union hall here. “I am that Harrisburg outsider, and I will take on the special interests.”

A few miles away and a few moments earlier, Wagner—a longtime Onorato foe who struggled to raise money but ran a positive campaign until the end—had delivered his concession speech.

“Unfortunately, in life, some things don’t work out the way you want,” he said. “But that’s OK because we’ve learned a lot from this campaign.”

Williams’ campaign had put together a concert at Temple University in Philadelphia for its election night party, and Williams said he had succeeded in giving public policy issues like school choice—which he repeatedly framed as a civil rights issue—a larger place in the political discourse. His campaign was almost entirely funded by wealthy suburban investors who support school vouchers. “I didn’t lose,” he said, “I just didn’t get enough votes.”

He passed on a chance to voice support for Onorato, who his campaign spent millions trying to bring down with a spate of negative advertising. “I think I’m going to go home and take a nap for a few days, and then I’m going to get back up and fight for the issues I think are most important, and theh we’ll figure out who represents that and speaks loudly and boldly about the things I think are most important.”

Hoeffel, who got into the race relatively late and struggled mightily to raise the money needed, gathered with subdued supporters in Conshohocken. After positioning himself as the liberal in the race, Hoeffel called Onorato to offer his support, and co-campaign manager Lauren Townsend said later that Hoeffel “wants to continue fighting for progressive ideals.”

For Onorato, the victory was a culmination of a political journey that, by some accounts, started the day Gov. Ed Rendell won a second term in 2006. Onorato won reelection as county executive in 2007, but did so while keeping about $2 million in his war chest, a head start that he built into a far more formidable advantage over the next couple years.

With allies close to the governor—and a relationship with the governor himself—many saw him as Rendell’s favored candidate, though the governor never publicly endorsed anyone in the race. The powerful Democratic fundraisers in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh areas settled on him as a candidate early, and he won over other party insiders and activists across the state while building a reputation as a knowledgeable policy wonk.

Three-quarters of likely primary voters were undecided even two months before the election, but at that point Onorato had a war chest of almost $7 million. He started blanketing the airwaves at the end of March, and quickly pulled away from the pack. His message of economic revitalization rooted in his executive experience in a region spotlighted by President Obama for its revival proved well-suited to the political climate. By the time Williams hit the airwaves statewide a couple weeks later, Onorato was already viewed favorably by a significant swath of voters, and efforts to bring him back to the pack did as much to lift Williams’ own negative poll numbers.

Williams won his Philadelphia base by a large margin, but Onorato performed well in other Democratic strongholds across the state, including Allegheny, Bucks, Cambria and Montgomery counties.

Onorato faces a challenging start, having mostly emptied his campaign coffers to assure Tuesday’s win. Corbett spent far less for his expected win against state Representative Sam Rohrer (R-Berks).

In an interview, Onorato downplayed any suggestion that Corbett starts with an advantage, noting that the contested Democratic primary provided a chance to raise his name recognition across the electorate.

“We had a spirited primary and I got a chance to see the state and introduce myself to voters,” he said.

Michael Jones reported from Pittsburgh, Andrew Thompson reported from Philadelphia and Amy Brisson reported from Conshohocken. See a video clip below of Onorato’s victory speech.

May 19, 2010 at 6:24 am

--Michael Jones and Dan Hirschhorn

Tags: Anthony Williams, Dan Onorato, Jack Wagner, Joe Hoeffel

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