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Onorato claims Williams’ mantle… will he get the money?

PHILADELPHIA—State Senator Anthony Williams endorsed his former rival in the Democratic primary for governor here Wednesday. And at the same time, Dan Onorato endorsed some of Williams’ education platform, even voicing some support for private school vouchers.

But will he also get some of the school choice money that Williams enjoyed?

It’s too early to tell, but the stakes could be huge. Williams’ campaign was almost entirely funded by a few wealthy investors from suburban Philadelphia who favor school vouchers. As of the most recent state campaign finance reports, those investors had yet to give any money to Onorato’s campaign. And many conservatives who were enthralled with Williams for breaking with his party orthodoxy on school choice have settled on Republican Tom Corbett as their candidate on education.

For now, neither Williams nor Onorato is saying whether the money will flow to the Democrat’s campaign coffers. Williams, for his part, passed on a chance to even entertain the question.

“There were a lot of contributors to my campaign,” he told pa2010.com, “regardless of how the press reports it.”

Onorato, for his part, said he didn’t expect anything to change from his most recent policy announcement.

“I have no idea what [the donors] will do, and I can tell you I was very successful in my campaign raising money without those individuals,” he said. “This is about Tony and I getting ready to govern in January, and that’s the only thing I’m focusing on at this point.”

August 12, 2010 at 7:30 am

--Andrew Thompson

Tags: Anthony Williams, Dan Onorato, Tom Corbett

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