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AD WATCH: Onorato sticks to the record

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato’s introduction to general election voters has come in the form of two TV ads: one summarizing his record as Allegheny County executive and another one that, among other things, teaches voters how to pronounce his name.

The quirky, pronunciation one makes no disputed factual claims, and therefore earns our score of FAIR GAME. The longer, 60-second spot about his record in county government makes several factual claims. Taken together, we find that the ad merits a score of MOSTLY ACCURATE.

[Click here to read more about our AD WATCH fact-checking series and the different scores.]

In the 60-second ad, which incorporates many of the images and themes from Onorato’s primary campaign, a narrator opens:

He’s run Pennsylvania’s second-biggest county. He’s Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato.

The ad goes on to make a number of claims.

•”Facing a deficit,” the narrator says, “Dan Onorato cut waste and inefficiency, saving millions. The results? Onorato balanced the budget six years in a row, without once raising property taxes.”

This is true in the sense that Onorato’s early budgets contained spending cuts, and that his government consolidated 911 centers and eliminated elected row offices. It’s also accurate that he never raised property taxes—though it omits the context that Onorato has fought court orders compelling the county to conduct a reassessment that would lead to higher rates, and that he has filled that revenue hole by passing unpopular taxes on, among other items, alcoholic drinks. Onorato says he’s fighting a broken property tax assessment system that he’ll fix if elected governor, and that the unpopular tax increases he enacted were forced upon him by a state legislature that wouldn’t allow him to use sales tax revenue for transit costs.

•”Onorato faced a changing economy,” the narrator continues. “Many of the old manufacturing jobs left the Pittsburgh area. So Onorato helped create a new economy, based on education, health care, research and new technologies.”

There is significant debate as to how much credit Onorato deserves for the area’s revitalization. He and his supporters tout the cutting of bureaucratic red tape as a major factor, while detractors say he was mostly in the right place at the right time. But it’s more than fair for Onorato’s campaign to say he “helped create” the area’s new economy.

•”The county’s unemployment rate has consistently been better than the nation’s,” the narrator says.

This is accurate. According to data from the state Department of Labor and Industry, Allegheny County has for years out-performed both the state and the country when it comes to unemployment rates.

The ad goes on to highlight Onorato’s plans for reform if elected—and while there’s an argument to be made that those plans are politically unrealistic, the claims behind them are accurate, substantiated by his public statements and campaign platforms.

See both ads below.

September 27, 2010 at 2:36 pm

--pa2010.com Staff

Tags: AD WATCH, Dan Onorato

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