Posts tagged ‘Dan Onorato’

Tom Corbett, the Republican who wants to be our next governor, would be a DISASTER for NEPA in particular.  I’ve pointed out the flaws of this man at every opportunity, but the latest and greatest straight-up threat to NEPA is that Tom Corbett favors VOLUNTARY DRILLING STANDARDS in Marcellus Shale.  It’s bad enough that he doesn’t want to tax drillers.  Now he’s saying they can do whatever kind of safety they feel like.  That’s right, according to Corbett, it’s not the government’s job to make sure drinking water is safe.  According to Corbett, corporations are sweet, kind entities that will do what’s right no matter how much it costs them.

This is either naivety, or he was bought out.  Look at his campaign finance reports and the answer is clear.  Hint: It’s $360,000 that they’ve given him.  Okay, it’s not a hint.  I’m putting it out there.

Do not vote for this Tom Corbett.  NEPA cannot afford it.

Vote Dan Onorato, 2010.  He’s against poisoned water.

Admittedly, the polls rarely look good for Democrats Joe Sestak, running against Pat Toomey for Senate, and Dan Onorato, running against Tom Corbett for Governor.

Today, Toomey is up 9 points in a poll from Franklin and Marshall.  The spread is 40% Toomey to 31% for Sestak.  That’s a likely voter sample.  Among registered voters, Toomey only has a 3 point edge, 31% to 28%.

Dan Onorato is trailing Tom Corbett 11 points, according to the same poll.  Among likely voters, it’s 38% to 27%.  Among registered voters, Corbett only leads by 1%, 29 to 28.

What’s important to note is that neither Corbett nor Toomey have made it about the safe zone of 50%.  In fact, they are far from it.  Being in the neighborhood of 10% behind at this point in the game is not insurmountable for Sestak or Onorato.  The registered voter samples in both polls show a very tight race.  This is important because Pennsylvania has a humungous Democratic voter registration advantage at about 1.2 million.  If Onorato and Sestak can get Democrats to show up, then they can win.

While everybody crows about massive Republican victories, it’s important to note that the Republican Party’s favorability is near an all-time low, which is very different than 1994, when they had their pathetically named “Republican Revolution” and took back Congress.  As Joe Biden said, Republicans need to offer an alternative.  They haven’t.  My guess is they can’t.

Onorato and Sestak in 2010!

An e-mail from the Onorato campaign, pointing out yet more flaws in Tom Corbett.  This time his “Say One Thing Do Another” attitude.  Corbett has a history of raising taxes.  Nice.  All of a sudden he’s against them.

Lots of people make promises to get elected — but a candidate’s record really speaks volumes.

Tom Corbett has only helped enact one budget in his career, as a Shaler Township Commissioner. He used that opportunity to cast the deciding vote on a 20% property tax hike.

And now Tom Corbett wants voters to believe that he won’t raise taxes if elected Governor?

Even Corbett’s Republican allies don’t think he can honor his budget promises.

Actions speak louder than words. How can voters trust Tom Corbett’s word when his only experience with taxes is raising them?

Click here to watch a video on Corbett’s tax increase and empty promise, then share the video with your friends.

I don’t have to rely on empty promises to show Pennsylvanians what I’ll do as Governor. As Allegheny County Executive, I have balanced the budget six times in a row without ever raising property taxes. I have the experience to make the state live within its means, reform Harrisburg and get our economy back on track.

Tom Corbett’s record speaks for itself, and it is time he hears that Pennsylvanians know his real record on taxes.

Tell your friends that Tom Corbett’s words are cheap: his history of raising taxes means more than any pledge he can make.

This election isn’t about promises, it’s about experience. And Tom Corbett’s track record with budgets only shows a property tax hike.

Join us and share our video with your friends so they know Tom Corbett’s actions speak louder than his words, and we know his experience with taxes.

Thanks for your help,

Dan

Democratic Candidate for Governor, Dan Onorato, is in the region today for the Tomato Festival.

I’ve written quite a bit about why I’m a fan of him, so allow me to invite you to an Onorato event going on Tomorrow, Sunday, at 1 PM at Joyce’s in Minooka.  We’ll be going door to door in the area on behalf of the candidate.  Anybody interested in attending, drop me an e-mail (tomborthwick@nepartisan.com) or just show up!  We need help.

Why?  Aside from the numerous foibles of Tom Corbett, he is leveraging his position as Attorney General to march in the front of the Tomato Festival Parade.  This should not be allowed unless Dan Onorato, his competitor, is allowed to as well.  Corbett has never marched in a Tomato Parade before, or probably really ever cared about Pittston.

This is probably why Onorato challenged Corbett to a tomato fight yesterday on Radio Corbett’s show.  Onorato also reiterated that he wants to debate Corbett.  In the Democratic primary, he participated in 22 forums.  There have been ZERO face-to-face interchanges between Corbett and Onorato.  This needs to change.  Corbett should accept as many debate offers as Onorato puts on the table, instead of ducking them.  As Onorato said yesterday, “People deserve to hear from the candidates.”  Debates are great formats to see what candidates are made of.  Unless Corbett doesn’t want people to know what he’s made of, which might be gooey and fiscally irresponsible.  Gross.

In any case, hopefully I’ll see you at Joyces’s at 1 PM tomorrow!

Dan Onorato is up on Facebook with a Fan Page or a Like Page or whatever you want to call them now.

I suggest, if you’re working class, you like him.  He’s the better candidate by far!

Follow this link!

Dan Onorato was endorsed by my union, the PSEA, because he is a pro-education candidate.  Beyond the education front, Onorato is absolutely solid and a much better package than Tom Corbett, who has suffered from foot-in-mouth disease.

Yesterday, Onorato took to the stage with Anthony Williams, who ran for governor as a school choice Democrat from Philadelphia financed by four super-rich hedge fund managers.  While on stage, Onorato talked up school choice.  Obviously, this doesn’t sit well with me.  I love Onorato.  I hate school choice (I’ve written about this enough times that I won’t rehash why this is a disaster).

I decided to give Onorato a brief benefit of the doubt, took some deep breaths, thought it through, called some union contacts and campaign people.

While Onorato’s school choice feelings don’t sound like him, he still plans to fund our public schools equitably, he still plans to work for better teacher preparation programs, he still favors fixing our pension system.  Most importantly, and what makes him unique, is that he still supports teachers having a voice in the education process.  Believe it or not, we tend not to.  Policy that we follow is dictated to us by legislators and politicians, most often (think Race to the Top).

Anthony Williams plays a big part in this.  He’s sitting on $5 million after his gubernatorial loss.  Onorato needs to come out very strong in Philadelphia to win this race.  Having Williams on his side, in terms of votes and cash, makes a lot of sense.  I hate to be cynical, but that is politics.  In the end, Onorato is a far better candidate than Corbett, school choice or not.

According to the pollster Rasumussen, which has a Republican-leaning House effect (fancy statistician talk for their polls are skewed Republican), Tom Corbett is up ten points over Dan Onorato.  This isn’t a bad sign at all.  Get rid of the house effect and the lead shrinks.

Further, even if ten were a legitimate number, that is still surmountable, particularly since Onorato is getting great play over Corbett’s total ignorance of the job situation in Pennsylvania.

To remind those who may have forgotten, Tom Corbett thinks people who are unemployed love it and don’t want to work because losing one’s job is awesome.

This has yet to be factored into any polls.  When it does, I’m sure we’ll see a change.

Democrats continue to hit Tom Corbett for saying that the unemployed just plain love being unemployed.  From Onorato, “This is a fundamental difference between me and my opponent, and I don’t know what world Tom Corbett is living in. Tom Corbett doesn’t even recognize there’s a problem, so it’s no surprise that he has no real plan to improve our economy or actually create the jobs that in his mind already exist.”  Oh, snap!  You go, Onorato!

PA2010 called it a “gaffe,” which I think isn’t accurate.  A gaffe is what Joe Biden does every time he opens his mouth.  A gaffe tends to be unintentional.  Corbett’s perspective on the unemployed is informed by his ignorance and lack of caring.  He refused to acknowledge that the unemployed of PA don’t, in fact, think it’s a barrel of laughs!  I’m surprised he didn’t resurrect that old “funemployment” meme that pops up when people want to blame the unfortunate for their own problems.

In response to this, Corbett went ahead and said, “People are perceiving it as insensitive.”  Boohoo!  People didn’t understand what I was trying to say, I’m trying to be positive!  There are jobs out there!  You have to pick yourself up by your own bootstraps and get working!  Even if you can’t afford bootstraps!

I love how it’s everybody else’s fault, not his, that he’s a tactless jerk.

The sad thing is that this statement comes on the heels of a new Quinnipiac poll that puts Tom Corbett up 7 points against Onorato.  Maybe they didn’t call unemployed people in this survey.  After all, their phones were probably shut off when Republicans and conservative Democrats in the Senate refused to extend unemployment benefits.

The poll went 44 Corbett to 37 Onorato, which actually isn’t bad.  Single digits in July means striking range and a good shot at November.  All Corbett needs to do is keep kicking Pennsylvanians when they’re down and all Onorato needs to do is point it out.  Well, and run a decent campaign.  In the Democratic primary, Onorato surged and won because he closed the name recognition gap with a barrage of statewide commercials.  Right now, Corbett has much better name recognition.  If Onorato pulls a similar strategy, a huge ad barrage later in the game, he’ll probably surge late again.  Corbett has been spending his money all summer, while Onorato, who has less, has been conserving it.

In addition, Dan Onorato has attracted the notice of heavy-hitters.  Notably, Bill Clinton may campaign for him.  This could very well mean that the national Democratic party is taking notice and thinks Onorato has a chance.  That will mean money and possible star power.  But Bill Clinton didn’t help Doherty win the State Senate race, so who knows what’ll happen for Onorato?

What’s most important to note is that a 7 point gap with 18% undecided is great news for Onorato.  Most undecides will break Dem, given the statewide registration advantage.

Here’s an ad I would love to see from Dan Onorato:  Tom Corbett is trying to take away your health care, and he’s using your money to do it.

That would sufficiently explain the total abuse of Tom Corbett’s abuse of the office of the Attorney General.  Using his offices appropriations to join other Republican AGs in an attempt to repeal health care means he is diverting resources from investigating crime.  Providing health care for those who don’t have it is not a crime.  Trying to deny health care to those who need it certainly is.

Not enough people are paying attention to Corbett’s willingness to undermine progress on the health care front.  This is a mistake for Onorato, as it’s his job to make sure people pay attention.  Most people support the health care bill and, except for Snookie and her tanning bed tax issue, most people haven’t seen any increase in taxes or any penalties in their care.  In fact, it isn’t the end of the world, as Republicans predicted it would be.  One of them called it Obama’s Waterloo.  Ha!

Four AGs participating in this suit lost or are losing their primaries.  In South Carolina, Henry McMaster came in third.  Florida’s AG, Bill McCollum, is trailing his opponent.  Mike Cox in Michigan is polling at third in his attempt to become governor.  Troy King in Alabama lost.  Pattern?  Yes.  Pattern.

Tom Corbett’s willingness to use his office to punish critics, to push a national Republican agenda, to waste taxpayer dollars in partisan crusades, and to take away the health care of young people and the poor demonstrates his total unworthiness to be Governor of this state.

According to Rasmussen, Tom Corbett is up big, 16 points to be exact.  Corbett leads Onorato 49 to 33 with 13 percent undecided and 5 percent voting for another candidate.  That last is the weirdest, as third party candidates don’t get that much.  I would like to know Rasmussen’s methodology, weighting, and the questions they asked, but Rasmussen doesn’t release that information, which means they can’t be independently evaluated for bias.

Statisticians, including Nate Silver over at 538, have pointed out that Rasmussen has a huge Republican house effect, meaning that their polls skew in favor of Republicans consistently.  In addition, they had Rand Paul over Jack Conway in Kentucky by about 26 points after Paul made those absurd statements about how businesses should be able to tell black people to get out.

Rasmussen also engages in “muddying the waters” by which I mean they release so many polls that aggregates are, again, affected by their skewed numbers.

As of last week, Corbett was up by 6 points.  The polling outfit was not Rasmussen.  I don’t see a 10 point drop when Corbett was in the news over his subpoenaing of critics (even Republican blogs were critical of that move).  On top of that, there have been statewide protests calling for Corbett’s resignation over conflict-of-interest issues (the least of which is using his office to go after critics).

In any case, I’m sure Onorato will be doing just fine as time goes on.  He’ll have time to catch up from his 6 point deficit.  Corbett will have time to continue his Orwellian crusade.

In a potential November matchup between Insurance Company Shill, Tom Corbett, and Democrat Dan Onorato, the race has tightened. Corbett leads him 43-37, only 6 points. Corbett previously held a double digit lead, but Onorato’s commercials have likely helped him bigtime.

Sadly, none of the other Democratic candidates match up quite as well. I expect this to keep tightening and I’m hoping that if Onorato wins (I’m still a Hoeffel support, by the way), then Democrats will have a decent shot of winning the governorship.

Dan Onorato, Democratic Gubernatorial candidates, who I had thought was pro-choice, may not be.
I don’t want our state restricting a woman’s right to choose. On top of that, I find it very ironic that the impetus for abortion control often originates with men, despite it affecting, you know, women.
Take a look at this Joe Hoeffel release that points out some of Onorato’s positional oddities:

Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania governor, Dan Onorato, was endorsed by Life-PAC just a few years ago in his run for Allegheny County Executive.

The York Dispatch confirms Onorato’s pro-life position in an article today announcing the invitees to an Americans for Christian Traditions In Our Nation “Values Voter Gubernatorial Breakfast” this Saturday morning, to which only pro-life candidates for governor are invited.

Americans for Christian Traditions In Our Nation (ACTION), is bi-partisan and endorses candidates who are anti-abortion.

ACTION has only invited to its York County breakfast Democratic candidates for governor, Allegeny County Executive Dan Onorato and Auditor General Jack Wagner, and Republicans Attorney General Tom Corbett and State Rep. Sam Rohrer.

“I wasn’t invited,” said Democrat Joe Hoeffel, candidate for Pennsylvania Governor, because I am 100% 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”
In the York Dispatch article, Ron Cohen – the president of Americans for Christian Traditions in Our Nation (ACTION) – said, “Hoeffel and Williams were not invited to the event because they are not anti-abortion.”

Shortly after this release came out, Onorato pulled out of the event. At least he listens to criticism.

Dan Onorato’s campaign made a boo-boo.  Somebody on the inside either leaked, or let slip, a memo detailing plans to go after Joe Hoeffel and/or State Senator Anthony Williams, both of whom are gubernatorial candidates.

Now, going after an opponent is no big deal, it’s to be expected.  But the plan was to knock them off the ballot.  The memo indicated that Hoeffel and Williams would either split the Philadelphia vote, which would help Onorato, or the two could possibly be bumped from the ballot, which would help Onorato.

It’s the latter of the two revelations that draws my ire.  Onorato, rather than fight the race out, believed he could backdoor his opponents in an effort to gain victory for himself.  There was nothing to indicate Hoeffel played games or skimped with his signatures.  He needed 3,000, he got 7,000.

This story has played out in Philadelphia and on the PA newsblogs.  The longer it runs, the more shallow Onorato looks.

(Un)Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato has withdrawn his challenge to Joe Hoeffel’s spot on the ballot. Challenging his rival’s right to get votes was a bad idea from the get-go and makes his campaign look totally foolish. Hoeffel played this right by vehemently calling out Onorato’s fear and cowardice. After all, Hoeffel is a huge threat in vote-rich Southeast PA and the best way to avoid a threat is to prevent it from ever being one in the first place.

Onorato’s statement, courtesy of PA2010.com, reads:

“Every competent campaign checks their opponents’ petitions and challenges any questionable ones to defend itself. Based on the obvious motive and opportunity for one particular candidate to remove the only other candidate who shares his base, one of my supporters filed a legitimate challenge. Since no other challenges were filed as were anticipated, we are pleased that the challenge has been withdrawn and that the candidate field hasn’t changed. “

This makes no sense whatsoever. They are pleased that it was withdrawn but they were right to do it in the first place? Onorato is pretty good at making himself look bad. We’ll see what his epic money advantage does for him if he keeps up these kinds of games.

Democratic candidate for Governor Dan Onorato has gone the low road. He is going after one of his challenger’s petitions.

Joe Hoeffel is the progressive in the race and recently came out way ahead in a poll of Southeastern Pennsylvania. This is great news, as the largest contingent of Democratic votes is in and around the Philly area. The poll found that Hoeffel is well-known in that area and is light-years ahead of Onorato.

How do you avoid trouble? Kick trouble off the ballot. Onorato’s campaign filed a ballot challenge. Hoeffel had 7,000 signatures and only 2,000 are needed, so I don’t see how he’ll get knocked off.

If this gets traction in the press, all it will do is make Onorato look like a bully and give Hoeffel a higher profile elsewhere.

Between Research 2000 and Quinnipiac, Specter is doing pretty decently in the polls.  The R2K poll, released yesterday, shows Specter up 6 points against Toomey and Quinnipiac poll showed a 7 point lead last week.

Regardless of polls, this state isn’t going to put in a Republican.  The registration advantage for Dems is too high and Toomey is too crazy.  Not to mention that PA voters recognize that Republicans are the reason that governing in this country has ground to a halt.  They obstruct everything.  A vote for Toomey is a vote for obstruction.  The evidence for this is that Toomey only leads Sestak by 3 points.  Sestak remains relatively unknown and, despite this, remains in striking distance if he wins the primary.

On the Governor’s side of things, Corbett is ahead of Onorato by only 6 points.  This is great news, since Onorato has low name recognition and after the primary, everybody will solidify behind the Democratic winner, which will inevitably provide a bounce.  Corbett’s race isn’t all that competitive, so he won’t be seeing much of a boost.  And if the Veon trials ends up with an acquittal, Corbett will look pretty bad, as that’ll be two corruption cases that he prosecuted wrongly.

One of the issues that faces the liberal world dominated by bloggers is which type candidate to support. Do we support a liberal progressive who is ideologically closer to our belief system? Or do we support somebody more likely to win against a Republican in the general election? It’s idealism versus pragmatism.

Frankly, I’m somewhere in the middle. If it weren’t for this, we wouldn’t have Jim Webb in Virginia, for example. I also tend to feel that authenticity encourages voters far more than idealism.

On that note, I am not sure what to do about the Democratic Primary this year, particularly in the Governor’s race.
Jack Wagner, who is the establishment favorite and has a lot of statewide name recognition due to his post as Auditor General, is too conservative for my tastes. He is anti-gay and he is anti-choice. Sure, that isn’t the be all and end all, but it’s important to note that on social issues, he is very regressive. He is obviously embarrassed by these positions, as well, since they don’t appear on his website, but do come up whenever he is questioned at a candidate forum.
But does his being more conservative make him more null against Tom Corbett?

I don’t think so. Why? Because Republicans aren’t voting for Wagner anyway. Democrats have this problem where they believe the best way to appeal broadly is to move to the right or to the center. I disagree, as this is inherently inauthentic. I’m not saying Wagner has moved in one direction or another as a result of his gubernatorial run, but I’m saying that Democratic candidates who are as generic as possible do not get votes in the end.

Dan Onorato isn’t much different than Wagner, except that he has more money. He is against same-sex marriage as well. Again, this is regressive. And, to me, it’s a gross display of ignorance. Our Constitution guarantees equal rights last I checked. Same-sex marriage shouldn’t even be a point of discussion, or contention. If straight people who love each other can get married, if there is equality in America, then gay people should, too.
Anthony Williams, the recent entrant who is also still running for his State Senate seat (which tells me he isn’t committed), has a disgusting set of ideas about education that make him a total no-no for me.

The only real progressive in the race is Joe Hoeffel. Aside from being liberal on social issues, he wants a single-payer health care system for Pennsylvania if (or when) the federal government fails to adequately reform the system.

So, I’m stuck. Who can win against Corbett?

I don’t know. But I don’t like generic Democrats representing me in General Elections.

Which is it? Idealism or pragmatism? Which candidate meets in the middle?

Four candidates for governor of PA participated in a forum sponsored by United Way of Pennsylvania yesterday in Harrisburg.  Who wasn’t there?  Tom Corbett.  Why not?  He must think that he doesn’t need to get his views out there.  He must think that he’s got this in the bag.

Good.

More exposure for his opponents.  If he remains this cocky, he’ll start falling behind.

Let him.

Dems Dan Onorato, Jack Wagner and Joe Hoeffel, along with Republican Sam Rohrer actually bothered to show up.  The issue discussed was funding to non-profits, which has been dramatically cut by Rendell in his budget.

I hate to sum it up this way, but, basically, the Democrats said they don’t like cutting aid to non-profits and that they won’t do it if they’re elected.  The Republican basically said non-profits need to strengthen themselves on their own.  Translation: too bad, deal with it.

For those interested, on Monday, March 29^th, the there will be another forum at the Scranton Cultural Center.  I encourage people to go and to learn where the candidates stand.  Maybe Corbett will even show up this time!  But probably not.  Only four of the six have committed to coming.  Stay home Corbett.  Let the real candidates campaign and educate voters.

The poll for the Senate race between Specter and Sestak reveals nothing really new. Sestak still has little name recognition, and Specter is still polling higher. Both lose to Toomey in the likely voter category. But there is time to gain ground, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that just yet.

The interesting one, though, is the Governor’s race. Dan Onorato, Jack Wagner, and Joe Hoeffel are all tied at 6%. That means Onorato’s big money advantage and Wagner’s institutional advantage haven’t really translated into increased support. Anthony Williams, the less-than-ideal Philly candidate, came in at 1%. Good.

Hoeffel is a progressive and a liberal and very unapologetic about it. See, I think voters like people who simply state what they think and fight for what they believe without any caveats. For example, Democrats and the President are seeing their poll numbers sink. I think it’s because they aren’t doing a damn thing because they are too afraid to flex muscle and push something through that’ll offend Republicans. Newsflash: When Democrats breathe, it offends Republicans. What Dems should do is just get some work done. That’s why their numbers tank, because they aren’t being true to themselves. They’re too afraid to.
That’s why I think Hoeffel has a good shot against Corbett, if Hoeffel is the nominee.

Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee was not able to rally behind a single candidate for Governor.

The Democratic establishment went overwhelmingly in favor of establishment man Jack Wagner, despite his lackluster fundraising.  Dan Onorato, who is the clear front runner with his millions in campaign funds, came in second.

Joe Hoeffel, the only true liberal, progressive in the race, was knocked out after the first round of voting.

The second round of voting looked like this:

Jack Wagner:  153 Votes
Dan Onorato: 76
Anthony Williams:  48

And 27 people abstained as a way of showing their support for Joe Hoeffel.

State Senator Anthony Williams should raise some eyebrows, because he hasn’t even officially declared for Governor.  He’s a very strong Philadelphia candidate.  Joe Hoeffel is from the Philly area, but not Philadelphia itself.  Williams rose eyebrows when he announced fundraising half a million dollars without even declaring.  He even raised more than Doherty and Hoeffel.  If he were to make it official, expect those numbers to jump.

Now, you may notice that even though Jack Wagner got 153 votes and yet didn’t get the endorsement.  That’s because an official endorsement requires a 2/3 majority.

This rule, proposed by Governor Ed Rendell a few years back, is valuable because if somebody were to get that 2/3 that demonstrates overwhelming party unity.  Democrats are very good at infighting, and this helps stave that off.

Jack Wagner and Dan Onorato currently don’t impress me, particularly after the PA Progressive Summit.  Hoeffel and Doherty were pretty progressive, but Doherty may as well be out of the race.  Hoeffel will have to pull off something big to close the gap.  Williams I know next to nothing about, except that unions rate him pretty highly, which is always good.