In Pa. governor's race, candidates run from being seen as an 'insider'

With the economy still in shambles and voters still in an angry mood, no one running for office this year wants to be seen as a political insider.

Not Democrat Dan Onorato.

Not Republican Tom Corbett.

Despite many years in politics and deep ties to his party's political establishment, each man is casting himself as the outsider candidate in the Nov. 2 election for Pennsylvania governor.

But doing so can present another challenge. The candidates also must demonstrate that they have the experience to be the state's chief executive. They must come off as "Mr. Outside, Mr. Inside."

Onorato, 49, has been in elected office for 18 consecutive years. He was a Pittsburgh City Council member and Allegheny County controller before twice being elected as the Allegheny County executive, first in 2003. His financial backers include many of the fund-raisers who backed Gov. Rendell's campaigns in 2002 and 2006.

But Onorato is putting his emphasis on things he has never done: He has never held a job in Harrisburg. That means, he says, that he isn't tainted by the cronyism and insider dealing that goes on under the Capitol dome.

"I think it's important to send somebody totally outside of Harrisburg to go up there and clean it up and change it," Onorato said on a recent visit to a nursing home in Northeast Philadelphia. "I don't have any ties up there. . . . It's a lot easier for me to change it."

Corbett's political life goes back to the 1980s. He was Western Pennsylvania coordinator for George H.W. Bush's 1988 presidential campaign, and was rewarded by Bush with an appointment as U.S. attorney for that part of the state. He helped coordinate Tom Ridge's 1994 run for governor, then was named by Ridge as acting attorney general. He was elected attorney general in 2004 and again in 2008.

But Corbett, 61, depicts himself as the true outsider because he has never held a legislative or executive branch position. He may run a state agency with 800 employees and a $86 million budget, but he sees himself as a watchdog on public corruption. His Bonusgate investigation has led to convictions or guilty pleas by 10 legislators and House staffers, and 13 other defendants await trial.

"I've spent my time addressing the culture of Harrisburg," he told reporters while on a recent food-plant tour in Lebanon County. "So you decide which one is the outsider. I think the people of Pennsylvania, in my reelection [as attorney general] in 2008, said I was the outsider. . . . And I think they'll say the same thing in 2010."

In their effort not to be seen as career politicians, Onorato and Corbett are engaged in a delicate political balancing act.

While seeking to demonstrate an outsider frame of mind, they also must show voters that they have the background and credentials that can come only from years of insider experience.

That's why a recent Onorato news release blasted Corbett in somewhat self-contradictory terms. It called him "an insider who doesn't have the experience . . . to lead Pennsylvania."

It's also why Corbett's first TV ad of the fall campaign, now airing across the state, touts his record as a prosecutor while contrasting him with old-school politicians. The ad literally features cigar smokers in back rooms.

"He's comparing smoke-filled rooms and the way politicians operate, and saying he's not part of that," said Gerald R. Shuster, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh who tracks Pennsylvania politics.

In Shuster's judgment, Corbett appears to have the edge over Onorato in casting himself as the outsider.

"They're career politicians, both of them," he said. "But when you're the attorney general, [voters] don't perceive that as being in politics. Obviously, it's an elected office. But we all know that perception is reality."

Also, Shuster said, Onorato is not quite the Harrisburg outsider he makes himself out to be. He said it took a lot of political wheeling and dealing on Onorato's part in 2007 to get the legislature to adopt a measure allowing Allegheny County to impose a tax on drinks poured in bars. The tax helped resolve a crisis in mass-transit funding.

"He spent a lot of time as county executive trying to wine and dine things," Shuster said.

Taking a position exactly opposite to Shuster's, another Pennsylvania college professor thinks that Onorato holds the edge in presenting himself as the outsider.

"It's pretty clear he's not been in statewide office, the way Corbett has," said Jim Hoefler, who teaches political science at Dickinson College.

Hoefler said that whatever Onorato has done as the chief elected official in the Pittsburgh region, he has had no control over actions in Harrisburg. He can't be blamed, he can't take credit.

"People in Pittsburgh don't tax people in Philadelphia," Hoefler said. "They don't tell people in Williamsport whether they can drill or not. They don't decide where the gambling casinos are going to go. So he clearly is the outsider."

The stakes in being not being seen as an insider - but rather as a sort of outsider-insider - could hardly be higher. Polls show that Pennsylvanians have rarely been so fed up with what's going on in Harrisburg.

A recent Franklin and Marshall College survey found that only 30 percent of voters believe the state was headed in the right direction and that just 30 percent approved of the job Rendell is doing.