Onorato at home in labor crowds

For eight years, Philadelphians have had one of their own in the governor's mansion. Ed Rendell, the former mayor and district attorney, has been a dominant figure in the region since the 1970s.

Who, then, is this Pittsburgher, Dan Onorato, who wants to succeed him as governor? Onorato, the Allegheny County executive, has had to run ads holding up a placard that spells out his name for Philadelphia-area TV viewers.

If he is to beat Republican Tom Corbett on Nov. 2, Onorato will need a large outpouring of votes from the state's largest Democratic region. That could be a tall order in a metropolis that often seems as provincial as the state's tiniest hamlet when it comes to picking its candidates.

But this son of a machinist and a teacher won't lack for trying. An energetic 49-year-old with two decades' experience as an elected official in the Pittsburgh area, Onorato has been relentless in courting the state's bigger city, 300 miles to the east.

Since winning the four-way Democratic primary in May, he has spent several days each week here, raising money, holding news conferences, and meeting voters. His most distinctive physical trait - his heavy black eyebrows - has helped Philadelphians to finally start recognizing him on the street.

His one big advantage, in an election season that oddsmakers say generally favors Republicans, is his party's nearly 2-1 voter-registration edge in the five-county region, including a 6-1 edge in Philadelphia.

"I am standing in the part of the state that is going to determine who the next governor is," Onorato said recently inside the wood-paneled basement meeting room of a steelworkers union hall in Linwood, close to I-95 near the Delaware line.

The occasion was a labor rally for Onorato and other Democratic candidates. After the massive get-out-the-vote drives that unions held for Barack Obama in 2008, some electioneering fatigue may have settled in.

Leo Gerard, president of the 850,000-member United Steelworkers, tried to pump up about 80 people by saying: "This is a turning point. This is a crucial year."

The rows of metal folding chairs were less than half-occupied. True, it was a Friday afternoon, and the notorious Delaware County traffic was already backing up.

Onorato, in a crisp white shirt and tie, seemed at ease in the union crowd. His father, Geno, worked at an Allis-Chalmers plant till he was laid off during the steel industry's 1970s collapse. His mother taught Catholic grade school. He often mentions that he still lives in a working-class neighborhood, Pittsburgh's North Side, in a brick-and-siding house with a basketball hoop by the garage.

Michael Mattioni, a Philadelphia lawyer who has known him since they were in law school together at the University of Pittsburgh, said Onorato had always loved to argue about issues.

Classmates "enjoyed the verbal sparring they did with him," Mattioni said. "Because he was quick, and he always had a thought, and he said what he believed."

Onorato is proud of his heritage, Mattioni said, and would consider it an honor to become the first Italian American governor - and the first Pennsylvania State University graduate.

The candidate didn't tell any of that to the union crowd. He seldom reveals much of his inner self on the campaign trail.

Instead, in his usual, no-nonsense delivery, he fast-talked his way through a list of what he said he had done as an elected official.

As Allegheny County executive, he helped lead a drive to eliminate several row offices. He trimmed the payroll by 10 percent, partly by consolidating five 911 centers into one.

The next governor is sure to confront budget gaps widened to canyons by the recession. When Allegheny County faced a steep deficit, said Maxwell E.P. King, a former president of the Heinz Endowments in Pittsburgh and former Inquirer editor, Onorato had devised "within days" an array of cuts, buyouts, and early retirements.

King came away believing that Onorato, when confronted with a problem, "was going to focus on it and be very, very proactive about it."

Often, when campaigning in the east, Onorato has to explain what a county executive does, and how his seven years' experience - plus four as county controller and eight as a Pittsburgh councilman - qualify him to be governor.

He compared himself to Philadelphia's mayor. Michael Nutter represents 1.5 million people, Onorato about 1.3 million, in Pittsburgh and 129 surrounding municipalities.

He told the union members that he had worked to attract businesses to his county and keep others from leaving.

Allegheny Ludlum is building a $1.2 billion steel plant in Brackenridge, U.S. Steel a $1 billion plant in Clairton. Westinghouse is doubling its workforce to 4,000 in nearby Butler County, in an initiative that Onorato supported. And Dick's Sporting Goods is putting up a million-square-foot warehouse near the Pittsburgh airport.

In the back of the hall, George Piasecki stood with arms folded next to a table stacked with pizza boxes.

At age 50, he has worked for 20 years at the Congoleum Corp. flooring plant in nearby Trainer. He is president of his union local.

Piasecki likes Onorato and thinks he would be a fine governor. Union members in the region are still getting to know him. But he comes with strong recommendations from their steelworker brethren in the Pittsburgh area.

What does Piasecki want from an Onorato administration? "I want him to create some good jobs - some clean, green-energy jobs - and put people back to work."

Corbett has disparaged Onorato's claims of helping Pittsburgh's economy. In a sharply negative TV ad, the Republican says: "This is the real story on Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato. . . . Onorato's excessive tax increases forced small businesses to close, while larger employers left the region. And under his leadership, a tragic 21,000 more people were added to the unemployment lines."

When he first saw the ad in a Philadelphia hotel room, Onorato said, "I hardly recognized myself."

The ad gives the impression that he raised property taxes. In fact, he did not. The "excessive tax increases" refers to a levy Onorato imposed - on drinks in bars.

The drink tax provided funding for mass transit in Allegheny County. It started at 10 percent but has been reduced to 7. Many bar owners remain among Onorato's staunchest foes and say the tax did drive away business.

As evidence that large employers left the Pittsburgh region, the Corbett ad shows headlines about USAirways' slashing its job rolls at the airport and Westinghouse's leaving Monroeville for Butler County.

It's true that USAirways ceased using Pittsburgh as a hub. But Onorato said the airline had made its decision under the previous county executive, a Republican who's a key Corbett supporter.

Sure, Onorato said, he supported Westinghouse's move to Butler County. Better that than see those jobs moved to North Carolina.

As for the jobless rate, Allegheny County has indeed lost ground. Onorato has made a big point of saying it remains below state and national rates.

That issue was on his mind during a recent stop at Maris Grove, an upscale retirement community in Glen Mills.

"This race is about jobs - who has the best ideas about getting Pennsylvanians back to work," Onorato told several dozen people, mostly in their 70s and 80s, who had gathered over glasses of merlot in the clubhouse.

To the grandparents, Onorato came across as the earnest, clean-cut achiever who was not only a lawyer but also a CPA.

He seemed to enjoy bantering about the difficulty of obtaining a driver's license or registration in Pennsylvania, and said it was the first time such concerns had come up in his months of campaigning. Like a dutiful son, he promised to look into them.

The residents also wanted to know what he'd do for schools. He said he intended to increase state aid for prekindergarten schooling. He pledged to continue a plan launched by Rendell to gradually increase funding for basic public education.

That answer pleased Jack Bell, a retired Sears store planner and former Aldan borough councilman. "It's a fact of life," said Bell, 74. "If you want to serve the people properly, there's times when you have to raise taxes - or cut services."

School aid is among the few promises of more state spending Onorato has made. In some ways, he has been forced to fight on Corbett's turf. Corbett has pledged not to raise or impose any taxes, and that has become the centerpiece of his campaign.

Onorato has tried to pierce this promise by pointing to a moment in a debate when Corbett said he would consider increasing the money deducted from workers' paychecks to shore up the state's unemployment compensation fund.

Corbett has said it is a "contribution," not a tax. Onorato calls that laughable.

Onorato said he wanted to impose just one new tax: a levy on natural gas being taken from the Marcellus Shale gas fields, which cover three quarters of Pennsylvania.

A natural-gas tax has been debated and delayed in Harrisburg. If it isn't resolved, it will be left for the next governor to deal with.

Onorato casts it as a populist issue. Drillers' trucks are damaging upstate roads and bridges, he says. There's also a risk of environmental harm, he argues.

The tax should go toward environmental protection, he says. Corbett, by opposing a tax, is catering to industry at public expense, he says.

"I am not running for governor for the gas companies," he said at a late-September picnic that his campaign hosted in Chester. "I am running for the people of Pennsylvania."

Fine, said Ruth Minor, 66, sitting under a white tent at James Leake Plaza. But Chester has no gas wells. What she wanted to know was this: Will Onorato help get a supermarket for her neighborhood?

All politics, as they say, is local.

Onorato, in khakis and a white dress shirt, spoke privately with Minor for a long time. She said later that he had listened patiently, and that he had promised to "talk to Rendell" about a state capital grant to help spur plans for a market.

Onorato told her, she said, that he had grown up in a working-class community and still lived there with his wife and three children. As Allegheny County executive, he told her, he had helped poor communities get supermarkets.

"I think I'll vote for him," Minor said. "He understands about helping communities."

Age: 49. Born Feb. 5, 1961,

in Pittsburgh.

Residence: North Side of Pittsburgh.

Education: Pittsburgh's North Catholic High School. B.S. in accounting, Pennsylvania State University, 1983. J.D., University of Pittsburgh School of Law, 1989.

Professional experience: Certified public accountant at Grant Thornton, 1984-86. Associate at the law firm Rich, Fluke, Tishman & Rich, where he started as a clerk in 1987.

Political experience: Pittsburgh city councilman, 1991-99. Allegheny County controller, 2000-04. Allegheny County executive, 2004-present.

Party: Democratic.

Family: Wife, Shelly; three children.

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