send to a friend | print | comment

Is Onorato too conservative for the party, or just right for 2010?

As Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato pursues his party’s nomination for governor, he confronts a political challenge about which there may be little he can do: Rightly or wrongly, he is viewed by many progressive, southeast Democrats as too conservative to be the party’s standard-bearer in 2010.

It is this sentiment that has led more Democrats, like Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel, to consider entering the race.

“I believe there’s got to be southeastern Pennsylvania progressives in these state races in 2010,” Hoeffel told pa2010.com last month, not mentioning Onorato by name but clearly having the Democratic front-runner in mind.

On the flip side is the argument that Democrats with a more socially-conservative bent are exactly what has led the party to expand its appeal on the local and national levels in recent election cycles. Senator Bob Casey in 2006 captured the seat long held by Republicans in part by appealing to independents and Republicans as a pro-life Democrat.

“I think for a statewide election, his policies are well positioned,” Muhlenberg College political scientist Chris Borick said of Onorato. “As we’ve seen with a candidate like Bob Casey, taking [social] issues away from Republicans in a general election is a good technique. Of course, he has to pass through the gates of a Democratic primary, where most voters are pro-choice and more inclined to seek gun-control efforts.”

And any dissatisfaction with Onorato’s political ideology may be nullified by the fact that one of his main opponents, state Auditor General Jack Wagner, is considered just as conservative as Onorato, if not more so. On fiscal issues, he is very arguably to the right of Onorato, having publicly opposed the notorious drink-tax enacted by the county executive, as well as the personal income tax hike pushed this year by Gov. Ed Rendell.

In a recent interview, Onorato said his stances on social issues were more personal than political, not the kind of views that would affect his governance.

“As a Roman Catholic, I am opposed to abortion,” he said. “As a governor, I would be in favor of continuing full funding for family planning. I don’t see that the current state law would ever change, and that issue is a non-issue.”

He said his support for gun rights was rooted in the ethos of western Pennsylvania, but that violence in his home base of Pittsburgh has made clear the need to find a middle ground between gun rights advocates and those advocating tighter controls.

“I come from an area where many of the Democrats own guns,” he said. “It’s part of the culture. But I also know we need comprehensive reform to deal with the crime issues we have in our city.”

And he said efforts to paint him as outside the party’s mainstream ideology were both unfounded and a sign that his critics are already attacking him months before the primary.

“I wouldn’t concede any of those issues to anyone at this point in time,” Onorato said. “I think it’s interesting, this early on, that people are already launching negative attacks. People in Pennsylvania don’t want to see that.”

Regardless, in a party where a significant majority of the votes come from the more liberal Philadelphia region, a large part of Onorato’s primary campaign could be devoted to assuaging progressives that he’s on their side.

Attacks from his left flank have already flared up. Leaders in the gay community accuse him of being a “follower,” not a leader, on issues important to them. And it’s not just social issues that put Onorato in the liberal cross hairs—the Sierra Club recently hit him for inaction on air quality measures.

In an interview before he bowed out of the governor’s race earlier this summer, Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham articulated the progressive argument against Onorato.

“Look, Dan’s a pro-life, pro-gun, conservative Democrat out of western Pennsylvania,” Cunningham said. “At the end of the day, 68 percent of the Democratic primary vote is in about 10 or 11 counties in eastern Pennsylvania. About 60 percent of Democratic primary voters are women, about 75 percent of Democratic primary voters are self-described pro-choice. At the end of the day, the democrats will have to ultimately decide if this is all about money, or if people are going to stop and say we need to have a process that may create a candidate that represents the majority of Democratic values. that’s been the winning strategy for Democratic candidacies statewide.”

In the end, Onorato’s growing support among some southeast Democratic leaders could ultimately overcome any concerns about his liberal bona fides. He has already been endorsed by state Senator Daylin Leach (D-Montgomery), who is widely seen as a leader on gay rights issues. And while Gov. Ed Rendell has said he will stay neutral in the primary, he is increasingly seen as supporting Onorato, and may end up more publicly backing him as time goes on, if only tacitly.

G. Terry Madonna, a pollster and political scientist at Franklin & Marshall College, said Onorato’s political advantages would likely outweigh any policy positions that turn off liberal Democrats.

” I see him more in the Casey mold,” Madonna said. “Winning elections in Pennsylvania, being pro-life and pro-gun is not outside of the pale. Once you get outside the Philadelphia suburbs, many of the democrats are Casey and Reagan Democrats.”

Onorato said his time in public office would ultimately speak for itself.

“I run races with the assumption that I can convice voters on my experience and my track record,” he said.

August 18, 2009 at 9:45 am

--Dan Hirschhorn

Tags: Dan Onorato, Jack Wagner

comments

comments [12] | post a comment