Clout: Dan Onorato behind in money race for Pennsylvania governor
YESTERDAY WAS a good news/bad news kind of day for Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, the Democratic nominee for governor.
YESTERDAY WAS a good news/bad news kind of day for Allegheny County Executive
Dan Onorato
, the Democratic nominee for governor.
Onorato raised slightly more money than state Attorney General Tom Corbett, the Republican nominee, from May 4 to June 7, according to campaign finance reports filed yesterday.
But Onorato, who had to fend off three Democratic rivals in the May 18 primary election, including the well-funded state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, of Philadelphia, is now well behind Corbett in the money race.
Corbett, who easily defeated underfunded Berks County state Rep. Sam Rohrer in the Republican primary, raised $1.4 million from May 4 to June 7 and has $3.4 million in the bank.
Onorato raised $1.6 million during that time and now has a little more than $1 million in the bank.
Onorato, who spent millions on television ads in the primary, will need to raise more cash to introduce himself to voters ahead of the Nov. 2 general election.
A Quinnipiac University poll released five days before the primaries showed that 49 percent of the respondents had a favorable opinion of Corbett while 51 percent didn't know enough about Onorato to offer an opinion.
That poll showed Corbett leading Onorato, 43-37 percent.
Mariano wins a round in court
Former City Councilman/current prison inmate Rick Mariano may move in October from a federal lockup in Lewisburg to a halfway house, and he might get $65,000 in spending money to ease the transition, thanks to a ruling this week by Common Pleas Judge Idee C. Fox.
Fox ruled that the city pension board improperly confiscated Mariano's pension-fund contributions, totaling $65,438, after he was convicted of mail fraud, money-laundering, bribery and conspiracy in 2006.
The city had a right, even a duty, to seek reimbursement from Mariano for $82,000 in tax dollars, used to provide him with legal representation before he was indicted, the judge said.
But the city should have filed a civil claim against Mariano instead of going after his pension money, Fox ruled.
State law allows a government agency to seize a convicted employee's pension contributions only when it suffers a monetary loss from the employee's criminal activity, the judge said - not the situation with Mariano, who took about $29,000 in bribes from businessmen in his district.
Officials in the Nutter administration declined to comment on the prospect of further legal action.
Knocking on heaven's door
Ralph Wynder, leader of the 38th Democratic Ward, declined a nomination last week for another term, stepping down after 18 years to move in what he called a more "spiritual direction."
Wynder, who said he hopes to be baptized next year as a Jehovah's Witness, has been contemplating an end to his political career almost since the last time he was nominated as ward leader four years ago.
"They kind of remain neutral on politics," Wynder said of the Jehovah's Witnesses. "They believe not so much in the kingdom of man as in the kingdom of God."
Wynder spent a lot of time knocking on neighborhood doors in his four decades as a community activist. He let out a good laugh when we noted that Jehovah's Witnesses are well-known for knocking on doors to spread the word about their religion.
"I've got a lot of experience going into what I'll be doing," Wynder told us. "I think this is just work on a higher level."
Quotable
"A sizable portion of his political platform will be to reform the stagnant and ineffective Republican City Committee, along with energizing, expanding, and developing a new Republican base here in Philadelphia so we finally have a viable two-party system in the City of Brotherly Love." - Mike Cibik, leader of the GOP's 5th Ward, announcing that one of his committeemen, John Featherman, would run in the Republican primary for mayor next year.
Staff writer Bob Warner contributed to this report.
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