Guv hopefuls sit & chat, in a 'nonpartisan' way

PENNSYLVANIA Attorney General Tom Corbett and Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato were in town yesterday to address the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity during a nonpartisan gubernatorial forum at the Freedom Theatre, on Broad Street.

"Nonpartisan," as in, Mayor Nutter warmed up the crowd for Onorato, a fellow Democrat, by ripping into Corbett's education proposal, cracking jokes about "crazy" tea-partiers and urging everyone to support President Obama's agenda.

"I'm not suggesting how people should vote," Nutter said, drawing chuckles from the audience.

Hey, it's Philly. That's about as nonpartisan as it gets.

Onorato and Corbett, the Republican front-runner with a dwindling lead, did not appear onstage together. Instead, they sat down for informal question-and-answer sessions with Daily News columnist Elmer Smith and Fox 29 anchor Sheinelle Jones.

The candidates agreed that creating jobs would be their top priority and vowed to have a diverse administration that would keep them connected to the African-American community.

They both stressed the importance of early childhood education and reiterated their support for some form of "school choice" that would enable certain parents to pull their kids out of failing public schools and enroll them elsewhere using tax dollars.

But Corbett, who went first, sought to position himself as the more fiscally conservative candidate to replace Gov. Rendell.

"We won't necessarily be able to guarantee continued increase in the expenditures," Corbett said, when asked about school funding. "We're killing jobs the more we tax, so we've got to get control of our spending."

Onorato said that he supports additional education spending to address disparities among districts.

"If we don't properly fund public education at the state level, all they're going to do is push it down to the school-district level," he said. "They're going to raise your property taxes."

The candidates have starkly different positions on gun issues. Onorato, endorsed this week by the gun-violence-prevention group CeaseFire PA, got applause when he said that he'd close the so-called Florida loophole, which allows Pennsylvanians to obtain a Florida concealed-carry permit that is recognized in Pennsylvania.

He called it "ridiculous" that the Legislature voted this month to expand gun-owners' rights.

Corbett, backed by the National Rifle Association, was not asked the gun question, but has previously rejected the term "loophole," and said that Florida's permit requirements are strict enough, so additional legislation is unnecessary.

Nutter warned the audience that Philadelphia would lose some clout when Rendell, the city's former mayor, leaves office. Corbett and Onorato are from western Pennsylvania.

"You can best believe that whoever is successful will, because of the pressures back home, have to spend a little more time and attention and money in that part of the state," Nutter said.