About the candidates: Dan Onorato
The candidate: Dan Onorato, 49, a Democrat from Western Pennsylvania, now is Allegheny County executive. He's running for governor against Republican Tom Corbett.
Onorato was an accountant - who had paid his own way through Penn State - and newly minted lawyer in Pittsburgh in 1991 when he ran for City Council and won a surprise victory against an entrenched incumbent. In 1999, he ran for Allegheny Council Controller, campaigning against government waste.
In 2003, he ran for Allegheny County executive; according to his campaign Web site, he pushed for Allegheny County and the City of Pittsburgh to combine services, to consolidate political offices and reduce the county's payroll.
He makes a point of the fact that he led the charge to cut county property taxes twice.
Onorato also says he helped to push the development of new industry in Pittsburgh, helping to turn around that city's image of industrial decline by redeveloping brownfields, developing near Pittsburgh's airport and growing skills for high-tech jobs.
Onorato is married to Shelly Onorato.
Onorato's platform:
Onorato has campaigned on reforming Pennsylvania's government and making it more efficient, as well as growing higher-tech jobs.
His platform includes:
Marcellus Shale: Enact a 'severance tax' on all natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania in line with extraction tax rates of other states.
High Quality Jobs: Focus lending and investment in research institutions performing industry sponsored research to encourage high-tech entrepreneurs and spin-offs.
Small Business: Reduce corporate business taxes and simplify regulatory agencies.
Clean up Harrisburg: Implement an aggressive ethics agenda eliminating waste in the state government.
Go Green: Invest in green energy, support local and organic agriculture, and maximize return from PA natural resources.
Key Endorsements:
Labor groups including the Pennsylvania State Education Association, and the Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters
Former US President Bill Clinton, who has campaigned for Onorato
U.S. Representative Patrick Murphy
Mayors and county executives in Western Pennsylvania, including Allegheny County Council President Richard Fitzgerald
-Biographical information from the candidate's publications. Platform information developed by the Committee of Seventy.