“Ad campaign for governor reveals faults on both sides”

Ad campaign for governor reveals faults on both sides

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 09:49 PM PDT

In Pennsylvania's race for governor, the ads haven't approached the volume or stridency of the Senate contenders' crossfire, but both sides have used the airwaves for predictably negative portrayals of their opponents.

Attorney General Tom Corbett has concentrated on takedowns of Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato's record on economic development and taxes. Mr. Onorato has reached back into Mr. Corbett's recent and distant past to question his fitness to make the leap from prosecutor to governor. Both have made some claims that strain accuracy or relevance to their election debate.

"While it's been largely negative on both sides, these ads don't rise to the level of negativity we've seen, certainly in the Senate and especially in some of the congressional races out there," said Chris Borick, a political scientist and pollster on the faculty of Muhlenberg College.

Mr. Corbett's indictment of the Onorato record includes some accurate charges, some that are accurate but misleading, and some that are clearly not supported by the facts.

In one ad that aired widely in recent weeks, Mr. Corbett challenges the Onorato record on property taxes and development. As headlines flash across the screen, the ad blames Mr. Onorato for the USAirways downsizing at Pittsburgh International Airport. It suggests further that Westinghouse, the nuclear power manufacturer, left the region on his watch.

The slow-motion departure of USAirways actually began during the tenure of Jim Roddey, an ally of the Republican candidate. Neither county executive, however, has pointed fingers at the other for the airline's decision. When they began their 2003 campaign against one another, they made a public pact not to politicize the issue. Both have faulted the airline for what they characterized as a series of unmet promises in negotiations with the county. Neither suggested that the other could or should have done anything differently on the issue.

It is true that Westinghouse moved its headquarters from Allegheny County during the Onorato administration, but its decision to choose a new location in Cranberry was in fact supported by Mr. Onorato and widely regarded as a development victory for the region in that the thriving worldwide firm did not move to another state.

In fact, Vaughn Gilbert, Westinghouse's manager of public relations and marketing, made several phone calls to the Corbett campaign, unsuccessfully seeking to have the Westinghouse reference pulled from the commercial. Mr. Gilbert emphasized that he was not taking a position in the governor's race. He said, however, that he was concerned by the inaccurate suggestion that Westinghouse had left the region when it actually had significantly expanded its local investment and employment after the local development effort in which Mr. Onorato played a role.

The ad is no longer running, but Kevin Harley, Mr. Corbett's spokesman said that it was not pulled because the Westinghouse executive's complaints but because it had run its planned course in the normal rotation of campaign ads. In a campaign appearance Friday, Mr. Corbett said he stood by the ad.

"Dan Onorato is not the executive of Butler County," he said.

Another Corbett ad charges that Mr. Onorato "broke his promise to cut property taxes. Now they are among the highest in the nation."

That's partially true and partially misleading. When he ran for executive against Republican Jim Roddey, Mr. Onorato said he'd cut property taxes by 10 percent. That didn't happen. But Mr. Onorato has argued that he made a down payment on that pledge in persuading a Democratic majority on Allegheny County Council to increase a property tax homestead exemption after he was elected but before he was sworn in. It is true that Allegheny County residents pay relatively high property taxes, but that includes school district and municipal taxes beyond the county executive's control. Mr. Onorato defends his record on property taxes, noting that he has held the line on county tax rates while -- until bowing to a court order last year -- resisting property tax reassessment that would boost tax bills at the county, municipal and school district levels.

A more recent ad faults the Democrat for supporting the controversial Port Authority light rail tunnel under the Monongahela River. While continuing to support the project, Mr. Onorato points out that the tunnel was not his idea and that to abandon it would have meant the loss of hundreds of millions in federal dollars. The original planning for the tunnel, in fact, was well under way under the preceding administration of Mr. Roddey, the man who introduced Mr. Corbett at the rally in which he launched his bid for governor. Mr. Roddey said he originally supported the project, although he said he changed his position on it as its cost escalated and its route was moved away from the convention center.

Mr. Corbett dismissed Mr. Onoarato's defense on the tunnel issue, insisting that the county would have been better off rejecting the federal money that supported it.

The Corbett campaign also has blamed the Democrat for the fact that the unemployment rolls in his county have grown by more than 20,000. That is true, but it is also true that Allegheny County's unemployment rate has remained lower than the state's or the nation's throughout the ravages of the recession.

The Onorato campaign has not aired the same volume of negative ads as its opponent, but it has resorted to some deep political archaeology to unearth one oft-repeated criticism of the GOP nominee.

Offering a contrast to his hold-the-line record on property taxes, Mr. Onorato has assailed Mr. Corbett for a 1988 vote, during a brief stint as a Shaler Township commissioner, in which he supported an increase from 10 mills to 12 mills in the local property tax.

While a larger share of Mr. Onorato's current commercials are either biographical or rebuttals of Mr. Corbett's attacks, one negative ad quotes a misstep by Mr. Corbett in which he said that many recipients of unemployment compensation were shunning employment in favor of their government checks.

The Onorato ad, centered on a recording of Mr. Corbett's statement, is accurate and the words quoted are not taken out of context. Mr. Corbett has long since backtracked from that statement. He has said repeatedly, including in several debate appearances, that he believes unemployed Pennsylvanians do in fact want jobs. He has repeatedly contended he was merely quoting the anecdotal remarks he had heard from some businessmen.

Politics Editor James O'Toole: jotoole@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1562.

First published on October 23, 2010 at 12:00 am

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