October 5, 2010
Tom Infield and Angela Couloumbis
Onorato Stuck in Rendell's Shadow
Ed Rendell’s appearance during the PA governor election campaign ironically is placing democrat candidate, Dan Onorato in a bad light. Will Rendell come to the realization that by getting involved he is hurting Onorato in the election?
Recently Onorato’s opponent, Republican Tom Corbett, has been attacking Rendell and his administration; supporting TV ads that accuse Rendell of wasteful spending, raising taxes, and doing nothing about job loss. Obviously, irritated by the allegations Rendell said, "Tom Corbett should start trying to run against Dan Onorato, not against me" at a conference in Harrisburg. In the ads examples of wasteful spending mentioned “$40,000 to move a statue from the governor's residence; $45 million to renovate Capitol offices; and $10 million for a new library on the campus of Philadelphia University named after U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter” but Onorato challenges Corbett’s accusations saying that the $4 million for the library was appropriate.
But this did not bother Corbett, on the contrary Corbett that thought the governor’s complaints gave him advantage. Corbett believes that Rendell is only drawing attention to himself and is not letting Onorato make “his own identity before Election Day.” Voters will be too focused on Rendell’s flaws in government to realize that Onorato is a different person and will not necessary make the same mistakes as Rendell.
Although Rendell is still quite popular among his home town of Philadelphia, getting a 52% approval rating, it is not the same story in other regions of Pennsylvania. For the same poll conducted by Franklin and Marshall his approval rating was “23% in central Pa, 26% in the southwest, 29% in the northwest, and 30% in the northeast.”
Corbett is milking this tactic by attacking Rendell from many angles and sources. For yet again ad Corbett says that, “Onorato loves raising taxes. . . . Onorato is now joined with Rendell in calling for a massive Pennsylvania energy tax that will kill jobs and drive up utility bills" but this is not the whole truth. It is true that Onorato thinks that applying natural gas drilling tax is a good idea, but he does not agree that the tax revenue should put be into the state’s general budget but rather want to use it only on “environmental protection.” Corbett also talks about a tax targeting county families and how it is the “largest tax increase in history.” This statement is again a fact obscured, because Onorato did apply a tax but it was on alcoholic drinks and that it would affect “county families only if they drank in bars.”
Even though it may seem as though Rendell’s presence is only harming Onorato’s campaign, Rendell has actually been beneficial. Rendell has increase Onorato’s campaign by hundreds of thousands of dollars. And Rendell’s term as governor is not over so he is still trying to cross out many tasks on his to-do list “in a few months’ time.”
Even so, Rendell’s involvement in Onorato’s campaign is more heavily outweighed by negatives reactions, than positive. Therefore I believe Rendell place in Onorato’s campaign should be minimal.
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