Onorato wins 4-way contest for Democratic nomination for Pa. governor, Corbett gets GOP nod

Onorato, Corbett, are nominees for Pa. governor

PHILADELPHIA — Dan Onorato, a county executive from western Pennsylvania, handily won a four-way race for the Democratic nomination for governor Tuesday. State Attorney General Tom Corbett easily captured the Republican nomination.

With returns from more than three-quarters of the state’s 9,233 precincts, Onorato claimed 45 percent of the vote. His closest competitor had 26 percent or less: state Auditor General Jack Wagner of Pittsburgh, state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams of Philadelphia and Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel.

Corbett claimed 70 percent of the vote in his race against state Rep. Sam Rohrer.

Onorato, Allegheny County’s elected chief executive, and Corbett — both Pittsburgh-area residents — had been expected to prevail in the race to succeed Gov. Ed Rendell in the state’s highest elected office.

Corbett made his final pitches for support at polling places in the Pittsburgh area Tuesday. Onorato had similar plans, but they were in limbo after his 13-year-old son was hospitalized with apparent appendicitis, a campaign spokesman said.

Rendell, a Democrat, is barred by the state constitution from serving beyond his second term, which ends in January.

Onorato, at 49 the youngest of the gubernatorial candidates, was the best-financed. He carried forward $6.5 million from past campaigns and early fundraising for his 2010 bid, and added about $2 million this year — enabling him to put up TV ads before any other candidate and build name recognition.

A product of Allegheny County’s rough-and-tumble politics, Onorato is an accountant and lawyer who was a Pittsburgh city councilor and county controller before winning the county’s top elected job in 2003.

Corbett, 60, entered the campaign with built-in name recognition from his ongoing prosecution of corruption in the Legislature. He previously served U.S. attorney for western Pennsylvania and was appointed by then-Gov. Tom Ridge to serve as state attorney general from 1995 to 1997.