As I was running errands yesterday, I couldn’t help but notice a very lonely Dan Onorato for Governor sign sitting in a median – no owner, no signs of friends posted immediately around it. And I got to thinking, what should a candidate like Dan Onorato do?
Last month, the County Executive had a whooping $3.3 million in the bank. When you consider we have one of the most expensive media markets in the country, and the rest of the state is spread out among a bunch of different markets, that doesn’t go terribly far in buying television advertising when you factor in all the other normal expenses in a campaign – including the “street money” to buy votes in Philly.
His opponent, Attorney General Tom Corbett, reported $7.7 million on hand. To top that off, in every single poll, he’s trouncing Onorato from 7-15 points.
So, Onorato clearly doesn’t have state recognition or voter approval, even after running a general campaign since he won a contested primary in March that gave him lots of coverage over Corbett and his lack of a serious primary. He doesn’t have enough enthusiasm to rally the base to open their wallets. Unless we end up with a live boy/dead girl scenario, this race is in the bag.
With that in mind, do you spend the money in the areas where you need high Democratic turnout to have any shot of winning? Or, do you effectively give up on the Governor’s mansion and spend in areas where you are polling poorly in an attempt to simply build name recognition for a future run for some other statewide office? What would you suggest for Onorato?
I don’t live in PA, so I went to Bing to find out a little about Onorato. From his website, no indication of party affiliation. But since he is promising to fix every problem of the human condition with government money, I infer he is a democrat or hardline communist.
What would be best for him, is to sit on his money until 2012, when the Republicans will have failed to keep any of their promises and voters will be choosing between Tea Party Candidates and Democrats.
I live in PA and wasn’t sure which state you were talking about until I saw Corbett’s name. Who’s Onorato? And does his wife (if he’s married) know what he’s doing in his spare time? Running for Governor, you say?
If I were him I’d do something about those ominous eyebrows…they are frightening!
I will not be voting for him in either case but at least his TV ads would stop giving me the creeps.
I would recommend that he use some of the money to move to Massachusetts, Illinois or California where he may actually have a chance of getting elected to something higher than a county position.
Maybe next year in Pittsburgh at the NRA convention we can wear t-shirts that say, “Dan who?”
Heh. I just realized that next year’s convention will mean we all get to suffer his infamous drink taxes. I’m tempted to bring my own beer, wine, liquor & mixers just as a “screw you” to the county. I wonder how many flasks can fit in my largest purse.
Invest the $3.3M. Finding a consistent 10% ROI should be easy, giving a comfortable no-effort $300,000/yr income for life.
To wit: get out while the gettin’s good.
I just laughed since Onorato launched a new commercial today telling voters that he is actually on the ballot this November.
I would tell Onorato: NJ and you, perfect together.
Actually, we have more than our fair share of liberals over here in the gulag, so you can keep him. :)