General Comparison of Candidates for Pennsylvania Governor

There seems to be a lot of interest in finding a comparison between the two candidates for governor so let me see if I can supply it. (full disclosure: the blogger is a Democrat).

Republican Tom Corbett does not want to put any tax on marcellus shale extraction; Democrat Dan Onorato wants an impact tax on the natural gas that companies extract, which will bring Pennsylvania in line with other gas-producing states. Both want to reduce business taxes. Corbett calls for a 10% reduction in state government; Onorato calls for 20%. As County Executive of Allegheny County Onorato reduced the number of elected row offices and consolidated 911 call centers to cut government spending. Onorato calls for campaign finance reform; Corbett does not. Onorato calls for term limits; Corbett does not. Both call for reform of perks and unvouchered expenses. You can read more on the policy statements on their campaign web sites.

The Pittsburgh area, where Onorato has been Allegheny County executive, has not had a property tax increase in years, and the unemployment level is lower than that of the state. Corbett is the state attorney general. He has filed charges against some legislators in the bonusgate cases. In this process he used subpeona power to try to find out who owned a twitter account that had been critical of him.

As for campaign donations, Corbett has taken sizable donations from the natural gas and drilling industries (the marcellus shale people). Onorato has received a lot of union money. Both received support from national party organizations such as the Republican Governors Association and the Democratic Governors Assocation.

You are encouraged to visit their sites yourself and look at their finance reports at campaignfinance.state.pa.us