New DailyKos Poll and Analysis on PA Senate and Governor Races

[JPZenger]

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/3/12/845403/-PA-Sen,-Gov:-Specter-surging

[blue neen]

1. It's hard to decide who to support in the primary for Governor.

It would be nice to see Hoeffel do some campaigning here in the SW part of the state.

[Cosmocat]

2. I know there are some people in WPa ...

who seem to have a major issue with Oranato, but I have seen these folks a few times, once in person, and Oranato is the guy I like the best.

Wagner can win the job, and is the PROTOTYPE politician, glad hander, smiler, the generic talk, the gray statesmanlike looks, but this is the type that I personally have no time for if given a choice ...

Oranato comes across as a guy who wants to DO THE JOB, Wagner as a guy who simply wants the job ...

PA has some MAJOR issues, I think the best guy to shake things up and maybe make some real substantive changes is Oranato ...

[blue neen]

3. Thanks for the info.

I appreciate the feedback and will take into consideration the points that you made. :)

[femmocrat]

4. His name is spelled: Onorato.

Guess he doesn't have much "name recognition"!!

[JPZenger]

5. Onorato Has Run 2nd Largest County in PA

I like a governor with proven management experience and financial experience. Onorato has successfully run the second most populated county in PA.

In comparison, in Allentown, several years ago, Afflerbach was elected mayor after many years in the State legislature. He had no idea how to run anything, and it was a complete disaster.

It also will be helpful for the Dems to run a candidate like Onorato who can avoid blame for all the messes in Harrisburg.

[demodonkey]

6. Onorato wanted DIEBOLD as his first choice in voting machines....

Dan Onorato apparently talked to a lot of vendors and then decided on Diebold Direct Recording Electronic voting machines, despite citizen protests and the advice of MANY computer scientists from Carnegie-Mellon and Pitt telling him that voter-marked paper ballots and optical scanners were better for the county because they were much safer, cheaper, and had a longer lifespan.

Through a fierce fight, the local citizens were at least able to get the horrible Diebold machines off the table, but beyond that Dan forced the Allegheny County Election Board to buy what HE wanted.

So Allegheny County ended up with expensive, paperless ES&S iVotronic touchscreens. The same brand of un-auditable voting machine in use in the FL-13 fiasco and the Clay County KY scam.

Already these paperless DRE voting machines Dan Onorato purchased in 2006 are entering their 5th year of use. Their rated life is 5-7 years, with "useful" life perhaps only a year or two or three beyond that. And there is NO plan from Dan or anybody else how we are going to pay to replace these already aging DRE-dinosaurs when they reach the end of their useful lives in the next few years.

But Dan remains clueless, or his head is in the sand and he just pooh-poohs our concerns despite this big problem his county and much of the rest of our state will be facing.

When asked about it now, Dan says he really wanted paper "trails" for Allegheny County's elections but none were legal, which is simply NOT TRUE. Voter-marked paper ballots that can be hand-counted and optically scanned WERE THEN AND STILL ARE completely legal for use in Pennsylvania. 17 other Pennsylvania counties use some form of voter-marked paper ballots right now.

Dan Onorato could have listened to his citizens and made a much wiser choice, but he didn't. And THAT is the truth.

I was present through all of this struggle, so in my PERSONAL EXPERIENCE if Dan Onorato's handling of the voting machine issue is any indication of how he would function as a Governor, God help our party and our state.