Onorato: No mayoral run

Dan Onorato is not running against Luke Ravenstahl.

The rumors about the county executive eyeing the mayor's race seemed a bit far-fetched at first. But, for whatever reason, they haven't gone away, even after his fellow North Catholic alum, Luke Ravenstahl, began to publicly gear up for his 2013 re-election bid. The latest fan to the flame of Onorato speculation was a mail piece sent out this week (above) calling on the recipient to "Draft Dan Onorato For Mayor.''

After listing the county executive's bio, it proclaims, "It's Time To Put An Adult In The Mayor's Office.''

Exactly how wide its distribution list was in unclear, although it reportedly did include the officers of the city's 32 Democratic ward organizations. But any anti-incumbent folks among them shouldn't get too excited. Mr. Onorato, who is on the host committee for a Ravenstahl fund-raiser on Oct. 13., was about as Shermanesque as possible in disavowing its contents.

"I know nothing about this. I don't know who did it, and I'm not running against Luke,'' he said.

And after his thumping at the hands of Tom Corbett last year, the political tea leaves seemed to indicate that if Mr. Onorato did decide to stay in public life, state auditor general would be his next target of his ambitions. But he declined to comment on that speculation. We know what he's not going to do; stay tuned to see what he will do.