Corbett's leading donors are Terrence and Kim Pegula, who have given $280,000. The Pegulas earned a fortune from East Resources Inc., a gas-drilling company with rights to Marcellus Shale. Now retired, they recently gave $88 million to Pennsylvania State University for an ice-hockey program.
Corbett, the state attorney general, has pledged as governor to block a tax on gas extraction. He has received hundreds of thousands of additional campaign dollars from gas interests.
The top donor to Onorato is the Laborers union, whose affiliates have contributed $409,000, according to an Inquirer analysis of campaign-funding records since January 2009. Construction-trade unions have supported Onorato's call for rebuilding the state's infrastructure and creating public-private economic-development projects.
The Democratic nominee has pledged, as governor, to protect the pension plans of teachers and state employees. His second-largest donor - at $325,000 - is the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state's largest teachers union.
With five weeks to go before Election Day, the race has yet to generate much public attention. The two candidates from Pittsburgh are still basically introducing themselves to voters in much of the state.
The heaviest TV ad campaigns have yet to start. Corbett, as of Sept. 13, had $7.7 million left in the bank. Onorato had $3.3 million.
Pollster G. Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin and Marshall College, said the financial crises facing the state - billions in budget and pension gaps - have limited what candidates can promise to excite voters.
