HARRISBURG -- If Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato hopes to run for governor in 2010, he'll need to make many stops along the Susquehanna River and points even farther east.

He got started on that mission yesterday as he was invited to speak at a monthly luncheon held by the Pennsylvania Press Club in the Harrisburg Hilton and Towers, attended by lobbyists, business groups, reporters and others who do business regularly with the governor and General Assembly.

Mr. Onorato, who just began his second four-year term as the top official in Allegheny County, was coy when asked about his plans for 2010, as he was all last year, when he claimed he was only thinking about re-election.

"Two years from now -- 2010 -- that's an eternity in this [political] business," he said.

"If we can do in my second term as much as we did in my first term, I'd have a good story to tell statewide. But I have too much to do now in Allegheny County. I'm focused on my second term."

Others mentioned as potential Democratic candidates for governor in 2010 include state Auditor General Jack Wagner of Beechview; Lehigh County Chief Executive Don Cunningham; state Sen. Bob Mellow of Lackawanna; Tom Knox, a multi-millionaire Philadelphia businessman who lost a bid for mayor last year; and state Revenue Secretary Tom Wolf of York.

Mr. Onorato sounded like a potential candidate as he spent half an hour rattling off his accomplishments of the first four years:

• holding the line on property taxes in Allegheny County.

• cleaning up and developing old industrial sites, as well as getting businesses to invest in Allegheny County (as U.S. Steel is doing with a $1 billion project at the Clairton Coke Works).

• working regionally on business development, such as supporting Westinghouse's plan to build a new facility in Butler County as it outgrows its Monroeville operation.

• trimming unnecessarily generous pension costs for Port Authority managers.

• trying to get direct airline service to Europe.

• shifting $30 million for the county's share of mass transit costs from real estate taxes to the controversial new 10 percent alcoholic drink tax.

He said that if there were a reliable taxing alternative to the drink tax, he'd take a look at it. He said one idea might be to legalize one or two video poker machines for smaller bars and restaurants across the state and then taxing the revenue produced. He also said he'd like to take "$30 million off the top of the Regional Asset District tax" to use for mass transit, but that hasn't proven feasible.

But he said he won't repeal the drink tax until the Legislature gives him a viable alternative. He said he won't raise property taxes to get the $30 million he needs for mass transit.

And he was smart enough to pat Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell on the back. Asked if he thought Mr. Rendell, the former mayor of Philadelphia, was "biased toward Philly," Mr. Onorato replied, "The best thing that happened to Allegheny County is that Gov. Rendell was a former big-city mayor. I didn't have to explain my problems to him. He gets it."