HARRISBURG -- Down by 10 points in a recent poll, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato is hoping to gain some yardage by pouncing on a verbal fumble by his opponent, Republican Tom Corbett.

Mr. Onorato, the Allegheny County executive, jumped all over Attorney General Corbett today for comments made to a radio reporter Friday in Lancaster. Mr. Onorato attacked Mr. Corbett for "blaming the victims" and sounding unsympathetic to people who have lost their jobs and claiming they are just "sitting there," living on federal unemployment compensation benefits, rather than looking for work.

"The jobs are there," Mr. Corbett told Harrisburg public radio station WITF, but then claimed many people are intentionally staying unemployed to collect the benefits. He said some employers, such as a candy company owner and a plumbing company owner, have told him they can't fill jobs because people would rather stay home on benefits.

"People don't want to come back to work while they still have unemployment" benefits, he said. "They're literally telling (employers) 'I'll come back to work when the employment runs out.' That's becoming a problem ... If we keep extending unemployment the people are going to sit there."

Mr. Onorato received applause at the Capitol today from a couple dozen laid off construction workers when he denounced Mr. Corbett's comments in an effort to make up some ground in the polls. A Rasmussen survey last week showed him trailing Mr. Corbett by 49-39 percent.

"In Lancaster County, 21,700 unemployed people are currently looking for a job," Mr. Onorato said. "Across the state, 591,000 Pennsylvanians are out of work and trying to find employment. A hundred jobs were lost when a company closed in Scranton. About 150 jobs were lost recently in Beaver Falls."

He said the average person on employment receives $310 per week in benefits "to put food on the table and keep a roof over their family's heads." That's less than what most laid off workers would earn if they found a new job, he added, so there is no incentive to stay unemployed.

"I don't know what world Tom Corbett is living in. Our economy is struggling," Mr. Onorato said. "Families in Pennsylvania are hurting and Harrisburg insiders like Tom Corbett aren't doing anything to help them. Does Tom Corbett believe that Pennsylvania workers are lazy because an anonymous plumber or a candy company owner told him so?"

Mr. Corbett also was blasted by a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, Michael Czin.

"Tom Corbett and his Republican cohorts in Washington should be ashamed of themselves," he said. "Comments like these are nothing short of a slap in the face to the millions of unemployed Americans looking for work."

Mr. Onorato said he could support a bill extending jobless benefits, which is now stuck in Congress, but said that move would just be a temporary solution for the unemployed and urged that more jobs be created.

He said he's worked to increase jobs in Allegheny County and touted his three-pronged jobs plan for the state -- lowering the state's 9.9 percent Corporation Net Income tax rate, urging state regulators to issue environmental permits to new companies faster than they are now and urging community colleges and vo-tech schools to make sure their curricula are aimed at job training.

Corbett spokesman Kevin Harley said the GOP candidate had talked briefly to a radio reporter before holding a news conference Friday on a business plan to create jobs.

"He visited with business owners in the business district of Elizabethtown," a small town in Lancaster County, Mr. Harley said. "He laid out an economic plan for small businesses."

As for his comments on the unemployed, Mr. Corbett "was just passing along some anecdotal stories he had heard" from some employers, Mr. Harley said.

"If Dan Onorato wants to hold a news conference every time Tom Corbett makes a statement, that's up to him," Mr. Harley said. "If he wants to attack Tom, we'll let the voters decide on that."

Mr. Harley said that Mr. Corbett "knows that the vast majority of people who are unemployed are diligently looking for work. He has visited with unemployed workers at agencies such as Careerlink in Lancaster, which retrains and matches up employers with employees, and the Advanced Skills Center in York, which retrains workers in highly skilled jobs such as welding and robotics. He wants to create an economic climate that allows business and entrepreneurs to flourish."

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