Even before his first day in office, Dan Onorato wants to change history.

Gov. Ed Rendell is almost through with his two terms. He cannot run for a third, and by Pennsylvania’s trend of alternating its choice of governor’s political party every eight years, it’s may be a Republican’s turn in 2010. But Onorato hopes to overcome the state’s 60-year habit.

Onorato, currently the Allegheny County Executive, officially announced his candidacy for governor yesterday, joining a handful of other Pennsylvanians vying for Rendell’s job. Among them are state Auditor General Jack Wagner and Tom Knox, a Philadelphia business man who spent millions in a failed 2007 bid for Philadelphia mayor.

Onorato traveled the state during the day, announcing his candidacy first in Philadelphia, then in Harrisburg and finally in Pittsburgh. Speaking at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ hall in South Side, he said the reason his final stop was in Pittsburgh was that he wanted to end the day among family and friends in his hometown.

Before Onorato spoke, local resentment over the county’s handling of G-20 Summit protests lingered outside. About a dozen protesters gathered outside the building to speak out against alleged police brutality during the G-20 protests. One of them was Kenneth Miller, who serves on the General Defense Committee of the Industrial Workers of the World, a union for employees in various fields.

Miller said he took issue with Onorato’s opposition to the Citizen Police Review Board. The board, created in 1997 by voter referendum, exists to investigate citizen complaints about improper police conduct. At the time, Onorato said the board would unnecessarily duplicate misconduct investigations by the city’s office of municipal investigations.

Inside the building Tuesday, Onorato didn’t get three sentences out before someone jumped on stage and grabbed the microphone.

“I just want to let you know that the G-20 protesters — ” was all the person managed to say before security guards grabbed him by the collar and shoved him through the crowd to the building’s back doors.

Protesters in the audience interrupted the 12-minute-long speech twice more by shouting to protest against alleged police misconduct. The protesters were booed by the crowd each time and escorted from the building by police.

One protest group, What Happened at Pitt — a group of students and community members who object to police action at Pitt during the G-20 — stood on a raised platform on the side of the hall among labor organizers that supported Onorato. WHAP members wore duct tape over their mouths in symbolic protest over alleged free speech violations and wore signs that read, “Accountability Now.”

Police escorted them out of the building.

An audibly parched Onorato maintained a cheerful countenance throughout and quipped about the benefits of democracy in response to the protesters. In his speech, he promised money for education and reform for the “partisan” ways of Harrisburg. Championing Pittsburgh’s story of a collapsed-steel-industry-town-turned-economic-powerhouse, he promised similar progress all over the state.

A sizeable coalition of labor organizers came to support Onorato’s strong labor message. Gathered in the gravel parking lot before the speech in the shadow of South Side construction projects, laborers from local chapters of the International Union of Operating Engineers, United Steelworkers and other organizations gathered to back the gubernatorial candidate.

Tom Durkin, president of Western Pennsylvania’s local 66 chapter of the International Union of Operating Engineers, said Onorato is “a good quarterback” for labor.

After the speech, the police finished the paperwork for the six citations they issued over the course of the evening. WHAP’s Jonathan LaTourelle — one of the duct tape-clad members escorted away from the speech — received a citation.

He was also arrested on Friday in Oakland during the G-20 demonstrations. LaTourelle said he understands that some find protesters offensive, but he believes the act to be an important part of participatory democracy. For LaTourelle, democratic participation has proven to involve arrest and abuse.

“That, on a personal level, is outrageous,” he said.

A white van full of orange-shirted laborers left the parking lot near LaTourelle. Someone shouted, “You suck!” through the window.

LaTourelle said he has supported labor all his life.

Elizabeth Pittinger, executive director of the Citizen Police Review Board, attended the event for Onorato’s announcement. She said she only came “to observe.” She tries to watch interactions between police and protesters personally whenever she can, she said.

The board plans on conducting open hearings in Lawrenceville and Pitt’s campus, if the University allows it. At the open hearings, anyone will be able to issue claims or complaints regarding alleged police misconduct. Protocol dictates that the board send what claims they admit to the mayor and county chief executive, who in turn decide whether to admit, modify or reject the call for an investigation.

Someone passed Pittinger and jested, “You here to show your support?”

“Yes,” Pittinger said. “For the people.”