County Council President Rich Fitzgerald will announce his candidacy for County Executive tomorrow at 10:30am at the Allegheny County Courthouse.

PoliticsPA has learned that Fitzegerald will report more than $750,000 cash on hand when he files his campaign finance report next week, according to a source close to the campaign. This was later confirmed by another campaign source.

An official press release stated that Congressman Mike Doyle (D-14) will endorse Fitzgerald at the event. According to the campaign source, a plethora of other Democratic elected officials, many of the region’s most influential labor leaders and nearly 50 local Democratic committee chairs are also expected to attend tomorrow’s event and endorse Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald, according to the Post-Gazette’s Early Returns, is a strong ally of current Executive and former gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato.

These expected endorsements and strong finance report make Fitzgerald the odds on favorite to secure the Democratic nomination and subsequently succeed Dan Onorato as Allegheny County’s third Chief Executive.  Fitzgerald will face Allegheny County Controller Mark Flaherty in the primary.  Flaherty announced his candidacy last week at the same location.

From Early Returns:

“On the Republican side, county Councilman Matt Drozd has said that he is exploring a bid.  Patti Weaver, a key organizer of the region’s Tea Party movement has also acknowledged interest in the office.  Many Republican committee members received an email last weekend advising them that Ms. Weaver would make an announcement earlier this week, but that event was subsequently canceled.  Jim Roddey, the county GOP chairman, said he expects Ms. Weaver to announce her candidacy late next week.  Ms. Weaver did not return a call seeking clarification or her plans.”

Note: the original version of this story has been updated to reflect the fact that a second source confirmed the $750,000 figure to PoliticsPA.