It's no secret that Don Cunningham wants to be governor. For months now, the Democratic Lehigh County Executive has been putting out feelers to political insiders across the state, trying to build support for a 2010 bid for the governor's mansion.

But first, he has to hold onto his current job.

Cunningham is up for re-election to a second 4-year term this year in Lehigh County, making him the only one of nearly a dozen potential gubernatorial hopefuls who has an election to win before eyeing the big job. With Democrats outnumbering Republicans in the county by more than 30,000 voters, it's a race local political watchers expect him to win, but one he insists he's not taking for granted. A loss would surely cripple his chances in 2010.

"As county executive, I always say you can't get a promotion if you're not doing a good job, so you need to stay focused on doing a good job in your own backyard," he told PolitickerPA.com in a recent interview.

No Republican candidate has entered the race-yet. County GOP chairman Bill Platt II said at least two potential candidates had expressed interest in running, though he said it was too early to share their names.

"He won't be running uncontested," Platt said. "We're not just putting a throw-in in there, a sacrificial lamb."

And Platt implied that any Republican candidate would likely make an issue of Cunningham's aspirations for higher office.

"If he were to win the 2009 race, he will essentially be sworn in, only to immediately start a rigorous campaign for governor," Platt said. "That in of itself is going to be an issue that's of concern to voters. I think that he should be focusing all his attention on his election for county executive and shouldn't overlook the fact that there will be a Republican candidate running against him."

Chris Borick, a pollster and political science professor at Muhlenberg College, said Cunningham was well-positioned to win reelection.

"I don’t see an obvious local Republican that he’s really got to worry about, someone that would be an immediate threat to him," Borick said. "In the end, it’s a race that on paper he should win, but that he also shouldn’t take for granted.

Cunningham, for his part, seems to see his re-election bid as an important step toward what comes next and is building his 2009 and 2010 campaigns simultaneously.

"It's actually been kind of easy to go down parallel paths," he said. "While I can't make a final decision [about the governor's race] until closer to the back half of 2009, I haven't been shy about laying the foundation and putting down the groundwork to make it possible."