HARRISBURG — Chet Beiler has never run for public office, but the Lancaster County businessman says the executive skills that helped him build a multimillion-dollar gazebo company also qualify him to be Pennsylvania's top fiscal watchdog.

Auditor General Jack Wagner, who served for 10 years on Pittsburgh's city council and spent another decade in the state Senate, wants voters to keep him on the job, monitoring how state government spends taxpayers' dollars.

Unseating the Democratic incumbent will be difficult for Beiler, a Republican who trails Wagner in fundraising and acknowledges that he is little known outside his home county. But he is optimistic his candidacy will appeal to voters who believe the auditor general needs private-sector skills to run the office efficiently.

"Every day, I have people telling me that they would like to see more business sense applied to how the government is run," said Beiler, who founded Amish Country Gazebos in 1989.

The race for the $141,565-a-year job also includes a Libertarian candidate, Wilkes-Barre businesswoman Betsy Summers.

Wagner, a Vietnam veteran and safety engineer, was first elected in 2004. Beiler, born to Old Order Amish parents who left the church when he was 4, had explored running for auditor general then, but stepped aside after it became clear the state GOP would endorse another candidate.

Wagner is touting a record of audits — some of them unprecedented — that have detailed, among other problems, wasteful spending by the state's student-loan agency, shortcomings in enforcement of its sex-offender registration program, and lax oversight of grants to businesses that relocate to or expand their operations in Pennsylvania.

"When (voters) look at the performance, they will grade us very favorably," Wagner said.

But Beiler contends that Wagner has failed to demand changes to state law that would grant him the authority to examine the Legislature's financial accounts, which Beiler says will make lawmakers more accountable to taxpayers. Beiler pledged to work with lawmakers on such a measure if he is elected.

"Wherever tax dollars flow, there should be transparency and accountability, and that includes the leadership funds within the Legislature," Beiler said.

Wagner said he is "more than willing" to audit the Legislature if changes to state law or constitution are adopted to give him that power.

Despite the law's current limitations, Wagner said he has staunchly advocated for government reform, including the elimination of bonuses for state government workers. The issue has taken on special importance amid an ongoing state investigation into whether legislative staffers illegally received taxpayer-financed bonuses for working on political campaigns.

Aside from being elected student body president at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., Beiler has been involved with behind-the-scenes campaign work and served as Lancaster County Republican Party chairman from 2000 to 2002.

In 2001, Beiler was charged with violating state election law for allegedly offering illegal payments to workers who registered new GOP voters before the 2000 presidential election. The charge was dismissed after he performed community service under a probationary program for first-time offenders.

Beiler said he mistakenly believed that it was legal to pay the workers at a "piece rate" for each voter registered, instead of at an hourly rate.

"If people look into what actually happened, they'll see it was a petty complaint and an innocent mistake," he said.

Summers, a sales representative for a veterinary supply company, said the auditor general's office would operate more independently under a third-party candidate.

"Pennsylvania's known for having corrupt local governments, and I think they need a watchdog," Summers said.