Category: Election Archive

A former Naval officer is seeking the Democratic nomination to to run for Congress to represent Pennsylvania’s 12th District, a seat long-held by fellow Democrat John Murtha, who has become a bit of a controversial figure in the last few years.

Seeking the seat is Ryan Bucchianeri, 34,   who was graduated from  the U.S. Naval Academy in 1997 and  who has a master’s degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he focused on international security, political economy, and human rights.

Most recently he has worked as a manager at Lockheed Martin.

Murtha has represented the district since 1974. Among the acts that has garnered him national attention were his involvement with Abscam in 1980 in which he was videotaped telling FBI agents posing as Arabs “I’m not interested… at this point. [If] we do business for a while, maybe I’ll be interested, maybe I won’t” before which he had provided the names of banks and businesses in which the money could be invested; his claim that Marines were guilty of war crimes in Haditha, Iraq before their trial ; and his observation during the 2008 presidential race that in his district “There’s still folks that have a problem voting for someone because they are black. This whole area, years ago, was really redneck,” which gave us this rather enjoyable Saturday Night Live skit.

Venture capitalist Steve Welch said an interview Thursday that he will remain in the GOP primary race for the 6th Congressional seat despite incumbent Jim Gerlach’s late decision to seek re-election.

Kudos to GrassrootsPA.com for the tip.

Maybe you can chalk this one up as a victory for President Obama. Former Erie County Executive Rick Schenker, a Republican,  announced yesterday that
he is ending his bid for lieutenant governor.

“My employment and economic circumstances have changed drastically causing me to look for employment all over the country,” Schenker said.

Still
in the race for the GOP nomination are:

Carol Aichele (Chester County Commissioner)
Bruce L. Castor Jr. (ex-Montco D.A.)
James F. Cawley (Bucks County Commissioner)
Russ Diamond (founder of  PACleanSweep)
Dominic D. “Nick” DiFrancesco II (Dauphin County Commissioner)
John H. Eichelberger, Jr. (state senator representing the 30th District)
James R. Matthews (Montco Commissioner, last GOP Lt. Gov candidate, Chris Matthews’ brother)
Frank L. Rizzo Jr. (Philly councilman, son of legendary mayor)
Mike Turzai (state representative for the 28th District)
Joseph P. Watkins (pastor of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, the oldest African American Lutheran Church in Philadelphia)

Seeking the Democratic nod are:

Michael F. “Mike” Gerber (state representative for the 148th District)
Valerie McDonald Roberts (Allegheny County recorder of deeds)
Jonathan A. Saidel (former Philadelphia city controller)
Josh Shapiro (state representative for the 153rd District)
Doris Smith-Ribner (former Commonwealth Court judge)

The primary election is May 18.

Congressman Jim Gerlach (R-Pa6) has ended his quest for governor but two other Republican candidates remain besides front-runner Attorney General Tom Corbett, and today’s Philadelphia Inquirer has a story about how the supporters of one of them — state Rep Sam Rohrer who holds the seat for  the 128th District in Berks County — feel the GOP establishment is unduly dismissing their man.

Which is probably true and is a shame since Rohrer, who has held his seat since 1992, has some interesting ideas and is not afraid to take on the special interests about the most pressing problems facing this state such as the ever increasing school property tax.

Rohrer has introduced House Bill 1275  — the School Property Tax Elimination Act  — in every session since 2004 which would replace the $6 billion to $8 billion in lost
residential school tax revenue by broadening the state sales tax to
include more goods and services, such as nonprescription drugs and the
fees that a home plumber charges.

If you think about it, it is more sensible to tax the plumbing work than the home itself.

Still the better means of attacking the threat to home ownership would be on the expense side — such as ending prevailing wage requirements for municipal projects, allowing school districts to hire outside the educational establishment for administrators and, most importantly, ending the right to strike for teachers which would curtail the ever increasing cost of salaries which is by far the largest part of any school district’s budget and takes the largest bite from the taxpayers wallet even including county and township/borough/city expenses.

The primary election is May 18.  The third candidate on the GOP gubernatorial ballot is National Guardsman Sgt. Robert Allen Mansfield.

Keith R. McCall, the Democrat from the 122nd District (Carbon County) who is Speaker of the State House is not seeking re-election.

McCall has represented the district since 1982 when he was elected to replace his late father.

State Rep. Curt Schroder (R-155) has announced that he is ending his bid to represent the 6th District of Pennsylvania in Congress due to incumbent Jim Gerlach’s decision to seek re-election upon aborting his run for governor.

Schroder said:

I am ending my candidacy for the 6th Congressional District. I know to many of you this will come as a bitter disappointment. It certainly is to me. . . The sudden and unexpected re-entry into the 6th District race of the current incumbent presented a new and potentially insurmountable obstacle to my effort to be your next Congressman. . . After speaking with many donors and people I highly respect such as Congressman Bob Walker and Pat Toomey, it became clear that the prospect of adequate finances to convey my positions and strong convictions to the public were diminished. While I know for certain that I have the passion, energy, and commitment to do the job, I cannot answer the question of where the resources would come from to win this campaign in light of this development.I am ending my candidacy for the 6th Congressional District. I know to many of you this will come as a bitter disappointment. It certainly is to me. . . The sudden and unexpected re-entry into the 6th District race of the current incumbent presented a new and potentially insurmountable obstacle to my effort to be your next Congressman. . . After speaking with many donors and people I highly respect such as Congressman Bob Walker and Pat Toomey, it became clear that the prospect of adequate finances to convey my positions and strong convictions to the public were diminished. While I know for certain that I have the passion, energy, and commitment to do the job, I cannot answer the question of where the resources would come from to win this campaign in light of this development.

The gerrymanded  6th District includesLower Merion in Montgomery County, Coatesville and Yellow Springs in Chester County, a large part of Berks County and part of Lehigh County.

Kudos to Nathan Benefield for the tip.

Congressman Jim Gerlach (R) has made it official that he will seek re-election to represent Pa6.

Gerlach had announced he was leaving congress to seek the governor’s office and several Republicans candidates lined up to replace him in what otherwise would have been an uncontested primary.

Yesterday, Gerlach said he ending his campaign for governor . Today, he said that he was going to try to keep his seat in congress.

Reports are that his strongest opponents — venture capitalist Steve Welch and state Rep. Curt Schroder (R-155) — are staying in the race.

The National Republican Congressional Committee has announced that it is supporting Gerlach.

The 6th District is an obviously gerrymanded one –and by the Republicans. It includes Lower Merion in Montgomery County, Coatesville and Yellow Springs in Chester County, a large part of Berks County and part of Lehigh County.

Kudos to Nathan Benefield for the tip.

State Rep. Thomas Killion (R-168) announced today that he is ending his bid for lieutenant governor. He said he will support the gubernatorial campaign of Pa. Attorney General Tom Corbett. Still in the race for the GOP nomination are:

Carol Aichele (Chester County Commissioner)
Bruce L. Castor Jr. (ex-Montco D.A.)
James F. Cawley (Bucks County Commissioner)
Russ Diamond (founder of  PACleanSweep)
Dominic D. “Nick” DiFrancesco II (Dauphin County Commissioner)
John H. Eichelberger, Jr. (state senator representing the 30th District)
James R. Matthews (Montco Commissioner, last GOP Lt. Gov candidate, Chris Matthews’ brother)
Frank L. Rizzo Jr. (Philly councilman, son of legendary mayor)
Rick Schenker (former Erie County executive)
Mike Turzai (state representative for the 28th District)
Joseph P. Watkins (pastor of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, the oldest African American Lutheran Church in Philadelphia)

Seeking the Democratic nod are:

Michael F. “Mike” Gerber (state representative for the 148th District)
Valerie McDonald Roberts (Allegheny County recorder of deeds)
Jonathan A. Saidel (former Philadelphia city controller)
Josh Shapiro (state representative for the 153rd District)
Doris Smith-Ribner (former Commonwealth Court judge)

The primary election is May 18.

Congressman Jim Gerlach (R-6) announced today he was quitting his gubernatorial bid. Still in the race to represent the GOP in November are front-runner Attorney General Tom Corbett, National Guardsman Rober Allan Mansfield and State Rep. Sam Rohrer (R-128).

The primary is May 18.

There is speculation  that Gerlach will seek re-election in his remarkably gerrymanded district which includes Lower Merion in Montgomery County, Coatesville and Yellow Springs in Chester County, a large section of Berks County and a small part of Lehigh County.

This would not make him a popular fellow among some Republicans.

Businessman Steven Welch and State Rep. Curt Schroder (R-155) are well into raising money for what looks to be an expensive primary battle, and also in the GOP field are businessman Howard Cohen, property-rights advocate Patrick Henry Sellers, Lower Merion Township Commissioner Scott Zelov and Chester County geologist Walt Hufford.