It's official. 9 Republicans and 3 Democrats will vie for the nomination to replace retiring Rep. John Peterson. Yesterday was the deadline for filing 1000 signatures.
Here's a quick run-down:
On the Republican side, the candidates include: Elk County Coroner Lou Radkowski; Jeffrey J. Stroehmann, a business owner who is the great-grandson of the founder of Stroehmann Bakery; Derek Walker, owner of a financial planning business; Chris Exarchos, a former Centre County commissioner; Matt Shaner, a hotel developer; Glenn Thompson, the Centre County GOP chairman and a nursing home administrator; Keith Richardson, an attorney and pastor; Clarion Mayor John Rea Stroup; and John Krupa, an insurance agent.
Among the Democrats, the candidates are Bill Cahir, a journalist who fought in the Iraq war with the Marines; Clearfield County Commissioner Mark McCracken; and Lock Haven Mayor Richard Vilello.
So what are our chances of flipping the seat? Well, better this year than ever, but still a long shot. Republicans outnumber Democrats 50% to 38%.
The April 22 primary races for Congress coincide with what could be a crucial presidential contest for Democrats in Pennsylvania.
The fierce fight between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has set record turnouts in other primaries, and new young Democrats drawn to the Pennsylvania primary ballot could affect the Democratic congressional outcome.
. . .
The sprawling 17-county 5th District was last up for grabs in 1996 . . . The primary races that year attracted four Republicans and one Democrat.
Three of the four Republicans were from Centre County. They split 89 percent of the county vote and 62 percent of the districtwide vote. Peterson won the primary with 38 percent of the districtwide vote, and defeated Democrat Ruth Rudy in the general election.
There are too many Republicans this time around to cover them all in detail, but here are some notes that make the race interesting:
At least 5 of the 9 come from the populous southeastern part of the district. 3 come from Centre County alone. When Peterson first announced his retirement, the County GOP had hoped to coalesce around one candidate, to avoid splitting the Centre-area vote. But that obviously didn't happen. It may not matter so much now that there are also at least 3 candidates from the western part of the district as well. Some highlights (or maybe I should say lowlights) of the 9 Republicans, starting withthe Centre County 3:
Matt Shaner is a Santorum-wannabe with a shady, highly publicized DUI-incident. He hit a car, fled the scene, hid in his house while his wife spoke to the police at the front door, and called his family friend, the Republican District Attorney. Shaner was never charged with DUI, but admits after-the-fact that he shouldn't have been driving that night. Before all that, he ran and lost in the Republican primary for state representative in the 77th district back in 2005.
Chris Exarchos is a former Centre County Commissioner whose abilities are pretty respected but whose personality is not appreciated. He narrowly lost the primary for Comissioner last year, because he took for granted that he would win. Then, rather than take his lumps, he ran a foolish write-in campaign to hold onto his seat, thus splitting the Republican vote. He probably cost them the majority on the County Board.
I think G.T. Thompson is probably the front-runner for the GOP nod. He'll probably carry vote-heavy Centre County, where he is County GOP chairman.
I don't know very much about the other 6 GOP candidates. But one of them is a real wingnut. Keith Richardson is a Baptist pastor with a law degree, and considers Rick Santorum his political role model. The website linked above is pretty flashy. He also has some connections to the right-wing Commonwealth Foundation.
On the Democratic side, we have 3 solid candidates, who I've profiled previously. Since that diary, Iraq War veteran Bill Cahir has been endorsed by Paul Hackett, and was featured yesterday on JoeTrippi.com. He may be the strongest of the 3 for a chance of flipping the seat, but I fear he would be a Blue Dog (which for this district, may be the best we can hope for). McCracken and Vilello could conceivably be Blue Dogs as well, it's hard to tell with what they've said so far. In any case, I'll keep an eye on them!