All 3 of the Democratic Candidates running to replace retiring Rep. John Peterson in Pennsylvania's 5th district now have websites and ActBlue pages.
Bill Cahir: website, ActBlue
Mark McCracken: website, ActBlue
Richard Vilello: website (a placeholder for now, it seems), ActBlue
Both Cahir and McCracken have gotten some endorsements and local press over the last week as well, but I haven't heard much out of the Vilello campaign.
Details on the flip
Mark McCracken, currently serving his second term as Clearfield County Commissioner, has by far the most informative website of the three. His issues and bio pages are chock-full of information. Last week he sent out a press release announcing his campaign staff. Centre County attorney Jennifer P. Bierly is serving as the campaign chair. More on the significance of this:
Clearfield County Commissioner Mark McCracken, 44, a Democrat, announced that State College attorney Jennifer Bierly will chair his campaign in the sprawling 17-county district. Bierly, niece of former Centre County commissioner Keith Bierly, helped Leslie Dutchcot win her Centre Region magisterial district judge seat last year.
Keith Bierly, by the way, who almost got into the 5th District contest himself, is also backing McCracken, even though the two other Democratic candidates, Iraq War veteran Bill Cahir of Bellefonte and Lock Haven Mayor Rick Vilello, also could have benefited from Bierly's endorsement.
His campaign also seems to have some decent blogger outreach, as they've sent me press releases directly based on my diary history here.
Bill Cahir's website is not yet fully fleshed out. But he has picked up 2 endorsements in the last 2 days. First, from Ruth Luse:
Centre County Jury Commissioner Ruth Luse on Tuesday endorsed Bellefonte resident Bill Cahir in the race for the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania's 5th congressional district race.
Luse, who serves in leadership of the Pennsylvania Federation of Democratic Women, said Cahir, a State College native and State High and Penn State grad, has the experience to make a big difference in changing the region for the better.
(Funny side note: 2 weeks ago Luse unwittingly became the Centre County Clinton Campaign Coordinator:
Luse said Wednesday that within the past week she apparently became Clinton’s Centre County campaign coordinator after "I made the mistake of making a phone call to the campaign looking for some information." As a result of the phone call to Clinton’s Pennsylvania headquarters, she said, "I assume that that’s who it’s going to be — me."
Her Obama counterpart has been active since last May. Just another ground game anecdote.)
Moving on the Cahir's second endorsemnet this week, today Jefferson County Democrat Nicholas Gianvito announced his endorsement:
Nicholas Gianvito, a Democratic State Committee member and Punxsutawney attorney, has endorsed the candidacy of Bill Cahir in the 5th congressional district race, the Cahir campaign announced today.
"As I listened to the candidates, I recognized that Bill has the right experience to represent us in Congress," Gainvito said in a prepared statement released by the Cahir campaign.
The third candidate, Lock Haven Mayor Richard Villello, ony has a placeholder website right now. But this profile is a good start.
Republican registrations in this largely rural district outnumbered Democratic registrations by 45,000 as of January. That lead has been shrinking with new registrations and switching party registrations. A lot of Independents are choosing sides (usually the Democratic one) to vote in the closed primary both for this Congressional seat, and obviously for the presidential race. See my previous diary for the numbers, the original article is no longer available on-line. Any of these 3 candidates will have an uphill climb in the general against one the the 9 Republicans running. But news of that ultra-Repulican NY state district special election last night makes me hopeful that maybe the Pennsylvania 5th can be turned blue this year!