Pennsylvania's new map created a brand new congressional district (numbered the 4th) that includes most of Montgomery County in the Philadelphia suburbs, and at 59-39 Clinton, the winner of the May Democratic primary should have little trouble winning in November. State Rep. Mary Jo Daley and Shira Goodman, a prominent local gun safety activist, have already announced that they're running here, and several other potential candidates are interested. Unfortunately, one of those potential candidates is state Sen. Daylin Leach, who says he'll decide over the weekend.
Last year, Leach entered the race to challenge GOP Rep. Pat Meehan in the old 7th District, and he soon emerged as the leading Democratic candidate. But in December, the Philadelphia Inquirer published a story in which a former Leach staffer accused him of sexually harassing her. Numerous other people also told the paper that they had witnessed similar behavior from Leach for years, saying he engaged in inappropriate touching and told jokes that made them feel objectified. Two officials from Pennsylvania’s delegation to the 2012 Democratic National Convention even said that after Leach made sexualized comments towards an intern, they instructed interns to travel in pairs.
Leach initially issued a statement denying he ever behaved inappropriately toward women and blaming a "whisper campaign" on supporters of an unnamed primary opponent. Leach also proceeded to savage his accusers, including Colleen Kennedy, who posted a pain-wracked essay about her experiences working for Leach in which she repeatedly called him a personal hero but said she felt she had to come forward because he'd "done things that have hurt other women I have cared about." In a since-deleted Facebook comment, Leach wrote:
"Nobody is blocking you Colleen. But you are a truly horrific monster. You fabricate insane attacks and laughable lies agains [sic] someone who was never anything but nice to you. To hell with what you do to my family, kids, the progressive movement, etc. I hope whatever it is that makes you such an unhappy person gets resolved. in a world where making progress is so freakin hard, you are just a human wrecking ball of hate."
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf called for Leach to resign from the state Senate, but he did not do so. And while Leach's attorney later said the senator was "taking a step back" from his campaign against Meehan, he added that "it doesn't mean he's quitting the race." And indeed, it seems that Leach didn't stop running at all. City & State reports Leach accepted thousands in campaign donations in the weeks after the story broke, and at the end of December, he had $181,000 in the bank.
Meehan ended up retiring after his own sexual harassment scandal, but Leach is now talking about running in the new 4th. Leach insisted in an Inquirer op-ed last month that he was trying to learn and change, but understandably, plenty of Democrats remain unconvinced. Leach didn’t assuage his doubters either when, weeks after his op-ed, he was the lone Democrat in the state Senate to miss the caucus’ mandatory training regarding sexual harassment because he was at a resort in Key West for a meeting of the Pennsylvania Bar Association.
Some unnamed operatives also fear that if Leach captures the Democratic nomination, his weakness as a candidate could force the party to spend here—a seat Democrats truly shouldn’t have to worry about. (And needless to say, an accused serial harasser is not the sort of person the DCCC would want to be seen supporting.) Consequently, the Inquirer reports that some Democrats are trying to persuade state Rep. Madeleine Dean to drop out of the primary for lieutenant governor and run here in part to stop Leach, and she's reportedly considering.
Other Democrats are also looking at the race, either publicly or privately. City & State writes that international development specialist Christina Hartman is floating her name here, though there's no quote from her. Hartman had been seeking a rematch with GOP Rep. Lloyd Smucker in what had been the old 16th District, but redistricting made his new seat (now the 11th) implacably red. Hartman didn't address the 4th District with the Huffington Post, though she said he'd decide what she’ll do next week. Hartman ended December with $219,000 in the bank, but the 4th doesn't overlap at all with the district she was seeking.
The Inquirer also adds that local Democrats are wondering if Rep. Brendan Boyle will run here instead of in the new 2nd District. As we've written before, that's incredibly unlikely, since this seat contains none of Boyle's current seat (the old 13th) base in Philadelphia. Still, while the Wall Street Journal recently reported that Boyle would run for the 2nd, his office isn't saying anything. But one name we can cross off is Valerie Arkoosh, the chair of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners, who ran in the primary in the old 13th against Boyle and Leach in 2014 but has decided against another bid for Congress.