PA-18: With Republican Rep. Tim Murphy resigning in disgrace later this month, we have a special election in our future. Under Pennsylvania law, local party delegates will select their candidates for an upcoming special election rather than hold primaries. Trump carried this Pittsburgh-area seat 58-39 and the GOP nominee will be the clear favorite, though several Democrats are taking a look at this contest.
On the GOP side, state Sen. Guy Reschenthaler announced in the brief window of time between when Murphy said he would just not seek re-election and when he announced he would actually resign. Reschenthaler seemed to be emerging as a consensus GOP favorite even before Murphy announced he was leaving Congress, but he hasn't cleared the field. State Sen. Kim Ward announced on Thursday that she would also run here. Ward is a longtime Westmoreland County politician, and high-ranking Republicans reportedly tried to recruit her to challenge Democratic Sen. Bob Casey during the 2012 cycle.
State Rep. Rick Saccone, whose Senate campaign seems to be going nowhere, has also talked about switching to this race. TribLive says that state Rep. Jason Ortitay also says he's considering, though there's no quote from Ortitay. City & State also writes that Allegheny County Councilman Sam DeMarco and Allegheny County GOP head D. Raja (who is not to be confused with Communist Party of India head D. Raja) are "rumored" to be looking at this seat.
On the Democratic side, a few candidates were already running here before Murphy hit the eject button. The influential group VoteVets backed Navy veteran Pam Iovino on Wednesday, while former Allegheny County Council Member Mike Crossey and physician Robert Solomon are also in. However, while this seat isn't particularly friendly to national Democrats, local Democrats still sometimes do well in this ancestrally blue area, and a few are talking about running. (Democrats will also choose their nominee though a convention.)
Westmoreland County Commissioner Gina Cerilli said on Thursday she's "highly considering running" and has formed an exploratory committee, and that she was looking to decide within the next week. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Chris Potter also writes that federal prosecutor Conor Lamb, the nephew of Pittsburgh Controller Michael Lamb, is "said to be considering a run." Democratic operatives also tell Politico that they expect others to get in, and they name Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce head Matt Smith, state Rep. Dan Miller, and Westmoreland County Commissioner Ted Kopas as possibilities.
Finally, we have one more note on the saga of soon-to-be-ex. Rep. Tim Murphy. Murphy, a loud opponent of abortion, had apparently encouraged his mistress to get one when she mistakenly thought she was pregnant with their child, and Murphy announced he was leaving Congress a day after the story broke. However, Politico writes that a different unsavory story about Murphy was what convinced him to resign. Murphy and his chief of staff Susan Mosychuk reportedly have a long history of being verbally abuse to staffers, with them often berating them as “worthless” and calling their work "garbage."
Among other things, Mosychuk would yell at aides for taking bathroom and lunch breaks. Mosychuk also was earning a large paycheck for her work with Murphy's re-election campaigns, much more than House rules allowed. Republican leaders reportedly were worried that that the House Ethics Committee would need to start investigating Murphy and Mosychuk's actions, and they worried that a steady stream of negative stories about the now nationally-infamous congressman would be an unwelcome. However, by resigning, Murphy would avoid that investigation.