By Sean Coit
PoliticsPA
sean@politicspa.com

In a letter to House Majority Leader Todd Eachus (D-Luzerne), 7th District congressional candidate and current state Senator Bryan Lentz (D-Delaware) said that the Pennsylvania House Democratic caucus requires “reorganization focused on developing and executing reform.”  Part of that reorganization, Lentz said, should be Eachus’ resignation, followed by a special election to put new caucus leadership in place.

Earlier this month, after former Speaker and Majority Whip Bill DeWeese (D-Greene) resigned following Bonusgate charges levied against him, state Rep. Frank Dermody (D-Oakmont) was voted in to replace him, a process that Lentz believes should be repeated for all of the leadership positions within the caucus.

“My experiences as an officer in the 82nd Airborne Division tell me that there are times when an entire chain of command must be relieved in order to restore confidence in an organization,” Lentz said in the letter to Eachus.  ”I believe this reorganization should be the first order of business when we return on January 5^th and should precede any further action on pending legislation, including gaming.”

Lentz appears to have Democratic support locked up in his bid for Joe Sestak’s 7th District seat (state Rep. Greg Vitali is still considering a run), but will face a stiff competition in the general election against former U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan, a longtime favorite of Republicans in Southeastern Pennsylvania.  The district, along with the neighboring 6th (left vacant as U.S. Rep Jim Gerlach runs for governor), is labeled as a “toss-up” by the Cook Political Report, and is expected to be among the most competitive House races nationwide in 2010.

Tags: Bryan Lentz, Todd Eachus

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 9:21 am and is filed under Miscellaneous, PA Reports, PoliticsPA Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.