By Alex Roarty
PoliticsPA Staff Writer
roarty@politicspa.com
The GOP field seeking to replace Jim Gerlach in the 6th Congressional District might soon have a another addition, and the new candidate sounds markedly different than the rest of the field — maybe different than any other Republican candidate statewide.
Howard Cohen, a 68-year-old Lower Merion resident who served as former Governor Dick Thornburgh’s first revenue secretary, told PoliticsPA he’s close to officially declaring his candidacy in the southeast district.
“I am exploring it seriously and have been doing so for about four and a half and five weeks,” said Cohen, who now runs a one-man management consultant firm.
Cohen’s background is a diverse background in government — he spent 10 years in President Nixon’s and Ford’s administrations — academia — he worked as an associate professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania — and business.
His resume’ is far from strange for a Republican Party congressional candidate.
But his reasons for running might be one-of-a kind.
Discourse in America is abysmal, Cohen said, and he at least partially blames the party he is now trying to represent.
“Drill baby drill” was a mantra of John McCain’s Republican presidential campaign. To Cohen, the phrase was “silly” rhetoric that lacked “serious thought” about how to devise a broad-based energy policy that meets economic and environmental needs. He supports environmentally safe offshore drilling, he said, but also wants the country to invest in a broad portfolio of energy options.
“I find the level of political discourse in America to be at a very sad level,” he said.
The second pillar of Cohen’s likely campaign: Focus less on what government does than how it does it.
The candidate said he has background improving efficiency, citing his presence on an administrative team team that helped deregulate domestic air travel.
“I think the residents of the 6th District deserve someone who can go (to Congress) with a background in both public and private life … and will take serious hard looks at how government functions, and improve it,” Cohen said.
The candidate appears to want to take the knowledge he’s gained while working in government and inform voters with it, saying he was to “run as an educator.” He thinks the Republican residents of the 6th will listen, saying that although Senator Arlen Specter lost faith in the party, he hasn’t.
Cohen did, at one point, fall into more familiar GOP taking points — he said he doesn’t think President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan is working as intended, and he does plan to focus his time on economic and tax issues.
But the unique content of of Cohen’s message could leave him open to criticism from his Republican primary opponents. It’s already a competitive field — Chester County Recorder of Deeds Ryan Costello, businessman Steve Welch, and state Rep. Curt Schroder.
His likely entrance into the race, already in mid-campaign form with Welch’s switch from the 7th District to the 6th, also makes the 6th District GOP primary possibly the state’s most competitive. Each is trying to replace the incumbent Gerlach, who is running for governor.
Note: This story was originally published in early October. It has been republished on the new PoliticsPA Web site to give further context to Cohen’s congressional run, which he will officially begin next week.
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