By Alex Roarty
PoliticsPA Staff Writer
roarty@politicspa.com

State Democratic Party Chairman T.J. Rooney said in an interview Tuesday that he and other party leaders will wait for Saturday’s straw poll vote before supporting a candidate to run for John Murtha’s former congressional seat.

“We’ll go a long way toward determining that when we meet on Saturday,” Rooney said.

One hundred delegates from across the 12^th District will convene Saturday in Delmont to recommend which of four candidates be placed on the May 18 special election ballot. Two days later, the state party’s 50-member Executive Committee will officially select one of them.

Former state Treasurer Barbara Hafer, Cambria County Controller Ed Cernic Jr., former Naval officer Ryan Bucchianeri, and Murtha’s former district director Mark Critz are competing for the nomination. Hafer and Critz are seen as the favorites by many, although Cernic appears to have support in Cambria and Westmoreland counties, two of the district’s biggest.

Although he isn’t publicly supporting any of the candidates, the chairman did single out the endorsement Critz received from Murtha’s widow, Joyce, as the campaign’s biggest moment so far.

“The most poignant even of the last seven days was the endorsement of Mrs. Murtha,” he said. “That was a really important event.”

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