By Alex Roarty
PoliticsPA Staff Writer
roarty@politicspa.com

Four Republicans are now challenging for the GOP nomination in the 6^th Congressional District.

Howard Cohen, a private business consultant with an extensive background in government, told PoliticsPA that will officially declare his candidacy next week. The former Pennsylvania revenue secretary under Governor Dick Thornburgh said he has filed with the FEC and set up a preliminary campaign Web site.

He joins a Republican field that already includes state Rep. Curt Schroder, businessman Steve Welch, and Chester County Recorder of Deeds Ryan Costello. Each is vying to succeed outgoing incumbent Jim Gerlach, who is running for governor.

In an interview, Cohen said he spent 20 years as an associate professor at the Wharton School of Business, 12 years as a civil servant in Washington and Harrisburg, and the last 10 years in the private sector. His competitors don’t have that kind of background, he said, the sort of experience necessary to know how to effectively eliminate wasteful government spending.

“The other candidates both in the Republican and Democratic fields don’t have the kind of life experience the people in the 6^th Congressional District will want,” he said.

Former Inquirer editorial writer Doug Pike and physician Manan Trivedi are competing for the Democratic nomination.

“If you really want to get to the matter of waste fraud and abuse in any government bureaucracy, the issue of scale is an important one,” Cohen said. “One of my major efforts when I go to Washington will be to undertake the hard but the necessary work of cutting government spending by actually examining different parts of the bureaucracy.”

Cohen’s inclusion in the race makes an already heated Republican primary even more competitive. Schroder has already raised more than $100,000; Welch’s campaign coffers hold more than $500,000 after the candidate donated to it from his own personal fortune. Costello lags behind both with just $31,000 raised last quarter.

Cohen said he’s confident he will be able to raise $500,000 for the Republican primary, a sum he thinks will be enough to win while running a “good, citizen-focused” campaign.

He’s already hired the national Republican consulting firm Jamestown Associates to help build his campaign.

Cohen is promising to run as an “authentic” candidate who’s not going to “duck and fly around” questions.

“And when we don’t have real answers to issues, we’re going to say so,” he said.

In a previous interview with PoliticsPA, he also said he would try to improve the level of political discourse.

Democrats view the southeastern 6^th District as one of their best opportunities nationwide to pick up a Congressional seat because it is the only “collar county” that remains in Republican hands. The district supported President Barack Obama over John McCain last year by 17 percentage points.

Congressional Quarterly last week changed the race’s ranking to “toss up.”

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