By David Gerber, Contributing Writer

Labor Day has passed, and things are beginning to heat up in Montgomery County.

With the unofficial start of campaign season underway, Republicans Bruce Castor and Jenny Brown are preparing to counter their tough Democratic opposition in Josh Shapiro and Leslie Richards in one of the most-watched elections in Pennsylvania this year.

Shapiro and Richards hit the ground running Tuesday with a full-day of campaign activities and a listening tour at diners, retirement homes, train stations and more.

Posts on the team’s twitter and facebook accounts included, “First stop at Jenkintown Train Station,” “talking with folks at Bonnet Lane in Abington! North Wales next!”

“Leslie Richards and I have been aggressively campaigning for County Commissioner since February,” says Shapiro. “We are confident with the strong foundation we’ve laid and our continued outreach to the voters in Montgomery County that we will both win 9 weeks from today.”

Republicans Castor and Brown plan to answer the Democrats’ campaigning with a fiscally conservative message.

“The county is fiscally unsound and needs to be corrected,” said Castor.

“This is what the campaign will be about. Whose records show they can best dig us out from the fiscal hole created by Joe Hoeffel?  Jenny Brown and me who have, respectively, been warning about this impending fiscal disaster for the last several years? Or Josh Shapiro who last year wanted to promote Joe Hoeffel to governor? Fighting to make government live within it’s means, reducing spending, debt and taxes.  That is the big issue of the campaign and worth fighting for.”

“Our campaign will spend the next eight weeks delivering our message of fiscal responsibility and job creation to the county’s 800,000 residents,” says Castor/Brown spokesman Tom Stoner.

“We have hundreds of volunteers knocking on thousands of doors every week, participating in civic and community events, and our mail, television and radio campaign will reach those voters we don’t get the opportunity to reach in person.  Our agenda for Montgomery County will outline our vision for making Montgomery County an even better place to live, work and raise a family.”