By Alex Roarty
PoliticsPA Staff Writer
roarty@politicspa.com
In the four-person Democratic race to replace John Murtha, his former district director, Mark Critz, has a clear strategy.
Win Saturday’s straw poll vote among local delegates so overwhelmingly that statewide party officials – who will officially decide who represents the party — must support him.
“My goal is 70 percent,” Critz said of the straw poll vote, which will be taken by 100 delegates from across the 12th Congressional District’s nine counties.
“My goal is to make it so overwhelming that the state committee will have no choice.”
The state party’s 50-member Executive Committee will vote two days after the local meeting to decide whom to place on the May 18 special election ballot. Although the committee usually supports the straw poll winner, already some Democrats are indicating that might not be the case with an election this important.
Critz, who spoke to PoliticsPA during an interview over the weekend, said by his count he already has 50 votes locked up for Saturday’s meeting in Delmont, half the total number of delegates.
“So with two other candidates in the race, that puts me clearly in the front,” he said.
The candidates he referred to are former state Treasurer Barbara Hafer and Cambria County Controller Ed Cernic Jr. Former Naval officer Ryan Bucchianeri is also running, although many Democrats see the race as a two-person contest between Hafer and Critz, with Cernic playing a possible spoiler role.
Hafer, as a two-time former statewide office holder, enters the race as likely the most well-known candidate among voters, although Critz’s time as Murtha’s district director put him in contact with many local Democratic officials.
He said he hopes that if he’s the “clear winner” Saturday, Hafer will drop out of the race, although the former auditor general indicated late last week she plans to run in the primary regardless.
Critz said he wasn’t sure if he’d continue running if he doesn’t win the state committee’s support.
“Well, it’s a tough question,” he said. “And I guess the way to frame it is that if the county convention produces a clear candidate — someone comes out of the convention with the clear support of the entire district, and the state committee honors that recommendation, I think it’s a call that has to be made at that point.”
The former district director added that if the straw poll vote doesn’t produce a clear winner, “That’s a whole different scenario.”
Critz touted himself as the best candidate for the position because his three years as Murtha’s district director gives him a better understanding of the 12th District than any of his opponents.
“There’s probably not many communities, not many communities in this district where I haven’ talk to the mayor, police chief, or fire chief about something important,” he said.
He also has the support of many of those closest to Murtha, including his widow, Joyce, and former Lieutenant Governor Mark Singel.
