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By Alex Roarty
PoliticsPA Staff Writer
roarty@politicspa.com

UPDATE: Singel ended his campaign Thursday night, hours after Ceraso did as well. Their departures leave Hafer and Critz the solid favorites to win the nomination.

Democratic delegates from the 12th Congressional District will convene next Saturday to recommend a candidate to finish John Murtha‘s term in office, the state party said Thursday.

Two days later, the party’s 50-member executive committee will choose which candidate will be the Democratic nominee for the May 18 special election.

The announcement gives the six Democrats who have emerged as candidates little more than one additional week to campaign, both publicly and in private to local officials, for the position, setting up will be a hectic scramble.

The local delegates will meet at 10 a.m., March 6, in Delmont, just east of Pittsburgh. The executive committee’s vote will come exactly one month after Murtha‘s death.

The list of candidates reportedly running for the position include Murtha‘s district director Mark Critz, former state Treasurer Barbara Hafer, Cambria County Controller Ed Cernic, former Lieutenant Governor Mark Singel, Navy officer Ryan Bucchianeri, and newspaper reporter Ron Mackell.

Critz likely became the favorite for the nomination Thursday morning when Murtha‘s widow, Joyce, endorsed him. Earlier in the week he received the support of Mark Pasquerilla, a wealthy Republican who had once seriously considered seeking the GOP nomination.

But the number of candidates running and the nature of a district spread across a large, diverse swath of southwest Pennsylvania mean none of them can feel certain they will win the nomination. Hafer and Singel, particularly, are former high-profile statewide candidates who could attract widespread support.

The 12th District comprises nine counties. The 100 delegates selected for the straw poll will be determined by the proportional number of registered voters each county has in the district.

State committee members in each of the counties will be automatically selected as delegates.  Each individual county committee then will determine how to fill any remaining delegate positions.

Although the local delegates will make recommend which candidate to pick, the party’s executive committee, made up of members from across the state, can ignore their endorsement if it so chooses, but that traditionally hasn‘t happened.

Candidates who don’t win the nomination for the special election could also still choose to run in the primary, potentially causing confusion among Democratic voters.

The number of delegates for each county are as follows:
Allegheny: 1
Armstrong: 6
Cambria: 19
Fayette: 17
Greene: 6
Indiana: 4
Somerset: 5
Washington: 18
Westmoreland: 24

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