By Keegan Gibson, Managing Editor
The Republican primary for U.S. Senate is heating up in the wake of Steve Welch’s endorsement by GOP state committee, and Tim Burns’ departure from the race. The frenzied pace of forums and straw polls continued over the weekend.
The Associated Press is tuning in, covering a candidates forum Saturday in Phoenixville hosted by the Valley Forge Patriots, a Tea Party group:
“The size of the deficit and the reach of the federal government were key topics that the candidates spent much of the 80-minute forum answering questions about from an audience of more than 200. A Tea Party-aligned group organized the event, and calls to defeat President Barack Obama drew louder applause than calls to defeat Casey.”
Sam Rohrer, a former State Rep. who the AP noted lives about 20 miles away from Phoenixville, won the ensuing straw poll far and away. he defeated Welch, who lives about 8 miles away.
The final tally was Rohrer 104; Marc Scaringi 24; Welch 18, and Tom Smith 6.
“After four straight forums and debates, Sam has won three and finished second in the other. Tonight showed yet again that Sam Rohrer is the most qualified candidate in this race and the true voice of the people of Pennsylvania,” said Rohrer Campaign Manager Zac Moyle in a statement.
Welch is an entrepreneur from Chester County, Scaringi is an attorney from Cumberland County, and Smith is a former coal company owner from Armstrong County.
Rohrer Dings Corbett
On a semi-related note, Rohrer shared some less-than-flattering words about Gov. Tom Corbett and his endorsement of Welch. From Bill Lawrence’s latest blog post:
Rohrer and others in the Knights of Columbus Hall on Route 252 described the apparently unprecedented pressure placed on the State Committee people by Gov. Tom Corbett and the party establishment to vote for Welch. Rohrer said he saw some of the committeepeople in tears from the intimidation which included threats of lost government jobs.
What was Corbett’s motivation? Rohrer — who challenged Corbett in the 2010 gubernatorial primary — wouldn’t say.
“Dig it out,” he directed.
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10 Responses
Well lets see, 18 yrs. a state rep. with a Record of his yes vote for only legislation that meet a moral standard, a constitutional standard, and NO tax increase standard, sounds like Sam is the man we
have to send to D.C. to make the real changes that all Americans want. Oh, by the way, Is there anyone else in this primary race for Senator that has been elected to any public office with any kind of public record ? I’v talked with 1000’s of people all over PA that have said that Sam is a man of good principals and lives them. Isn’t this what we the people need so very bad in D.C. ?
The claim that Steve Welch was a democrat who switched to run on the Republican ticket contains a small grain of truth, but is grossly misleading. Welch was a life long Republican. He registered as a democrat and voted for Obama in the democrat primary, to help prevent Hillary from getting the democrat nomination. I considered doing the same, so we, the Republicans, would have a democrat candidate who was easier to defeat. Welch voted for McCain in the general election.
People of Pa. this is really the time to turn the State back to ” We the People “. You have a man in Sam Rohrer that will not be bought and deeply cares about our Constitution and our Country. The Senate of the United States needs him.
The actions in Hershey were reviling. This does nothing but alienate the party base. You should read the memo issued on endorsements. Same crap, different day.
Frightening that our Governor – and former Attorney General – thinks it acceptable to threaten people with their jobs in order to influence the outcome of an election. Pardon me, but that IS illegal, isn’t it?
It seems that the people are speaking via straw polls.. Let’s pray that they speak just as loudly at the real polls….
In my opinion Sam Rohrer is by far the best candidate. For this we are fortunate in that our vote for Sam must also send a loud and clear message to the Republican Party. The days are over when the masses follow Party directives and march in line, as sheep, to the voting booth. Proof of this is the fact that registered Independents outnumber Democrats or Republicans.
One can only imagine how much better our state would be had Sam Rohrer and Daryl Metcalfe overcome the Republican overt suppression of them and had won the election.
FIVE (5) tries on this stupid Captcha codes for my previous post.
They need to be made so you cn tell the difference between Upper case and lower case letters.
Sour grapes from Corbett looks like. When he was running for Gov., his wife was at the Venango Country Repub. dinner to meet candidates (He was at another function). One thing she said turned me completely off. “I want to be first lady. The first lady of Pennsylvania”. I thought that was rather egotistical of her. Well, she got her wish and now we are stuck with him for a couple more years.
This has everything to do with Rohrer running against Corbett for Governor. Corbett would rather see a former dem (Welsh) that voted for Obama and backed Sestak than Rohrer as US senator.
A friend of mine was told he’d never work for the Republican party at any level in Pennsylvania if he continued to support anyone but Welch. For Mike Barley to say Welch’s endorsement was organic is a lie. And Welch, who said he’d support the nomination process only if it was organic, is full of it. He’s naturally arrogant, but he’s been exceptionally so because this outcome was manufactured with the Governor before he entered the race or donated his own money.