Former Governor Mark Schweiker definitively ruled out a challenge to U.S. Senator Bob Casey in an interview this afternoon with PoliticsPA.

“It’s always flattering to hear such invocations, but it wasn’t born of my thought process. It’s not in the cards. It was never in the cards,” said Schweiker.

PoliticsPA reported earlier today that Schweiker had taken a position in the Government Affairs division of law firm Stradley Ronon.

“That was born of someone other than me,” confirmed the former Governor. “Thoughtful on their part and somewhat flattering, but that’s not what’s going on in my professional life.”

Schweiker’s decision leaves Republicans without a strong front runner in the race to challenge Casey. Another oft-mentioned name, former Governor Tom Ridge, has his own lobbying firm to manage.

The current lack of big names hasn’t discouraged the GOP.

“Defeating Senator Bob Casey Jr. is one of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania’s top priorities and we are already putting into action our plans to accomplish that mission. Recruiting quality candidates has never been a problem for the Republican Party and we have no shortage of talented and qualified Republicans who could defeat out-of-touch Senator Bob Casey,” said PA GOP spokesman Michael Barley.

Schweiker agrees.

“Given registration and the proclivities of the Pennsylvania electorate over time, it is sure to be one hell of a match, whoever ends up contesting Senator Casey.”

This entry was posted on Friday, January 14th, 2011 at 4:28 pm and is filed under Front Page Stories, Senate 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.