Former 12th District Congressional candidate Tim Burns has met with the National Republican Senatorial Committee as he considers mounting a challenge to U.S. Senator Bob Casey, according to a report published by National Journal staff writer (and former PoliticsPA editor) Alex Roarty.
Burns, an entrepreneur who founded the pharma-tech firm TechRx after graduating from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, was twice defeated last year by U.S. Rep. Mark Critz, a former John Murtha staffer who succeeded his boss in Congress.
Last May, Critz earned a seven-point victory in the country’s highest-profile congressional contest, the special election to determine who would finish out Murtha’s eighteenth term. Burns narrowed the gap with a full term at stake in his November rematch with Critz, but ultimately lost despite the Republican electoral wave that wrested control of the U.S. House from the Democrats.
“Tim ran for Congress last year because he truly believed that the country was headed in the wrong direction and it still is, with high unemployment and a President and U.S. Senator who clearly have no idea how to fix the economy,” Pennsylvania-based GOP strategist Ray Zaborney, who accompanied Burns to the RNSC meeting, told Roarty. “So if there is an opportunity for him to serve his country and change the direction of the Nation and Pennsylvania in a positive way, he is open to it.”
Burns is the latest potential Casey challenger with an entrepreneurial pedigree. Steve Welch, a biotech executive who himself endeavored to run for Congress in 2010, traveled to Washington last week to meet with the NRSC as well. Keith Loiselle, a prominent GOP donor who also built his fortune in the medical field, is also mulling a run. So too are military veteran David Christian and Scranton Tea Party founder Laureen Cummings.
Attorney Marc Scaringi, a former aide to Rick Santorum, announced his intention to seek the Republican nomination last November.
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