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Rohrer Will Seek Senate Nomination

By Carolyn Ann Davis and Keegan Gibson

After months of hinting, Sam Rohrer will announce his candidacy for U.S. Senate in a town hall meeting on Monday.  He will join an already crowded field vying for the GOP nomination and the chance to unseat incumbent Senator Bob Casey.

Rohrer, a former PA state legislator from Berks County and 2010 gubernatorial hopeful, recently stepped down as the PA State Director of Americans for Prosperity to declare his candidacy.

The three candidates at the top of the field, Tim Burns, Tom Smith and Steve Welch share a similar background: they are all businessmen who are independently wealthy.  Rohrer will enter the as the only candidate who has held elected public office.

Although Rohrer won only 31 percent is his race against Corbett, he won the support of a die hard contingent of grassroots conservatives – many of whom were excitedly sharing his new website on facebook and twitter on Wednesday. He almost certainly enjoys higher name recognition than any of the other GOP hopefuls; 31 percent could be enough to win that primary.

That said, there is a definite undercurrent of conservative criticism for Rohrer. He voted in favor of the infamous midnight pay raise in 2005, and after 18 years in the State House collects an annual pension of more than $31,000.

Rohrer’s grassroots name ID threatens to take of the oxygen away from shoeleather, grassroots candidates like Harrisburg-area attorney Marc Scaringi, retired Mansfield Colonel John Vernon, and Scranton Tea Party founder Laureen Cummings. It could also be bad news for Smith, a former Tea Party leader.

Of the current candidates, Rohrer’s entrance most directly benefits Welch, whose moderate southeastern PA image would be a liability in a two- or three-person Republican primary.

4 Responses

  1. Folks, John Vernon is out there too. We’ve seen what candidates that have had big money behind them (aka special interests) have done. We see candidates who are flip-flopping from party to party. I’m in full on John Vernon. He’s none of the above. Time for a real change, not the same “business as usual”-pun intended.

  2. Kathleen, Sam has so much political baggage he can never get elected. Try voting for the payraise and pensions and in his 16 years in the statehouse he never used the power of his office to get a single one of his bills passed.

  3. To date Sam Rohrer is the only announced candidate who would prompt me to actively participate in a campaign. Good news for those of us working to weed out the special interest-owned corrupt politicians composing the majority in D.C.

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