Having flamed out of his gubernatorial bid in the face of AG Tom Corbett’s dominance of the Republican primary field, Jim Gerlach‘s going back to his day job:
Less than 24 hours after Rep. Jim Gerlach (Pa.) dropped his gubernatorial bid, the four-term Republican will announce Friday that he will run for re-election to the House instead.
According to a source familiar with Gerlach’s decision, the Congressman is expected to announce he will run for re-election at noon Friday. The same source also confirmed that Gerlach will almost immediately receive the backing of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
This certainly scrambles the PA-06 calculus, especially with the NRCC playing favorites. As we reported yesterday, state Rep. Curt Schroder isn’t getting out (at least not yet) from the Republican primary — and who knows, maybe he can make some hay out of Gerlach’s dithering. Look for some winnowing among the various lesser Republicans in the field, though, and possibly even rich guy Steven Welch, who may not want to throw good money after bad. (UPDATE: Welch sounds like he’s staying in, too.)
On the Dem side, Doug Pike and Manan Trivedi say they’re staying in, too… although this probably diminishes their chances in November (though between the district’s Democratic lean and a lot of ammunition to be had from Gerlach’s vacillations, Gerlach still has to be seen as the GOP’s second-most-vulnerable incumbent).
RaceTracker Wiki: PA-06
This would cancel out our inability to pick this one up.
If Gerlach can survive 2004, 2006, and 2008, he should survive 2010, especially since Pike doesn’t seem to be that great a candidate.