Rep. Gerlach wants Rendell's job

Jim Gerlach, a four-term Republican congressman from the western Philadelphia suburbs, will give up his seat in the U.S. House next year to join the 2010 race for governor.

"I have been on the front lines for years fighting for smaller government and greater efficiency in Harrisburg and Washington," Ger-lach said in a news release announcing his candidacy.

"Our next governor must employ those values, put them to work in Harrisburg and make Pennsylvania a competitive place to do business, so we can create jobs and put families back to work. It's that simple."

Gerlach, 54, is the first Republican to formally announce his candidacy for governor. But most political analysts agree that the GOP's front-runner is state Attorney General Tom Corbett, who easily won re-election last year while President Obama and other Democrats were sweeping the state.

"All the stars seem to be aligning in Corbett's favor," said William J. Green, a Republican political consultant based in Pittsburgh. "He's so far ahead in name-recognition, a track record of statewide victories . . . and a profile as a tough prosecutor, at a time of perceived corruption in Harrisburg. . . ."

Another possible Republican candidate is former U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan.

In a conference call with reporters yesterday, Gerlach himself acknowledged that Corbett "certainly would be considered the front-runner at this point."

But he said he'd been encouraged to run by various party leaders and expected to announce endorsements of his own during a statewide tour next month.

He told reporters he had no interest, "none at all," in running for lieutenant governor, and said his decision to run for governor has "nothing to do" with the difficult re-election campaigns he has faced every two years to hold onto his seat in Congress.

Gerlach grew up in Ellwood City, a steel town northwest of Pittsburgh, and was raised by his mother after his father was killed by a drunk driver. Gerlach went to Dickinson College and its law school, and settled in Chester County.

Gerlach spent four years in the state House and eight in the state Senate before winning election to Congress. During his 20-year career as a lawmaker, Gerlach told reporters, he was most proud of working on welfare reform, helping municipalities deal with growth problems and shaping Medicare Part D, providing federal money to help senior citizens with prescription-drug costs.

Two candidates have surfaced to replace Gerlach in Congress - Democrat Doug Pike, a former editorial writer for the Inquirer, who has already raised more than $600,000 for the campaign, and Republican state Rep. Curt Schroder of Chester County, a lawyer whose recently formed federal political-action committee received $275 in donations from Gerlach's PAC last month.

The congressional district, a barbell-shaped patch of geography spanning parts of Chester, Montgomery, Berks and Lehigh counties, has been a perennial target for the Democratic Party.

With Gerlach's announcement yesterday, next year's contest was rated a toss-up by the Cook Political Report, a service that analyzes political races around the country. *