R/D/R businessman to challenge Casey for Senate?
The latest name to emerge in the Republican Party's hunt for a challenger to Sen. Bob Casey (D.,Pa.): wealthy businessman Steve Welch of Chester County, who ran for two suburban Philadelphia congressional seats last year until party elders asked him to step aside.
R/D/R businessman to challenge Casey for Senate?
Thomas Fitzgerald, Inquirer Politics Writer
Could it be that Republican leaders have finally found their man, a rich guy willing to fall on the grenade for the team….er, run against Sen. Bob Casey (D.,Pa.) in 2012?
Wealthy businessman Scott Welch of Chester County, who managed to run for Congress in two districts in Pennsylvania before bowing out, is being recruited to make the Senate race. Politico reported that he met with National Republican Senatorial Committee officials in Washington this week.
Welch also was a Democrat for awhile. If he jumps in, could there be an opening on the right in the GOP primary?
Welch, who made millions selling a biotechnology company he founded, was a registered Republican, then registered as a Democrat, and changed back in 2009, about the time he was putting himself forward as a potential GOP candidate to succeed then-Rep. Joe Sestak (D.,Pa.) in the Seventh District.
Indeed, Welch was a supporter of and donor to Sestak, who was elected in 2006, and left the seat to win the Democratic nomination for Senate in 2010. Welch also voted for President Obama in the 2008 Pennsylvania Democratic primary, though he said he voted for John McCain in the fall.
Welch was encouraged to run but then the Delaware County GOP united around Pat Meehan, the former U.S. attorney who abandoned a gubernatorial campaign to run for the seat. Meehan won. Welch moved to the Sixth District, and sought to replace Rep. Jim Gerlach (R.,Pa.), who was then running for governor. Some conservatives ripped Welch as a RINO, and he would have faced opposition from a tea party candidate.
Ultimately, Gerlach failed to get traction in the governor’s race and decided to run for reelection. Local Republican leaders united around him and Welch bowed out gracefully.
Welch did, however, loan his congressional campaign $500,000, and the possibility he could self-fund all or part of a Senate race has Republicans salivating. The party has had difficulty recruiting a high-visibility challenger to Casey, and party leaders would prefer one who would have a financial head start. Senate campaigns in Pennsylvania cost big bucks.
Top-tier Republicans such as Meehan, Gerlach and Rep. Charlie Dent (R.,Pa.) from the Allentown area’s 15th District, have all declined to run against Casey. But Marc Scarinigi, a Harrisburg lawyer who worked for former Sen. Rick Santorum, has been running hard all year, and tea party leader Laureen E. Cummings of Lackawanna County would like to run as well.
Decorated Vietnam War veteran and advocate David Christian launched an exploratory committee last month, and a Pittsburgh-area businessman, Keith Loiselle, is said to be considering a run.
Also interested is the Rev. Joe Watkins of Southeastern Pennsylvania, a former Bush I administration official and MSNBC contributor who unsuccessfully jockeyed for the GOP’s nomination for lieutenant governor last year.
The Independence Hall Tea Party Association PAC has encouraged Watkins and state Rep. Sam Rohrer, the conservative candidate for governor in 2010.
Don Adams, head of the PAC, said that Welch is impressive and his business background might be a good fit for the times, and it’s too early to rule anybody out as an endorsee.
“My main concern would be that he’s never held elected office,” Adams said. “Running for the United States Senate is a tall order…to take on Casey you need more than money. You’ve got to be able to frame the debate.”
Republican strategists are vesting their hopes of beating Casey in the increasingly toxic views of President Obama’s performance on the economy, but the first-term senator is in a better place than many Democratic incumbents at this point. He’s got $3.1 million in the bank, is the namesake of a respected late governor, and people tend to like him.
In the latest Quinnipiac Poll, released earlier this week, a majority of Pennsylvania voters disapproved of the job President Obama is doing and said he does not deserve reelection. Casey, comparatively, is beloved: 48 percent of voters approve of his performance, to 29 percent who disapprove. And 47 percent said he deserves re-election, compared to the 33 percent who say it’s time to give someone else a chance. In this environment, those are stellar ratios.
(Gov. Tom Corbett and Sen. Pat Toomey each had 44 percent approval ratings in the university’s polling.)
Casey's ratings are high but can you name one thing he's done in the past five years as a Senator (other than vote the Democratic Party line)? One thing?
The reason Casey has such low negatives is he has laid so low you can't associate anything that's happening in DC with him.— Diaperman50
Comment removed.- batty, you are right: Rich guys like Casey DO care about the poor folk. Unlike those republicans who are doing their best to create more poor folk that they won't care about. Democrats do care about all the people, not just the rich.— mike l
- Bobby Casey is one of those Downgrade DEMOCRATS.— Thoughtful&concernedvoter
- Better to vote the Democratic party line than the Republican party line. Do you honestly think Republican policies sound good? I've never heard someone articulate why they are good ideas. I just hear you all complain about liberal with blanket, false generalizations that make no sense. Now, I know revenues close deficits. I know that the liberals controlled Congress during the greatest periods of economic growth in this nation, as well as when the US became a superpower. I know that the liberals have signature legislation. Here's a list of Republican legislation: DOMA, DODT, Bush Tax Cuts, Iraq...give me an example of good conservative legislation. I'm open to it, because you would all rather destroy the country than give the liberals a chance.— HandNik
- Revenues do close deficits, but only when you have more people working. Remember when people work they contribute by paying taxes. At 9.1% unemployment that translates to a lot of people not paying taxes. During the Bush years unemployment was around 5%. Are you for taking away the energy credit, the child care credit, the education credit or even the earned income credit (most abused of all credits, costs the US over $2 billion in lost revenue per year)? One last thing you mentioned that liberals controlled congress during the greatest economic times, when were these times? Lets discuss you theories! — junethe4th
- Hey Dope, I mean HandNik, You do know that Democrats took over control of Congress in 2006 and from that point until now government spending has exploded and the economy has tanked...all this with Democrats controlling Congress. And in case you didn't know typically when there is a recession the rebound that follows is more bigger that the recession that just happened. Of course as we know that's not the case this time because liberals have no idea how to turn around a bad economy or create a real job.— ResponsibleAmerican
- Casey's ratings are high because the press has not reported on his activities regularly. I dare you to find more than a couple of dozen reports on him since january 2009. Casey is a liberal and he ran as a blue dog in 2006. He came out of the closet for Obama and that will be hard to put asside. And I wonder if his father even matters. he has been gone for what, 18 years now and he left a huge mess for Ridge to clean up. Casey is vulnerable if you look at the data. When you link his votes and public statements to his name, he looses 20 points in the polls.
— Dutch-wayne - I read the other day that Bob Casey stepped up and agreed to sign a letter that someone else wrote. He's slowly learning to go out on a limb.
But he still thinks it's okay to go three more years without the Democratic Senate proposing, no less approving a budget.— Mr. Smith - The more Republicans the better to fix this mess our country is in.
History will be written that the Tea Party saved the USA from becoming a European type , entitlement rich, fat and lazy country like Obama wants— joepaper - Casey is a do-nothing democrat who only shows up to vote the party line. @Mr. Smith, you're right about Casey and the letter. I brought this up the other day. Seems Fitsgerald is bucking for a job as press agent for Casey.— junethe4th
- Bob who? I thought Toomey was the only senator representing PA residents in the senate.....since when was there another senator from PA? What was his name again?? Never heard of him....— kelprod2
- Like some of the others here, I had no idea Casey was in office.— TKL008
You can reach Tom Fitzgerald at 215-854-2718 or tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
Reach Thomas at tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
