For the past week, Harrisburg politicians have been arguing over who controls the state House or Representatives — and who has the right to set a date for the special election to replace the late Anthony DeLuca, whose death this past fall leaves his 32nd House District seat vacant.
But the real fight over the seat may play out among Democrats themselves, as party leaders in Allegheny County must find a champion to compete for the seat next year.
Leaders of the county’s Democratic Party are set to gather in Oakmont on Sunday, Dec. 11 to choose their nominee. (The choice must be ratified by state party leaders, but that is typically a formality.) And party insiders say a half-dozen contenders or more could be in the running for the Democratic nomination by the time the deadline expires at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Those planning to run include a handful of contenders from Penn Hills, including the municipality’s mayor, Pauline Calabrese, Penn Hills Democratic committee chair Joe McAndrew — who formerly served as the county party’s executive director — Allegheny County Councilor Nick Futules, and school board president Erin Vecchio.
But Democrats worry that the field of contenders may prove unwieldy because party bylaws, which haven’t always been followed in the past, say a candidate must have an outright majority of votes to be the nominee. Leaders haven’t yet settled on an approach that takes into account the possibility that no candidate gets over 50 percent on the first ballot, though some form of ranked-choice voting is possible.
Vecchio and some party insiders partly blame the crowded field on the fact that the party imposed a modest “filing fee” of $500 on candidates seeking the nomination. That’s just half of what the party charged in a pair of special elections earlier this year to replace Ed Gainey and Jake Wheatley when they left the state House to lead the city of Pittsburgh.
“Everyone has a right to run,” Vecchio said. “But the fee process is way cheaper than it used to be and that brings people out of the woodwork.”
Ironically, through the years it has been far more common for candidates to complain that the party charged too much for seeking its support, with some complaining that prior chair Eileen Kelly financed the party on the backs of Democratic hopefuls. Among those critics was Sam Hens-Greco, who replaced Kelly as chair earlier this year.
The fee amount "is tied more to what we projected the expenses [of holding a nomination] would be,” said Hens-Greco. "If it was $100, I think yeah, you get a whole lot of people who throw their hat in the ring just to see what happens. But if you are a candidate who isn't too well-funded, it doesn't deter you from running."
Hens-Greco has also heard criticism that the entire process is being hurried. The party notified candidates only last Thursday that they had until Dec. 6 to notify the party of their interest in running. And the nomination process will take place this Sunday, as some 85 committee members — who represent the party in each ward and district in the district — gather to cast votes.
That timetable not only gives the whole process about a week and a half to unfold, but it means that party leaders will be gathering the same afternoon as the Pittsburgh Steelers will be playing their hated division rivals, the Baltimore Ravens.
Hens-Greco says that the timing of the nomination is being dictated by the state party, with an eye toward the fact that the special election itself seems likely to take place by Feb. 7 — a date chosen by outgoing Republican House Speaker Bryan Cutler which is about as early as state law allows. (While Democrats have argued that Cutler didn’t have the power to select that date, Hens-Greco says he’s been given no information to suggest some other date will be chosen.)
Given all that, Hens-Greco said, “We don't have a whole lot of choices” about when to hold the vote. “Hopefully the Steelers will blow [the Ravens] up by the half.”
Hens-Greco said that candidates will be given a chance to address party committee-people before Sunday’s voting. Efforts to organize a standalone forum, outside the Democratic Party’s formal nomination process, are underway for Thursday evening.
Vecchio said that such efforts are necessary in a crowded field.
“I have been a resident here my entire life, fighting the fight for everybody out here,” she said. Other candidates, she added, have been “coming out of the woodwork, and I want to ask, ‘Where have you been for the past 20 years?’”
Futules, the Allegheny County Councilor, said his own career in public service dates back decades, including a 13-year stint on council and time spent at the municipal level in Verona.
"I've already been doing the job as a county councilor," he said. "It's a very similar set of responsibilities. County council is considered a part-time job, but I work at it every day."
Vecchio may prove to be the candidate with the highest profile outside the district, in large part because she publicly called out former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum for claiming a residence in Penn Hills when he and his family spent their time in Virginia. She challenged DeLuca unsuccessfully in two previous Democratic primaries, the most recent in 2020.
But rival Democrat Joe McAndrew, for one, says that in recent years he’s worked his way up the party structure, having moved from Oakmont to Penn Hills in 2020 and become the chair of the local party there. He previously worked for House Democrats on demographic data.
“I’ve worked for Democratic values my whole life, and I believe that now is the time to put my money where my mouth is,” he said. His work for House Democrats involved reviewing the impact of redistricting efforts after the 2010 Census, and “I remember my boss saying at the time, ‘It’s going to take a decade to get back to the majority.'"
But a new round of map-drawing after the 2020 Census appears likely to do just that. “I want to be a part of that,” he said.
The seat will indeed be critical to Democratic hopes of taking that majority. DeLuca’s death left Republicans and Democrats with 101 members each in the 203-seat House. This fall, the district went for the Democrats running for the U.S. Senate and governor by roughly two-to-one margins.
But Republicans may compete hard for the seat, along with Green Party candidate Queonia Livingston, who challenged DeLuca and lost this fall.
“There's been a lot of rhetoric around this seat and whether a Democrat can hold it," McAndrew said. "I fully believe that we can.”
