The Allegheny County Democratic Committee endorsed candidates in a handful of competitive state legislative races Sunday, giving a potential leg up to hopefuls in three contested state House primaries and backing a veteran state senator over an upstart challenger.
The choices of committee members, who represent each of the county’s voting districts, are not binding on voters — and candidates who receive the party’s backing are not assured of victory in the primary itself. But jockeying for the committee endorsement is an established tradition in local politics, and obtaining it can be a sign of a candidate’s strength early in the campaign.
But with Democrats solidly in control of most of the legislative seats on this year’s ballot, there were few competitive races for committee members to weigh in on this year. One of the few exceptions was in House District 45, where the committee overwhelmingly selected Allegheny County Council President Pat Catena to replace retiring state Rep. Anita Kulik.
“It shows you there is a lot of momentum behind this campaign,” said Catena after he won the endorsement with 53 votes, trouncing the 10 votes for challenger Brittany Bloam and five for Fred Coleman. “I’m in it to win it.”
Catena was widely expected to win the endorsement: In addition to his position on county council, he’s long been active in Carnegie borough politics and is backed by the family of former county Treasurer John Weinstein, who remains a potent political force there. Bloam and Coleman are both first-time candidates in the district, which includes suburbs to the west and southwest of Pittsburgh.
Bloam, who entered the race in mid-February, said she was unfazed by the result: “We’re going to focus on communicating with the voters directly and meet as many people as we can,” she said.
Among the factors bolstering such hopes: The Allegheny-Fayette Central Labor Council, a consortium of labor groups in the region, did not make a recommendation in the race when it issued its own endorsements last week. The Labor Council has a supermajority requirement to earn its support, and no candidate won it in the 45th District.
The 45th District is being closely watched this year: Democrats have been clinging to a one-seat majority in the state House, and with Kulik stepping down from a district where voters tend to skew more conservative, local Republicans have been eyeing the seat.
Democrats hope to flip a couple of seats of their own — in the 28th District in the county’s northwestern suburbs and the Monongahela Valley’s 39th District. Both are held by Republicans, but in each district, two Democrats are vying for the chance to challenge them this fall.
In the 28th District, Jeremy Ferderber beat Robert Bertha by a vote of 30 to 7. And in the 39th District, Dylan Altemara beat Kellianne Frketic by a vote of 28 to 10.
About 57 percent of eligible committeepeople cast a ballot in the 28th district, which is currently held by Republican Jeremy Shaffer. Turnout in the other two contests was around 70 percent.
Only one incumbent state legislator faced a challenge for the party endorsement, and he brushed it aside. State Sen. Wayne Fontana bested challenger Paul Steenkiste by a vote of 234 to 53.
Candidates who sought the endorsement for a House seat were assessed a $1,000 filing fee, while candidates for state Senate paid $2,500 each. Endorsement winners are advertised in “slate cards” handed out to voters at the polls and in other forms of campaign support.
While Democrats hope for huge gains in Congress during this year’s mid-terms, the energy Sunday at the IBEW Local #5 hall was restrained, owing to the small number of contested races up for grabs. Even so, by political tradition, candidates — including many who did not face a rival for the endorsement — plied committee members with cookies and other baked goods in a last-ditch effort to make a connection before the committee voted.
And there was at least some drama prior to WESA’s arrival. Perennial candidate Will Parker, who hopes to challenge incumbent U.S. Rep. Summer Lee this year, reportedly appeared on the scene with a bullhorn until he was asked to leave.