Bartos emerging as GOP faithful’s favorite for U.S. Senate; White, Barletta gain an edge for governor

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Bartos (at left) came away the favorite in two regional caucus straw polls held on Saturday. Those polls gave GOP candidates Lou Barletta (center) and Dave White more confidence in their bid to be their party's nominee.
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Montgomery County real estate developer Jeff Bartos continues to build on his lead in the crowded field of Republicans vying for the open U.S. Senate race.

He emerged in Saturday’s straw poll with the most votes as the top-choice among the GOP state committee members from the four counties that make up the Northeast Central Caucus including Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, and Schuylkill counties.

Bartos also proved to be state committee members’ favorite in the straw poll taken later Saturday by the Northeast Caucus that includes the northeastern counties of Bradford, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, Susquehanna, Tioga, Wayne and Wyoming counties.

But those straw poll results were more mixed when it came to the crowded field of gubernatorial candidates vying to take on presumed Democratic nominee Josh Shapiro in November.

Former congressman Lou Barletta of Luzerne County came away by far as the favorite in his home turf’s regional caucus straw poll while in the Northeast Central Caucus, Delaware County businessman Dave White scored the most first-place votes.

However, the Northeast Central Caucus committee members don’t just take a straw poll. They ranked their top three candidates. When all those first, second and third place votes were added together, Barletta came out on top in that ranked vote followed by GOP strategist and Quantum Communications CEO Charlie Gerow of Cumberland County and White came in third.

Blake Marles, chairman of the Northeast Central Caucus, said his caucus chooses to rank candidates by the number of first, second and third place votes “to give these folks enough data so they understand where they fit in the pecking order right now and I don’t think a straw poll ranking does that.”

He said the way the ranked vote turned out it shows there are quite a few viable candidates in that race noting Sen. Scott Martin of Lancaster County finished not too far behind White.

Bartos soundly came out on top in the Northeast Central Caucus’ ranked vote count among the Senate candidates with former hedge fund executive David McCormick of Allegheny County coming in a distant second.

“I am continually humbled by the grassroots support my campaign is receiving from Pennsylvanians in every county,” Bartos said in a statement. “Republicans across the commonwealth know that my roots in Pennsylvania run deep, and that I have always fought for our communities and always will. I look forward to continuing to serve my fellow Pennsylvanians.”

Bartos and White came out as the top vote-getters in last Saturday’s straw poll of state committee members from 24 central Pennsylvania counties, the largest of the Republican regional caucuses.

In the lieutenant governor’s race, the Northeast Caucus straw poll had Clarice Schillinger of Montgomery County, who founded the Back to School PA political action committee, coming out on top with Cumberland Countian Jeff Coleman, a former state representative who has a political consulting firm in Harrisburg, coming in second. The Northeast Central Caucus didn’t hold a straw poll in lieutenant governor’s race.

GOP committee members from the western and southeast regions will meet over the next week and a half in run up to the Republican State Committee meeting on Feb. 5.

On that day, a decision will be made regarding whether the party will select a candidate as the preferred nominee in the Senate, governor and lieutenant governor contests going into the May 17 primary.

However, a majority of committee members in the three regional caucuses that have met so far voted against the party making endorsements in the statewide races.

While Shapiro appears to have cleared the field of any primary opponents in the governor’s race, the Democratic primary for the Senate seat features a competitive field that includes Lt. Gov. John Fetterman of Allegheny County; U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, also of Allegheny County; Montgomery County Commissioner Dr. Valerie Arkoosh; and state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta of Philadelphia.

Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.

Read more on PennLive:

GOP straw poll shows strong support for Pa. senate candidates Jeff Bartos, Kathy Barnette as campaign starts to intensify

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