Tom Prigg has climbed Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. Hes scaled Mt. Blanc du Tacul in France. He even scaled a building in Pittsburgh as a stunt for a 2013 film. But the McCandless resident may be facing his steepest climb yet: challenging 12th district Republican Congressman Keith Rothfus in 2018.
People I talk to are like, This is really daunting. And it is, said Mr. Prigg, a brain researcher at Carnegie Mellon University. But Mr. Prigg said that pundits who write off Democrats in the district arent listening to the people. People want to earn a livable wage, better prospects for their children, equal opportunity for higher education and careers later on.
Mr. Prigg already has a volunteer campaign team, a website, and a record as an Army veteran. Hes also counting on a base of Democratic voters outraged by the 2016 election of Donald Trump and Republican majorities in Congress. After people protest, they want to take direct political action.
Since January, those protests have included nationwide marches, raucous town hall meetings, and protests of Mr. Rothfus, Sen. Pat Toomey and 18th district Congressman Tim Murphy.
A weekly protest outside Mr. Murphys Mt. Lebanon office was to get our congressman to meet with us and address our concerns, said Mykie Reidy, an organizer of the event. But considering there has been no movement in that area, and his voting record, were looking down the road to 2018.
Lack of challengers in recent years has been a problem, she said. And when there has been, the candidates didnt have the resources, in part because party leaders wrote the districts off. But this year, she said, Democrats are now looking to groups like ours as an asset.
Most carbon-based life forms arent thinking of 2018s elections yet, and much of Western Pennsylvania is unforgiving terrain for Democrats. But the next several months may determine the landscape of the 2018 election. And if this years political ferment translates into credible challengers next year, it may be a victory in itself.
You never know what the mid-term environment is going to be, said Kyle Kondik, of the University of Virginias Center for Politics. I think the folks stepping up are doing their party a favor.
Some potential
Democratic insiders say several potential candidates -- most of whom have not run for office before -- are already mulling runs locally. Most are keeping quiet, but University of Pittsburgh professor David Miller of Mt. Lebanon is talking a bit. An aide to former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy and founder of CONNECT, an initiative to encourage regional cooperation among local governments, he said, We need to make sure we have a lot of competitive races in 2018.
Given Mr. Trumps travails in office, Mr.Miller said, One could anticipate the environment in 2018 would be very good. But its speculation at this point. I have made no decision so far.
Also weighing a run is retired Bethel Park civil engineer Peter Kohnke.
I was disgusted to see nobody running against our congressman, said Mr. Kohnke, a longtime leader on the Montour Trail Council. I talked to a lot of people about running and got a lot of no thank yous, so maybe its one of those things you have to do yourself.
Other Democrats are eyeing down-ballot races. Emily Skopov, a television writer, hopes to challenge state House Speaker Mike Turzai for his North Hills seat.
I get hugs from strangers, and the most common response is Oh, bless you, said Ms. Skopov, who runs a nonprofit that has restaurants donate kids-menu crayons to needy children rather than throwing them away.
Shes already drawn some national fundraising support because of an essay she wrote for Pantsuit Nation, a website popular with aggrieved backers of Hillary Clinton.
People support me because they understand the importance of swing states, she said. Due to the prominence of Mr. Turzai, who is pondering a gubernatorial run, this race is local but it has statewide consequence.
State and national Democrats have been calling for such efforts since last fall.
In February, the since-elected chair of the Democratic National Committee, Tom Perez, told the Post-Gazette he wanted the party to implement the every zip code strategy to compete in every district. Earlier that month, state party chair Marcel Groen urged local party leaders to find people to run for every single office, instead of conceding more rural areas to the GOP.
We can already see people stepping up to run at unprecedented rates, said Craig Auster, director of the political committee for the League of Conservation Voters. While left-leaning organizations like his want to back sophisticated campaigns, We need to be open to a lot of different kinds of candidates, including people who are becoming active for the first time.
One of the lessons of 2016, he added, is that voters are definitely hungry for not the status quo.
Tough terrain
No one thinks it will be easy.
Political prognosticators regard Western Pennsylvanias non-Pittsburgh congressional districts as solidly Republican, in part because Mr. Trump won Western Pennsylvanias Congressional Districts by 20 percentage points or more. A handful of more competitive Philadelphia-area districts almost certainly will command more attention and resources. The Democratic Congressional Campaign committee, which seeks to elect House members, is already targeting the east, while showing little interest in the Pittsburgh area so far.
A lot of [the outlook] has to do with recent election results, said the University of Virginia's Mr. Kondik, who handicaps House races for the highly regarded Larry Sabatos Crystal Ball. Democrats used to be be a lot more competitive in Western Pennsylvania.
Mr. Murphy hasnt faced a challenger the past two cycles: Since 2002, he has beaten Democratic challengers by margins ranging from 16 to 34 points. Mr. Rothfus has held off two challenges from Democrat Erin McClelland with relative ease.
The 12th and 18th districts were drawn by Republicans after the 2010 Census, and the maps make it tough to be too aggressive in the west, said consultant Marty Marks, who works with candidates backed by organized labor. Unions, a key Democratic bloc, also are focusing on the east, he said.
Because the 12th and 18th bridge both Allegheny County and its rural cousins, a candidate who appeals in one area may not resonate in another.
Henry Boldyzar, a Westmoreland County labor leader who pondered challenging Mr. Murphy in 2016, said Democrats are really struggling out here. They push social issues, which are killing them in counties like this.
An even larger hurdle may be money.
As much energy as were seeing, you still have to have the resources to get out your message, said Jason Henry, a campaign consultant who worked on Ms. McClellands 2014 bid, and Democratic Senate candidate Katie McGintys 2016 campaign.
A Congressional race likely would cost upwards of $2 million, he said, and while party leaders and donors would love to expand the battleground in Western Pennsylvania, they arent going to waste money. You have to show youre serious.
That could mean raising six-digit sums each quarter, And youll be competing for attention with [Senator] Bob Caseys and Gov. Tom Wolfs re-elections.
Re-electing Mr. Wolf and Mr. Casey are without a doubt a priority for organizations like Planned Parenthood, said Sari Stevens, who heads the health providers state political arm.
Recent polling suggests just over one-third of voters approve of Mr. Trump so far, but in Western Pennsylvania areas where he won by great margins, people still believe hes doing a good job, Ms. Stevens said. For Democrats to prevail, They need those people to change their minds.
Some Western Pennsylvanians, meanwhile, hope to raise money themselves.
A Squirrel Hill group is launching its own political action committee, Pittsburghers for America, to support Democratic challengers. PAC chair Jake McBride said organizers decided to start a new committee, rather than contribute nationally, because keeping the money at home was part of our goal. And we can advance our [agenda] here. On the national stage, its not realistic.
In the 18th district, meanwhile, Andrew Zahalsky has launched a political committee, BACPAC PAC, to raise money for the candidate who will challenge Mr. Murphy.
An oncologist who spent over $50,000 of his own money in a losing race against state Representative John Maher last year, Dr. Zahalsky said he knows Mr. Murphy will be hard to beat.
But a credible fundraising effort could push Mr. Murphy to the center, he said, by showing his constituents are serious enough to put their money where their mouths are.
Democratic enthusiasm means the ground is shifting under peoples feet, said Matt Blizek, the elections director for progressive advocacy group MoveOn.Org. He pointed to an imminent special election in Georgias 6th District, where Democrat Jon Ossoff is running strong in a staunchly Republican district.
Thats an even more conservative district than the ones in Western Pennsylvania, Mr. Blizek said. You have to compete everywhere, because you never know which race is going to go your way.
Chris Potter: cpotter@post-gazette.com
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Democrats looking to challenge solidly GOP seats - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette