HARRISBURG (TNS) — A self-described “worker guy” from Delaware County who now runs an $80 million a year business emerged as the favorite choice to be the next governor among central Pennsylvania’s GOP state committee people.
Dave White, a former Delaware County councilman, outshone some of the party’s more experienced politicians to emerge as the strongest candidate to take on presumed Democratic gubernatorial nominee Josh Shapiro in the fall in a straw poll taken at during a closed-door meeting on Saturday.
PennLive reported that White captured 21 of the 104 votes cast for the 13 Republicans vying for the GOP nomination.
Others who drew support were Chester Countian William McSwain, a former U.S. attorney; former congressman Lou Barletta of Luzerne County; state Sen. Scott Martin of Lancaster County and GOP strategist and business owner Charlie Gerow of Cumberland County.
“I’m very happy with it,” White said about the results. “I’m somebody who brought his lunch pail to work, worked 12 hours a day, raised a family, started a business and I want to do the same thing in Harrisburg. Get some results and make opportunities available to everyone.”
While the straw vote is non-binding, the Central Caucus’ longtime co-chair, Dick Stewart, said it gives feedback to candidates about how their message resonates with GOP voters.
“It’s a point of interest,” said Stewart of Cumberland County. “It just gives candidates an idea of the way people are thinking.”
During the daylong closed-door caucus meeting, committee members heard from 13 gubernatorial candidates, eight U.S. Senate candidates and eight lieutenant governor candidates, all vying for party support.
Meanwhile, the straw poll was good news for two Philadelphia-area candidates in the race to succeed retiring U.S. Senator Pat Toomey.
Jeff Bartos, the real estate developer who won the party’s nomination for lieutenant governor in 2018, won the Republican State Committee Central Caucus’s straw poll with 49 votes, while conservative activist Kathy Barnette finished in a strong second place with 30 votes.
The only other Senate candidate to break double digits Saturday was David McCormick, a former hedge fund executive who is a relatively recent entry into the race, but has been flooding Pennsylvania’s airwaves with commercials aimed at boosting his name ID with months to go before the May primary. McCormick drew 15 votes in the poll.
Cumberland County native and former U.S. ambassador to Denmark Carla Sands drew 8 votes; and three other candidates, George Bochetto, Dr. Mehmet Oz, and Martin Rosenfeld drew one vote apiece.
