Tea Party candidate crashing Democratic Party
A Tea Party candidate is crashing the Democratic Party this fall.
Bedford County businessman Art Halvorson, who narrowly lost to U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster in the Republican primary, announced Tuesday he will now run on the Democratic side of the ballot against the eight-term incumbent in the 9th Congressional District.
Halvorson, a self-proclaimed Tea Party candidate, is able to run as a Democrat in the Nov. 8 general election because he received a few dozen more write-in votes for that party in the April primary than Adam Sedlock, a registered Democrat from Chalk Hill, Fayette County, who mounted an organized write-in campaign, but barely cleared the 1,000-vote threshold.
“The Democrats gave me another shot,” Halvorson said. “If we don’t turn our country around and reform Congress and restore us to our constitutional roots, we’ll lose everything. I’m at a place to influence that.”
In the Republican primary, Halvorson lost to Shuster by just 1,227 votes. The sprawling congressional district, which includes portions or all of 12 counties, extends from Carmichaels to Gettysburg and as far north as Punxsutawney. The district includes the eastern part of Greene County and most of the Mon Valley in Washington County.
Halvorson had until Friday to notify the state Department of State of his intention to run as a Democrat on the ballot. He made it clear that he’s not switching parties, but instead using the opportunity Democratic voters gave him to once again challenge his primary opponent, whom he also lost to in the 2014 primary.
Even without the support of either political party, Halvorson did not think he would be at a disadvantage against the incumbent.
“I don’t have the backing of either party. The party system is broken,” Halvorson said. “I’m a Republican and will continue to be. But I ran because I felt the party had failed to do its job to promote good, conservative candidates to do the job. I’m not running as a Democrat. I’m running as a Christian, conservative, Republican. I’m not misrepresenting myself at all.”
The situation is making for a strange campaign in the fall. Shuster’s campaign wasted no time attacking Halvorson and released a statement Tuesday morning condemning him for “saying offensive things about Democrats” and likening the switch to former Pennsylvania senator Arlen Specter’s party change in 2009.
“By running for Congress as a Democrat, Art Halvorson has proved that he cares about one thing and one thing only – himself,” Shuster’s campaign wrote in an email. “Not only is he betraying Democrats by calling their party godless while forcing them to accept him as their nominee, but he is also betraying the will of the Republican primary voters that have twice rejected his attempt to get a job in Congress.”
Halvorson brushed aside the criticism and thinks he can reach out to disaffected Democrats and build on his Republican support during the primary.
“I think there is a potential to clobber him, to totally overwhelm him,” Halvorson said. “I think we’ve shown we can go toe-to-toe with him and throw out a political insider and bring in an outsider.”
Democrats in this area are skeptical of that confidence, pointing to his far right positions on fiscal and social issues.
Washington County Democratic Committee Chairman Ronald Sicchitano criticized Halvorson for agreeing to run as a Democrat. Sicchitano thought the situation illustrated how gerrymandering has made the district uncompetitive for his party and suggested Democrats here “should vote their conscience” in the fall.
“I don’t really like people jumping parties,” Sicchitano said. “They do that for their own agenda. It’s not where their heart is. It might be good politics for them, but it doesn’t show me where their heart really is.”
Greene County Commissioner Dave Coder, who is also a member of the county’s Democratic Committee, doesn’t live in the 9th Congressional District, but he doubted Halvorson would receive much support here.
“I don’t think he has a very good chance,” Coder said. “As a Democrat, I would never vote for him.”
Meanwhile, Sedlock, the Fayette County Democrat vanquished by Halvorson in the primary, announced Tuesday afternoon he plans to mount another districtwide write-in campaign for the congressional seat. He demanded to be included in any upcoming debates between Shuster and
Halvorson.
“We cannot accept, nor permit, an avowed member of the GOP/Tea Party, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, to be portrayed to our electorate as a Democrat,” Sedlock wrote in an email.