Swimming upstream in PA-18, O'Donnell confident of his chances

Congressional candidate Steve O'Donnell: Courtesy Steve O'Donnell campaignMONROEVILLE -- The 18th Congressional District splashes across southwest Pennsylvania to create what can best be described as a giant Rorschach test. Its array of nooks and crannies, which spread across four counties from the Ohio border to near Johnstown, covers not just a range of geographic but socioeconomic areas as well.

But Democratic congressional candidate Steve O'Donnell contends the district's odd configuration works to his advantage. The former social worker and business owner says support from a constellation of local elected officials gives him access to voters his opponent, U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Upper St. Clair), simply doesn't have.

It could be a crucial advantage for the challenger as he takes on an incumbent who won by 15 percentage points in 2006 and is positioning himself as an independent voice for western Pennsylvania as public opinion of the GOP plummets.

Five local state representatives, state Sen. Jay Costa (D-Allegheny County) and a handful of county commissions have endorsed O'Donnell, in addition to support from Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll and other congressmen. He emphasized that although those endorsements hold symbolic value, perhaps more importantly they help with practical campaign issues.

"A number of them support the campaign with providing us information and events in this area," O'Donnell told PolitickerPA.com during an interview in his Monroeville office. "These are people not just saying, 'Good luck, Steve.'"

"It's the kind of grassroots support that will enable us to defeat Tim Murphy in the fall."

Mike Dineen, O'Donnell's campaign manager, said the local officials also provide them a pipeline to the residents' worries.

"So when we go out to Pleasant Hills, we're talking to your concerns," Dineen said.

This race is not O'Donnell's first. He ran against state Rep. Joe Markosek (D-Allegheny County) in the 2006 Democratic primary, who is now the House Transportation Committee chairman. O'Donnell lost the three-way primary by about 200 votes, roughly 4 percentage points.

Markosek has endorsed O'Donnell this year.

The candidate figures to face a difficult challenge to unseat Murphy, a three-term incumbent. Despite widespread GOP losses across the country and state, he managed to defeat Democratic challenger Chad Kluko by almost 40,000 votes, about 15 percentage points.

Still, O'Donnell remains undeterred.

"Tim Murphy has not been challenged for this seat in Congress like he's going to be challenged by me," he said. "Although I think previous candidates were good quality Democrats, for whatever reason they weren't able to raise fund we're in the process of doing."

When pressed to answer how much money he has raised before July 1st's fundraising deadline, O'Donnell responded: "I honestly don't have a handle on exactly where we'll be at that time, we are in the process of filing our report, but I think it'll be surprisingly strong."

He promised he would have enough money "to be competitive."

He's also confident he will win.

Asked to rate his chances on a scale of 1 to 100, he answered, "101 percent."

"I think quite honestly, we are going to work very, very hard, and I believe when the smoke clears and dust settles," O'Donnell said, "I'll be the next congressman for the 18th Congressional District."