PA-6

Congressional candidate Bob Roggio: Campaign PhotoHoping to gain traction in his uphill race against U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-West Pikeland), Democrat Bob Roggio is embarking on a 50-town tour in the 6th Congressional District, one that will run from now until Election Day.

The tour kicked off this weekend in Norristown, and will include everything from door-to-door canvassing to impromptu meetings with voters at coffee shops, campaign manager Liz Conroy said. The tour continued today in Narberth, and will take Roggio everywhere from Lower Merion to Reading in the coming weeks.

The ambitious effort to visit a majority of townships in the district reflects the campaign reality that voters in the district know little, if anything, about Roggio, a political newcomer. With Gerlach well-funded and having survived two close races in the last two election cycles, many analysts see the incumbent as finally having a safe seat.

"The goal of this is really for Bob to get out and talk to people across the district about the issues that are on their mind," Conroy said.

With six U.S. House races in play this fall, Pennsylvania has the largest number of competitive congressional races than any other state in the country, a new Politicker.com report shows.

The Pindell Report, which launched today, aims to provide the country's most dynamic and richly reported ranking and analysis of U.S. Senate, U.S. House and gubernatorial races, plus presidential swing states.

The report, named for Politicker.com Managing Editor James Pindell, shows that of the 435 U.S. House races nationwide six -- the 3rd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th and 11th district races -- are among the top 59 the report is tracking. Two of those races, the 11th and 10th, rank in the top 20 of races.

U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-West Pikeland) continues to significantly outperform his Democratic opponent Bob Roggio in the money race, but with Roggio's campaign said the pace picked up during the second quarter.

Roggio's campaign had already sought to play down results of its second quarter fundraising, saying the third quarter was when things would really take off. As campaign finance reports were released Tuesday, the reason for that caution became clear.

Roggio raised almost $180,000 in the second quarter for his bid to unseat Gerlach in the 6th Congressional District, while Gerlach raised about $343,000, according to FEC filings. That means Roggio has raised almost $325,000 to date, compared to $1.8 million for Gerlach.

Targeting by ads that seek to paint them as lackies for the oil industry and President Bush, Republican Congressional incumbents on Monday lashed out against the Democratic advertising campaign for making a joking matter of high oil prices.

The advertisements, by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, are targeting Republican incumbents across the country, including three in Pennsylvania. They depict President Bush, whose voice is done by an impersonator, leaving messages for the incumbents thanking them for their support of oil companies and saying "I know I can always count on you" with a chuckle.

In Pennsylvania, the ads are targeting U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach in the 6th Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Phil English in the 3rd District and U.S. Rep. Charles Dent in the 15th.

Though English's campaign did not comment Monday, the others criticized Democrats for the attempt at humor. The ad has also spread further the widening gap between parties on whether or not to drill for domestic off-shore oil, leading the GOP again to demand action.

“They think the pain that American families are feeling is funny," Gerlach spokesman Mark Campbell told PolitickerPA.com. "They don’t understand funny. It’s really sad."

"This is a serious issue that deserves serious debate, and Democrats in Congress are the ones who are refusing to do anyone about it," he added.

Dent's campaign manager, Shawn Millan, sounded a similar tone.

"It’s time for the Democrats, especially our opponent, to get serious on this issue," he said, "It’s not a joking issue when gas is at $4 a gallon."

When the clock strikes midnight, donations for the current federal campaign finance quarter end and candidates will have to report whatever cash they have managed to raise. Candidates on all levels made last-ditch pitches for some extra dough in the final hours.

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) kicked off the requests at 9:16 this morning, telling supporters in an email that "right now is the time to step up and own a piece of this campaign."

After the presidential candidate made his appeal, the congressional candidates jumped in.

When Bob Casey Jr. was running for a U.S. Senate office in Pennsylvania in 2006, retired businessman Bob Roggio pitched in to help out the campaign, and later even worked for the victorious Democrat's staff.

Now that Roggio, still very much a political newcomer, is making his own run for Congress, Casey is returning the favor.

In an e-mail to Roggio's supporters Saturday, Casey said he was "enthusiastically supporting Bob's candidacy and committing myself to helping Bob win in November."

Hoping to introduce himself to an electorate that knows little about him, Democrat Bob Roggio is releasing a five-minute Internet video that intersperses policy positions with a relatively thorough telling of his life story.

The video, titled "Meet Bob Roggio," will be circulated to supporters online starting this evening, but was given to PolitickerPA.com by the campaign this morning. Roggio, a 61-year-old retired executive from Chester County, is running to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach in the 6th Congressional District, which includes parts of Chester, Montgomery and Berks counties.

Framing himself as a more nonpartisan, pragmatic thinker, Roggio said in an interview this morning that his background would make him a good congressman.

"When I look at what I've done with my life, I haven't had an ideology that tells you this is the right answer, this is the wrong answer; I've been out there solving problems," Roggio said.

"I think I have a vision here that will help us and I think it's brought about by my story," he added.

Congressional candidate Bob RoggioFacing an uphill battle against a popular and well-funded incumbent, the congressional campaign of Bob Roggio is readying an aggressive fundraising push and promising that a combination of local and national donors will allow the campaign to compete in what is sure to be a difficult race.

Analysts and pollsters have identified the seat of U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-West Pikeland) in the 6th Congressional District as one that is unlikely to be captured by the Democrats, even in a year widely expected to be a tough one for the GOP. And after surviving two very close elections in 2004 and 2006, some say Gerlach is finally in a position to win more easily in the 6th district, which includes parts of Berks, Chester and Montgomery counties. He has opened the election cycle with a significant fundraising advantage, with about $1.5 million in receipts as of April, compared with only $205,000 for Roggio, a retired Chester County businessman. Several Democrats reportedly passed on running against Gerlach, largely because of the estimated $3 million to $4 million it will take to unseat him.

"This is obviously an incredibly expensive media market," Roggio's campaign manager Liz Conroy told PolitickerPA.com.

But the Roggio campaign says the recent numbers -- including an internal Gerlach poll showing Roggio well behind -- miss some important facts: Roggio got a late start on fundraising, district voters remain unsatisfied with the Republican Party, and Roggio's grassroots efforts to recruit younger voters are exactly the things needed to beat the incumbent, the campaign says.

"Bob's candidacy and Bob's profile is far better suited to running in this district than Lois Murphy," Conroy said, referring to the challenger who nearly unseated Gerlach twice.

U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-Chester) is well-positioned to "overcome any anti-GOP tide" and win reelection comfortably, according to an internal poll his campaign released today.

The poll, conducted for the campaign by Public Opinion Strategies, found Gerlach leading Democrat Bob Roggio 56 percent to 30 percent in a survey of 400 likely voters last month.

Perhaps more notably, it found Roggio, a longtime Chester County businessman, to be "a political unknown" in the 6th Congressional District of suburban Philadelphia.

"This poll strongly indicates that despite the challenging political environment, a few more Democrat voters and gas prices that are way too high, folks in this district see Jim Gerlach as a proven champion for change," Gerlach's political director, Mark Campbell, said in a statement.

U.S. Rep. Jim GerlachWhen Democratic congressional candidate Bob Roggio called out his incumbent opponent for missing House votes, he didn't realize U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-Upper Uwchlan Twp.) had been excused to care for his dying mother.

Gerlach was angered by the apparently unwarranted criticism, and Roggio's campaign later apologized.