PA GOP outlines plans for picking 24th Senate District candidate

The Republican Party of Pennsylvania has released details on how it will pick a candidate to run in a special election to fill the vacant 24th Senate District seat held by Sen. Rob Wonderling.

The details are below, but if you want to cut to the chase, the nominee will be state Rep. Bob Mensch, who will likely win the Sept. 29 election and serve the remaining 18 months of Wonderling's term.

From a PA GOP press release:

The Republican Party of Pennsylvania announced that a conferee meeting will be held on August 6th, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.in Bucks County to nominate a candidate to fill the Republican Party's position on the ballot for the upcoming September 29th, 2009 special election.

The meeting will be held at the Spinnerstown Hotel in Spinnerstown, PA 18968. The special election was scheduled to fill the vacant seat in the 24th State Senatorial District created by the resignation of State Senator Rob Wonderling.

"Senator Rob Wonderling did a great job during his time in office and we are looking forward to nominating a strong candidate who will put our Party in the best position to retain this critically important seat," Republican Party of Pennsylvania Chairman Rob Gleason said. "The conferee process will be carried out in an open and transparent fashion, consistent with the way we have conducted similar meetings in other areas of the state. I am confident that the Republican Party will select the best candidate to represent this district."

The Department of State has determined that candidates' paperwork must be filed no later than Monday, August 10th, 2009.

Due to the fact that this State Senatorial District is made up of more than one county (Bucks, Lehigh, Montgomery and Northampton counties), PA GOP Bylaws dictate that the State Party preside over the conferee meeting. Conferees must be registered Republican electors that reside in the 24th State Senatorial District. County Party bylaws dictate the counties' conferee selection processes. Conferees are allotted based on the electoral results of last year’s presidential race and distributed proportionally to each county. We have informed each county that there will be a total of 62 conferees.

Conferees broken down by county:

Bucks County – 12
Lehigh County – 14
Montgomery County – 22
Northampton County – 14

During the conferee meeting, each candidate will have the opportunity to make a short presentation. After each candidate has an opportunity to be heard, the conferees will vote to nominate a candidate to fill our Party's position on the ballot. A nominated candidate must secure a majority plus one of the votes cast to earn the nomination. No proxies will be permitted at this meeting, and only conferees will be permitted to vote.

Any registered Republican, 25 years or older, who has resided in the 24th State Senatorial District for at least one year may seek the Party's nomination. All candidates interested in seeking the Party's nomination must contact Republican Party of Pennsylvania Deputy Political Director Mike Downing by calling 717-234-4901, ext. 111 or by emailing mdowning@pagop.org so that we can ensure that every interested candidate receives all the details of the process.