Standing in front of a packed classroom of fellow Republican students, College Republicans President and Engineering junior Peter Terpeluk said, “This is going to be a good election year for us.”
Hosting their first meeting this semester, the College Republicans laid out their objectives for the upcoming fall election Tuesday night in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall. The group also hosted a member of Patrick Meehan’s campaign. Meehan is a Congressional candidate in Pennsylvania’s seventh district and a former United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania’s seventh district, currently held by outgoing Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Joe Sestak, is likely to be one of the closest races in the country this fall.
The Cook Political Report, which analyzes polling data, lists the seat as a “toss up,” meaning that the race between Meehan and his two competitors, Democratic nominee Bryan Lentz and third-party independent candidate Jim Schneller, will likely come down to the wire.
With 49 days still left to go until the 2010 midterm elections, the rhetoric amongst the three candidates has become increasingly heated.
A legal challenge, filed back in August against Schneller by two Meehan supporters, argued that the conservative candidate would not have had enough signatures without help from Lentz supporters. In a statement, Meehan campaign manager Bryan Kendro accused Lentz of using “dirty and unethical political tricks to manipulate this election for his own personal gain.”
The challenge was withdrawn Sept. 2, following a ruling against Meehan’s supporters.
On Sept. 7, Schneller filed his own legal suit against Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett and acting Secretary of State Basil Merenda, hoping the court will compel Corbett’s office to complete its investigation into alleged fraud in Meehan’s nominating petitions, according to pa2010.com, a political news website dedicated to the midterm elections in Pennsylvania.
In addition to working in the seventh congressional district, Terpeluk focused on the College Republicans’ role in other key state and local races.
According to Terpeluk, the group plans to hold weekly phone banks for the Republican candidates for Governor and Senate — Corbett and former Congressman Pat Toomey, respectively.
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