DiFrancesco Campaign Collapses: ZERO Votes in SE Caucus
by Lowman S. Henry
Dauphin County Commissioner Nick DiFrancesco's campaign for Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor collapsed last night as not one single state committee member from the populous Southeast Caucus voted for him in the second of six regional caucus straw polls.
The failure of DiFrancesco to gain any support at all in the Southeast (Chester, Montgomery, Buck, Delaware and Philadelphia) comes on the heels of his defeat Saturday for the Central Caucus endorsement. DiFrancesco was widely viewed as the prohibitive front runner for his home caucus endorsement, but ended up losing to Chet Beiler of Lancaster County.
Given the fact DiFrancesco has no organization or key support in any of the four remaining caucuses, the race for the endorsement appears to be coming down to a contest between Bucks County Commissioner Jim Cawley (who won the southeast caucus endorsement) and Beiler, the party's 2008 nominee for Auditor General.
The unofficial tally of straw poll endorsement votes stands as follows:
Governor
Tom Corbett 177
Sam Rohrer 16
Lt Governor
Jim Cawley 87
Chet Beiler 29
Nick DiFrancesco 26
Carol Aichele 20
Joe Watkins 17
Steve Johnson 9
Craige Pepper 1
Greg Sahd 1
Ross Diamond 0
US Senate
Pat Toomey 186
Peg Luksik 4
*Unofficial Tally Based on reports from Central and Southeast Caucuses