Bob Roggio

Hoping 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.

WASHINGTON - In 2004, Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-Upper Uwchlan Township) campaigned with George W. Bush in a difficult re-election race for his 6th Congressional District seat.

In the end, Bush lost the district to John Kerry (D-Mass.) by almost 11,000 votes. But Gerlach would go on to defeat his Democratic opponent, attorney Lois Murphy, by a more-than 6,000 vote margin. By the time the dust settled, Murphy had spent almost $2 million, accusing Gerlach of misleading of fiscal issues and tying the incumbent to then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

Two years later, Murphy was back for a rematch. In a favorable Democratic environment, Murphy doubled her expenditures and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and liberal-aligned women’s group EMILY’s List engaged. Democrats would go on to win 31 seats and the House majority in 2006, but Gerlach proved hard to beat. The Republican dispatched of Murphy by a margin of more than 3,000 votes.

Eight Pennsylvania Democrats running for Congress are being criticized by the National Republican Congressional Committee for accepting donations from U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), who is embroiled in scandal after being accused of using his high-profile status to secure rent-stabilized apartments.

The NRCC sent two sets of e-mails, one Saturday to incumbents and another Wednesday to challengers, saying Democrats should return donations from the politically powerful Rangel.

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.

Kathy Dahlkemper found out this week her race was being changed from likely Republican to lean Republican. Find out who joins Dahlkemper as a winner this week.

Targeting by an 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 humorous approach. 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 to 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."

The second quarter is over and now we wait for the FEC numbers to be released.  But what should we expect?

In the 3rd district Phil English is facing off against challenger Kathy Dahlkemper.  In April English was showing $690k cash on had after raising $282k in the first quarter.   Dalhkemper raised $58k during the same period and had $71k on hand.  This is the make or break quarter for Dahlkemper.  She has been named as a candidate to watch on the DCCC Red-to-Blue program, but another $58k quarter will not get the job done.  For Dahlkemper to be taken seriously by the DCCC she will need to post a number that puts her with at least $250k cash on hand.

Ten days after U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach's (R-West Pikeland) released an internal poll showing him easily dispatching Democrat Bob Roggio, the challenger on Monday released a poll of his own that showed a potentially more competitive, but still difficult race.

Roggio's poll echoed the incumbent in documenting the simple fact that Roggio, a political newcomer, is almost completely unknown to most voters of the 6th Congressional District, which includes parts of Chester, Montgomery and Berks counties. But in surveying 500 likely district voters in late June, pollsters found the same deep dissatisfaction with the Bush administration and the country that polls across the country have shown. Only 16 percent rated Bush's performance as excellent or good.

The poll commissioned by Gerlach's campaign said he well-positioned to "overcome any anti-GOP tide," and to some extent Roggio's poll reflects the same conclusion, with Gerlach's approval ratings far eclipsing Bush's and the general dissatisfaction with the direction of the country.

But the most promising sign for Gerlach in the poll was its finding that, when introduced to Roggio through a biographical paragraph, voters could flock to him in large numbers. The paragraph, while entirely accurate, is nothing if not a completely positive biographical sketch. Still, in a year by nearly all accounts is expected to be a tough one for the GOP, his image as a Washington outsider-the paragraph describes him as "not a typical politician"-could be hugely beneficial. After the brief introduction, Gerlach went from a 17-point lead to a 7-point deficit. The margin of error of about 4.4 percent could wipe out most of that lead, but it is still a dramatic swing.

"This poll emphatically shows that contrary to what Jim Gerlach's team wants you to believe, the race for Pennsylvania's 6th district is just beginning," Roggio Campaign Manager, Liz Conroy said in a statement. "At a time when people are ready for new solutions and new ideas, Jim Gerlach epitomizes politics as usual in the eyes of voters.  The 6th district is clearly excited about Bob Roggio's story and his new priorities for the region, the state and the nation."

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. Senator 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 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."