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Dachowski aims to give Schwartz a run for her money

I have some idea what it’s like to run a long-shot race against a well-funded incumbent, so when I met Damian Dachowski, who has filed as a Republican candidate against Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz (D-13), I wasn’t sure what to expect. By and large, I was favorably impressed.

Dachowski, a dentist and a previous candidate for county coroner, struck me as personable—one might even say charming—and very much aware of the challenges he faces. Pro-business and pro-life, he is ideologically in the mainstream of GOP candidates, but seemed realistic that the economy will be the biggest issue next time out. Repeatedly, he turned to what he called the “I was taken in” syndrome: voters, including many Democrats, who believed Obama would improve the economy but instead see a left-leaning program without much economic change. He has a Washington-based consultant and has attended a candidate workshop in Washington, so he’s already ahead of where I and some other candidates were last time.

That’s the good news.  The bad news is he has $10,000 in the bank and Schwartz has $2.5 million. And the incumbent has made short shrift of her two most recent opponents. It would probably take a perfect storm of good fundraising, anti-Obama sentiment and perhaps some distraction on Schwartz’s part for Dachowski or another new face to win. Yet the optimism and energy, 16 months out, were striking for the candidate of a party that is supposed to be in the doldrums. One senses the beginnings of a change in momentum—not yet fully realized, still capable of reversal, but real and getting stronger.

July 22, 2009 at 7:00 am

--Michael Livingston

Tags: Allyson Schwartz, Damian Dachowski, PA-13

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