Actually, you’ll have four, soon. Montgomery County middle-of-the-road Republican Howard Cohen has been telling people he’s entering the race.

Personally, I think there’s a small chance he’s just fishing around for some of Welch’s cash to be directed to his favorite candidates or causes. But that may be irrationally conspiratorial. It feels that way, though. Cohen and Welch will be aiming for the exact same voters. If someone wanted to try that little conspiracy theory out, you couldn’t pick a better person to do it with.

Also, Guy Ciarrocchi– Gerlach’s former chief of staff– is still wandering around with nothing to run for after falling short in his General Assembly run back in 2008. Until he definitively says he ISN’T running, you gotta’ wonder if he’ll jump in. Cohen attacking Welch’s base means perhaps someone attacking Schroder’s has a chance.

Finally, there were rumors of Mark Scott being encouraged to run by the Berks County GOP. If you have three people from Chester County and two from Montgomery County all running, perhaps a favorite son from Berks could squeak through.

Anyway, to more directly answer your question, I believe even three candidates is a lot for this area. The party apparatus really dislikes competitive primaries, and if they can’t be avoided tried to keep it down to two candidates. Otherwise you run the risk of someone with a really motivated base that has no chance of winning a general winning a balkanized primary.

In this case, luckily for the GOP, Curt Schroder has the most motivated base, and also happens to be a candidate with high name-recognition, bipartisan appeal, a lots of reformist legislation to his credit.

Gee…that just makes him more attractive.

Ask Welch why people would call him a RINO. I do believe he was a registered Democrat not all that long ago, and has supported Joe Sestak in the past.

I’m not at all suggesting he’s some sort of Progressive fifth-columnist or anything. But it isn’t exactly beyond the pale for someone to wonder if he’s a RINO, or not. The primary process will probably largely be about that precise issue.

Your remarks regarding Schroder indicate that you don’t know much about him. I personally know a bunch of registered Democrats that like him just fine because while he is conservative, he is also an independent thinker. Why do you think the party powers-that-be steered a self-funded primary challenger in his direction?

[Note: The Welch campaign has pointed me to a resource I was already familiar with that does not report a donation from him to the well-known Progressive PAC ActBlue. But they are still trying to figure out why other sites do have a record of such a donation.]

Perhaps, though, there are a lot of middle-of-the-road former Democrats now registered as Republicans in the sixth who are just putting their money where their hearts are.

Just curious. Hope a diligent reporter can answer the question.