LEFTOVERS: A get for Welch, more Lt. Gov. candidates, Bonusgate, health care & more

Boy did we pick the wrong week to try and take a breather. Four candidate announcements. Bonusgate goes bipartisan. Health care votes ignite a firestorm.

We tried the best we could to keep up. But here are some items that slipped by us.

Steven Welch’s 6th District congressional campaign announced that incumbent Jim Gerlach’s former chief of staff, Guy Ciarrocchi, is joining Welch as a campaign co-chair. This is good news for Welch since Ciarrocchi was reportedly thinking of running for his old boss’s seat himself. Now Welch can benefit from a guy who definitely knows the district in a crowded primary. In a campaign statement, Ciarrocchi called Welch “the best candidate for this seat.”

As if there weren’t already enough Republicans running for Lieutenant Governor, a couple more entered the fray. Former state Representative John Kennedy appears to be ready to go, with a campaign Web site now online. Kennedy told us back in June that he’s not looking to be in a “ceremonial position.” Now why would anyone suggest that Lt. Gov. is just for kicks? Meanwhile, our friends at GrassrootsPA tell us that western Pennsylvania Republican Jean Craige Pepper is considering the race.

There were some interesting 2010 ripples in the recent Bonusgate indictments, and we’re not talking about Attorney General Tom Corbett’s gubernatorial aspirations. Turns out that state Representative Cut Schroder (R-Chester), who’s for Congress against Welch in the 6th District, was one of those Republicans targeted by John Perzel. Schroder, The Inquirer reports, was the target of robo-calls spearheaded by Perzel in an attempt to keep him off the ballot. And this is even weirder: The campaign manager for Jim Gerlach, who’s been relentlessly attacking Corbett’s investigation as politicized, was one of the people who testified.

Health care votes mean advertisements for and against those unlucky elected officials. The Democratic National Committee is targeting Republicans Gerlach and Charlie Dent. And Americans United for Change has been running ads thanking Chris Carney and Kathy Dahlkemper to thank them for supporting the legislation that recently passed the House.

Lastly, pa2010.com Central offers our condolences to Senator Arlen Specter and his staff, who recently lost longtime aide Kenneth Evans to complications from heart surgery. The Inquirer reports that Evans passed away earlier this month at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.