The three 12th District candidates who went nowhere

LATROBE—Bill Choby, Luke Summerfield and Ron Robertson all came here Thursday night to seek the GOP’s nomination in the 12th District special election. They addressed party insiders, patiently took their questions, and left the podium to polite applause.

But none of the three was formally nominated for consideration in the endorsement vote, ending their candidacies as quickly as they had started.

Choby, a Johnstown dentist who ran against John Murtha multiple times, had been expected to make his case. Summerfield and Robertson seemingly came out of nowhere. Asked why he didn’t have anyone nominate him, Choby shrugged.

“I don’t know,” he told pa2010.com. “I didn’t talk to anybody. I thought the best way to do this was to not play behind-the-scenes politics.”

Summerfield gave what felt like the most entertaining presentation, replete with references to Rahm Emanuel, the fall of the Roman Empire—and a dose of reality.

”I don’t realistically think I’m going to win tonight,” Summerfield correctly predicted. “I have no popular support, no base and no financial resources.”

See a video clip of Choby’s speech below. More videos from the evening can be found on the pa2010.com YouTube channel.