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Rothfus beats Buchanan by wide margin

WEXFORD—Keith Rothfus said he just might be able to sleep Tuesday night.

“Relieved is how I feel right now,” he said about an hour after he was declared the winner of the 4th District Republican primary. “But now we have even more work to do.”

After keeping former U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan on the defensive for weeks, Rothfus easily sent her packing Tuesday. He won two-thirds of the vote, topping a party-favored candidate with seeming ease. He will face sophomore Democrat Jason Altmire in the fall.

“I’m just really gratified by how people have rallied behind my campaign,” Rothfus said. Beating Altmire, he acknowledged, is a far taller task.

“We start tomorrow,” Rothfus said. “We are going to highlight how Jason Altmire has spent our children’s and grandchildren’s money. We are going to highlight how Jason Altmire is Nancy Pelosi’s enabler and we are going to highlight Jason Altmire’s failure of leadership at a time that demands leadership.”

Buchanan got into the race as one of several Republican recruits the party has made in an effort to stretch Democrats—and Democratic resources—thin in the Keystone State. But her campaign got off to an inauspicious start, as she told a radio host to “shut up and let me talk” before going onto trail Rothfus in fundraising and make a claim about her opposition to the 2008 financial bailouts that was easily and quickly refuted.

At Buchanan’s campaign headquarters a mile down the road, things were subdued most of the night, and became hushed when the race was called.

“No one can really relax until I make this speech,” she said with tears in her eyes but a smile on her face.

While Buchanan said she received a “very favorable response and a lot of encouragement” from voters who showed up at polling stations across the western Pennsylvania district Tuesday, there seemed to be a movement, she said, to keep candidates with prior public service experience out of office.

“There’s something going on now,” Buchanan said. “People are angry at government, Unfortunately, a lot of people did not want to be represented by someone who has served in government.”

At the Blue Water Tavern here, Rothfus’ campaign manager Stephanie Miller lauded the grassroots effort and said that savvy spending helped him clinch a race in which everybody seemed to know Buchanan’s name.

“We knew we were going to have to spend money on TV and radio ads to get our name out there,” she said. “And that may have won us the primary.”

The district is currently ranked No. 8 on the pa2010.com Congressional Power Rankings.

May 19, 2010 at 5:15 am

--Amanda Gillooly

Tags: Jason Altmire, Keith Rothfus, Mary Beth Buchanan, PA-4

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