Cohen dropped out of the GOP primary in January when incumbent Republican Jim Gerlach decided to seek reelection. In announcing his fundraising numbers Monday, Cohen reiterated his support for Gerlach, and urged his backers to give money to the incumbent’s campaign. He also called on Republicans still in the race to step aside.

“I look forward to working for and with Congressman Gerlach who has so ably represented us in the U.S. House,” Cohen said in a statement. “I urge other Republican primary candidates who are now challenging Jim to withdraw immediately so that we can avoid a costly primary and begin to focus our resources on retaining this House seat for the Republicans in November. I will have more to say about this in the coming weeks.”

Wealthy businessman Steven Welch, geologist Walt Hufford and Tea Party activist Patrick Sellers are still challenging Gerlach in the primary.

“I was running because I felt it was imperative that the Sixth District retain a Republican Congressman who believed in fiscal integrity, strong national security, and was committed to getting our citizens back to work,” Cohen said in a statement. “Jim Gerlach has the very best chance of doing that and I am enlisting in his reelection campaign. I am ready to assist in his reelection effort and do whatever I can to return him to Washington as my congressman. I have supported him before and proudly do so again.”

Lower Merion Township Commissioner Scott Zelov also withdrew from the race after Gerlach decided to abort his gubernatorial bid and run for reelection instead. Geologist Walt Hufford’s campaign has said he’ll stay in the primary for now, and while businessman Steven Welch and state Representative Curt Schroder (R-Chester) have also signaled they may remain in the race, neither has said so explicitly.

His announcement had been widely expected even before he formally ended his gubernatorial campaign. In a statement, Gerlach said he represented the “best chance for Republicans to not only hold this seat, but play a major role in regaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives.” And he claimed that “hundreds” of his constituents had contacted him after he quit the governor’s race urging him to seek reelection.

“Seeking re-election to the 6th Congressional District rather than running for governor will change my position on the ballot,” Gerlach said. “However, my principles remain the same. I am committed to helping families keep more of their hard-earned paychecks, giving small businesses the freedom they need to create jobs and remain competitive and making sure the government lives within its means and works for the people.

“I have held this seat in the face of fiercely competitive elections in which opponents and liberal interest groups have spent millions against me in the worst political environments for Republicans in a generation,” he added.

Gerlach’s decision will drastically reshape what had been a crowded primary field of Republicans looking to replace him. With the National Republican Congressional Committee seen as firmly behind Gerlach, other candidates are certain to face some pressure to exit the race. Two Republicans who were seen as front-runners in the primary, businessman Steven Welch and state Representative Curt Schroder (R-Chester), both signaled that they might stay in the race, but did not say so explicitly. A third Republican, Howard Cohen, was waiting for Gerlach to make his final decision on Friday.

“As I have said before I admire Jim’s commitment to public service and look forward to a professional, spirited debate on the best way to revive the American Dream and stop burdening our children with mountains of debt,” Welch said in a statement.

Democrats, for their part, have sought to downplay the political importance of Gerlach’s change of heart. The Democratic Congressional Campaign committee has reaffirmed the 6th District as an important pick-up opportunity for the party, and Democratic candidates Doug Pike and Manan Trivedi had come out swinging against Gerlach even before his announcement was formalized.

“Doug Pike is ready to hold Congressman Gerlach accountable for his record of incredible irresponsibility on the economy, on health care, and on wall street oversight,” Pike campaign manager Andrew Eldredge-Martin said.

The race remains one of the most competitive in the state. Democrats have come tantalizingly close to beating Gerlach in each of their four tries. Dan Wofford lost by less than three points in 2002. Lois Murphy lost by two points in 2004 and by less than two points when she tried again in 2006. And when the party put up a less experience candidate in 2008, Bob Roggio lost by only four points.

Barack Obama won the district with about 58 percent of the vote in 2008, and Democrats outnumber Republicans in the district by more than 20,000 voters.

“Jim Gerlach has been an outstanding Congressman serving the citizens of the Pennsylvania Sixth District,  I have supported Jim every time he ran,” Cohen said. “When he announced that he was running for Governor, I went through a deliberative process that included consulting with many friends and individuals who know the district and know me, including Jim Gerlach. I also looked at others who were running, and I concluded that I could do the job better than those who were running, or those who were planning to run.

“I am in this race until my Congressman, Jim Gerlach, makes a decision as to whether he will run for reelection. At that time, I will make a decision as to whether I continue my campaign. I want to serve the citizens of the 6th District and as I have said many times, I am ready to go to work for them on day one.”

State Representative Curt Schroder (R-Chester) has indicated he may stay in the race even if Gerlach runs again. An aide to another GOP front-runner, businessman Steven Welch, could not be immediately reached Thursday evening.

Cohen, one of several candidates seeking the GOP nod in the 6th District, wouldn’t be specific about how much he’s raised since entering the race in mid-November. But he reiterated that it would be enough to be competitive. Fourth quarter numbers won’t be published until the end of the month.

“We had an ambitious plan, and we exceeded it,” Cohen said over lunch here Wednesday. “The FEC report, I think, will surprise a few people.”

Meanwhile, Cohen said he was building a “citizen-based” campaign. Terry Tracy, a student at Penn’s Fels Institute of Government, has been tapped to run the campaign. It’s his first gig managing a race, “which means he doesn’t have any bad habits,” Cohen joked. Two consulting firms, Jamestown Associates and Arena Strategies, are handling research, strategy and general media work. Cohen said he’s still looking for a finance director.

After a lengthy conversation earlier this week with Cohen, who is poised to enter the race soon, I have to say that Alex got it just right, as usual. I don’t know whether Cohen can gain traction in a crowded primary where one candidate has won elections in the district for years (Curt Schroder) and another is spending loads of his own money to win (Steven Welch). But it’s clear that Cohen has a different type of political narrative he plans to offer, and while I covered most of it in my earlier stories, I just wanted to add a few more thoughts before we move on.

First of all, he’s from the Montgomery County part of the district, which is more typically seen as the area’s stronghold of  Democratic votes. While this might not help him in a primary, it could prove valuable in a general election where a winning Republican really will have to draw at least a handful of votes from the other party’s voters.

Second of all, he’s got different—and frankly, much deeper—public sector experience than the other candidates. Whether now is the right political moment for that is certainly open to debate.

And finally, he just talks differently than the rest of them. I still haven’t met him in person, so I don’t know how this will translate with other voters. But it could prove potent. He talks about the sorry state of political discourse. He acknowledges he can’t outspend Welch. He’s quick to call the district “sprawling” and “gerrymandered,” something other Republicans for whom the district was drawn that way are slower to openly acknowledge. He readily concedes that at 68, he’s way older than the other candidates, but says  that “my dad lived to be 93, and we will outwork any other candidate in the race.”

Don’t get me wrong—Cohen undoubtedly starts this race as an underdog. But there’s also no questioning that a fascinating primary is about to get even more fun.

Howard Cohen, who runs a business consulting firm in Bala Cynwyd, told pa2010.com that he is likely to make an official announcement next week. But he has already filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission. And in considering the race over the last couple months, he said, he has met with party leaders in the district, in Harrisburg and in Washington, while also talking to the three Republicans already in the race.

“I have told people I’m running and I am running,” Cohen said in a phone interview Monday.

“I have been involved in political life and government life for over 40 years, and I am somewhat disappointed in the quality of political dialogue not only in the country but even in the neighborhood and certainly in the state,” he added. “I think the recent 101 days of the Commonwealth being withinout a budget is symptomatic of much deeper issues in the body politic. I have decided to run because I think, without being arrogant about it, that I can make a serious contribution to elevating the political dialogue in this region.”

At 68 years old and with years in public service at the state and federal levels, Cohen is a different candidate than his three competitors, contrasts that he seems sure to emphasize in constructing a campaign narrative. Aside from two years in the Thornburgh administration, he has worked as a legislative aide in Washington, served stints in the Nixon and Ford White Houses and said he was instrumental in the eventual folding of the Civil Aeronautics Board.

“Not many conservatives can say they helped put an unneeded agency of the federal government out of business,” Cohen said.

Along with significant experience working as both a professor and administrator in academia, and sprinkled with some private sector work, Cohen is presenting his qualifications for office as quite different from his opponents.

“I have a very sincere interest in managing government,” he said. “It’s time to put people in Congress who can cut government where appropriate and get down in the trenches where it matters.”

The political challenges he faces going forward are formidable. Businessman Steven Welch is pouring loads of his own money into funding a campaign, a factor that Cohen acknowledges creates a “financial David and Goliath” dynamic. State Representative Curt Schroder (R-Chester), meanwhile, has represented parts of the gerrymandered district for years, and Chester County Recorder of Deeds Ryan Costello is looking to run an energetic campaign. The winner of any primary will face a Democrat whose party is determined to capture the seat after years of getting tantalizingly close to knocking off incumbent Jim Gerlach, who is running for governor.

But Cohen says he’s ready for the challenge.

“At a time when things are bad in the country, if people who have an interest in public life and have been as lucky as I have been in my career, if we don’t get into politics, than I think the level of political discourse will continue to be bumper-sticker solutions for very complicated problems,” he said.

In a primary that also includes two other GOP candidates and involves at least one expensive media market, Cohen said Monday, he hopes to be able to spend about half-a-million dollars.

“This is, in a sense, a financial David and Goliath race, and I will raise enough money to be competitive,” Cohen, who plans to formally declare his candidacy soon, told pa2010.com Monday.

“I cannot self-fund this campaign like others can,” he added, “but we will be competitive because others will hear our message and support.”

In putting together a war chest, Cohen hopes to draw on his years of fundraising experience at Temple University, where he helped in a capital campaign that ended in construction of a new building for the university’s business school.

“I know a little bit about fundraising,” Cohen said.

As for that half-a-million dollar budget? Welch has already loaned his campaign more than that.