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Republican candidate Rick Saccone Facetiming with his son after voting Tuesday at Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church.
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Election whiplash: Saccone, other candidates scramble to get into race for new district before dust settles on District 18 contest

Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette

Election whiplash: Saccone, other candidates scramble to get into race for new district before dust settles on District 18 contest

They're still double-checking the numbers in Tuesday's special election for Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District ... but already the talk is turning to the next round. And thanks in part to a new Congressional map redrawn by the state Supreme Court, some familiar names — including that of state Sen. Guy Reschenthaler — may get a second crack at the U.S. House in this year's regular election cycle.

The current 18th District, where Democrat Conor Lamb appears to have beaten Republican Rick Saccone, will cease to exist by the end of the year. Much of it will become a new, and newly GOP-friendly, 14th District seat concentrated in Greene, Washington, and Westmoreland counties. (The district's swath of Allegheny County, including Mr. Lamb's home base of Mt. Lebanon, will be drawn into the 17th District overlapping Republican Keith Rothfus' 12th. Other portions will join a Pittsburgh-centered district.)

Mr. Reschenthaler, whom Mr. Saccone beat out for the Republican nomination, is expected to run in the new 14th. Mr. Reschenthaler, of Jefferson Hills, lives just outside the new district's boundaries, but that seems less of a political liability given how the map is in flux.

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Mr. Reschenthaler's campaign advisers would not comment for this story, but Republicans say he is being encouraged to run after Mr. Saccone's apparent loss on Tuesday. And he's already picked up one champion: State Sen. Kim Ward, of Westmoreland County, tweeted Thursday morning, "State Senator Guy Reschenthaler considering Congressional run in the new district. Do it!"

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The statement was notable: Ms. Ward also sought the party's nomination in the special election. When she couldn't get it during a November gathering of party conferees, her supporters swung to Mr. Saccone's cause, ending Mr. Reschenthaler's hopes.

This time, though, is different. "I have zero interest in this race -- I thought about it for maybe 20 seconds -- and I want to see us hold the seat," said Ms. Ward, who confirmed petitions were already being circulated for Mr. Reschenthaler in the district. She said she would back Mr. Reschenthaler if his efforts to get on the ballot succeed. "Guy's a hard worker, and I'm fearful of the mantra that 'This is a safe Republican seat.' I feel like I've heard that before at some point in the past couple months. I'm going to support someone who will work hard and raise money."

"Rick's a nice guy," Ms. Ward added. "But the party put $12 million into him, and it didn't work, so I'm going to support another candidate."

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Another potential candidate, state Sen. Camera Bartolotta, announced Thursday she would not run for U.S. Congress.

Even before Tuesday, national Republicans had soured on Mr. Saccone, griping to the Post-Gazette and other outlets about everything from his anemic fundraising to his mustache. Corry Bliss, whose outside-spending group Congressional Leadership Fund spent millions of dollars trying to elect Mr. Saccone, told CNN the campaign was "a joke" and that Mr. Saccone couldn't "walk and chew gum at the same time."

Mr. Saccone himself, meanwhile, has made no secret of his plans to run in the 14th for a full term starting next year. He said Thursday that he was "working hard" to compile petitions by March 20, which is the state's deadline for filing petitions signed by at least 1,000 district residents. He dismissed criticism of his campaign as "sore-loser stuff. Some of that is to trying to avoid blame."

Republicans are discussing a challenge of election results: Mr. Saccone said he was “not involved in the details of all of that. I just want to make sure every vote gets counted.” But he allowed that if he could do something differently during the campaign itself, "I would have tried to get my story out a lot stronger. It's a compelling story and I wish I did get it out earlier."

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Some Republicans share that assessment, though they laid much of the fault on Mr. Saccone's struggles to raise money on his own behalf. But Mr. Saccone said, "I know I was a strong candidate," and he said he still had supporters excited about putting him in Congress.

Democrats, too, are lining up for a shot at the 14th District, though voters there gave Republican Donald Trump a 25-point victory in 2016 — an outcome even more lopsided than he earned in the current 18th.

Tom Prigg, who spent much of 2017 preparing to challenge incumbent Republican Keith Rothfus in the current 12th District, announced a bid in the 14th last week. "I know this area. I know these people," Mr. Prigg, a native of Washington County, said in a statement. "This is a district where economic, health care, and food insecurities are major issues [and] too many people feel they don't have a voice in government."

Mr. Prigg joined another familiar name: Emergency physician Bob Solomon, a Bernie Sanders-style Democrat who lost the Democratic nomination to Mr. Lamb last year, announced his bid for the 14th late last month. Saying "our health care system is broken" and that "universal access to health care will improve the quality of life of [everyone] in the 14th District," Mr. Solomon said in a statement that voters "deserve a representative in Congress who will take the fight to Washington D.C. on their behalf."

One candidate voters won't be hearing from again — at least not this go-round — is Westmoreland County Commissioner Gina Cerilli. Ms. Cerilli was another Democrat Mr. Lamb defeated for the party's endorsement. (Though she appeared with him on Election Day itself, the only one of his former rivals with whom he made such an appearance.)

"This was a tough decision, and I told Conor I wouldn't make it until after the election, but there's just too much uncertainty about the Congressional map," Ms. Cerilli said. "I'd love to be in Washington, but there's still a lot of work I can do here. So I'm focusing on the county -- and I'm very excited to run for re-election in 2019. There will be a whole new map after the 2020 Census and maybe in the future I will look at it."

Chris Potter: cpotter@post-gazette.com.

First Published: March 15, 2018, 6:34 p.m.

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Republican candidate Rick Saccone Facetiming with his son after voting Tuesday at Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church.  (Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette)
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