Jim Wertz He spent the early years of his professional career behind the camera, then became class president as a professor at Edinboro University (now PennWest).
Now he enters the scene as a political candidate who could assist flip the Pennsylvania Senate from red to blue.
Erie Democrat challenges two-term Republican incumbent Senator Dan Laughlin (R-Erie) in the 49th Senatorial District. PA Dems are hoping the Erie Democratic Party chairman can unseat Laughlin and bring them within one seat of a majority position in Harrisburg.
Republicans currently hold a 28-22 advantage in the state Senate, but Democrats are hopeful that Wertz and Rep. Patty Kim (D-Dauphin) in SD-15 and Nicole Ruscitto in SD-37, could flip those seats. And with a Democratic governor in Josh Shapirowhich would give Democrats control of the chamber for the first time since 1994.
Wertz never expected to run for office. The first in his family to graduate from college, he was a union broadcaster and production manager at WICU-TV before starting his own production company.
In 2018, he was elected chairman of the Erie County Democratic Party and ran for office because “Republicans in Harrisburg have shown they cannot be trusted to fight for our country, our schools, or the right of workers to earn a living.”
The culmination of this event was the period when Wertz worked as a co-author in a local alternative monthly – Erie Reader. He wrote an opinion piece entitled: “Erie at Large: A Congressman and a State Senator Walk Into a Bar“- suggesting that US Congressman Mike Kelly (R-16) and Laughlin sought to invalidate absentee ballots cast in the 2020 presidential election and that the pair were on proposed pardon lists before the former president Donald Trump inner circle.
Laughlin sued Wertz and the paper for $1 million for defamation. While some of the attorney fees were covered pro bono, other additional costs would have bankrupted the alt-biweekly.
The lawsuit put Wertz in the race, and while his case is still pending, Pennsylvania Democrats dream of what could have been.
Erie is one of the leading counties in the Commonwealth that travels back and forth Barack ObamaTrump and Joe BidenWith Erie returning to the national spotlight, the state Senate election could draw disproportionate attention.
Democrats have a nearly 12,000-vote lead over Republicans in registration in a recent State Department report. Both camps will be trying to keep their supporters in line while finding ways to attract the district’s more than 18,000 independent voters to their side.
One of the political groups that national Republicans have opposed—immigrants—now make up nearly 25 percent of Erie’s population. Combine that with a coalition of workers’ groups and civil rights defenders and Wertz believes he can win the day.
“(Erie) is a place of immigrants, old and new, Protestants and Catholics, Muslims and Jews – Irish, Poles, Italians, Africans, Latinos and Eastern Europeans – and like them, I loved this city as an immigrant,” Wertz said in his book campaign announcement.
“I am running for State Senate because I believe the people of Erie deserve a senator who will embrace democracy and jealously guard our right to vote, not one who would trade it for personal power or the whims of his party. Pennsylvania is the birthplace of democracy, and Erie is its last line of defense.”
Laughlin, chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee and vice chairman of the Game and Fishing Committee, and his wife were sued by The Erie Reader newspaper for “stealing” hundreds of free copies of the paper because they believed the column defamed the senator.
His wife, Peggy, said she took the free newspapers “to prevent someone from reading all these ridiculous, gratuitous, totally unfair, unprovoked attacks on my husband.” He testified that he had collected 20 “nice, clean, fresh copies for myself.”
The lawsuit was dismissed last week.
Wertz, for his part, emphasizes that he wants Erie to become a community that is welcoming to both newcomers and long-time residents.
“I was at the beach last weekend with my family, and the beach was full of immigrants and new Americans. And it was, it was exciting,” Wertz says. “It was refreshing.”
Laughlin was re-elected after winning by 20 points over Julia Slomski in 2022.
