PA-01: Will Bucks County Democrats choose a millionaire, a veteran or an environmentalist?
In the Democratic primary race for the First District U.S. House seat, voters face a choice between pragmatism and party messaging as they choose a nominee in a district crucial to the party’s drive to flip the House from red to blue this fall.
Democrats will have to decide whether Scott Wallace, a self-funded millionaire who can put plenty of cash into the general election, has a better chance of beating Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick — a freshman who succeeded his brother, Mike — than Rachel Reddick, a young mother and Navy veteran with a profile that appeals to national Democrats in the “Year of the Woman.”
“I think that PA-01 is a pretty good bellwether district of what might be going on in the country. I think if Democrats can flip this, it would indicate Democrats are on their way to flip the House,” said Kyle Kondik, an election analyst at the University of Virginia. “It’s among a handful of districts around the country that might be most worth watching.”
As Wallace, 66, and Reddick, 33, battle it out, Steve Bacher, a little-funded progressive environmentalist, argues he is closes to the heart of the party base.
The Bucks County Democratic Committee and other powerful county Democrats have endorsed Wallace, grandson of former Vice President Henry A. Wallace, who planted the seed to the family fortune. Years before he served under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Henry Wallace founded a company that pioneered hybrid corn seeds, which was sold in 1999 to the DuPont Co. for $10 billion.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/pa-primary-congress-scott-wallace-rachel-reddick-steve-bacher-bucks-20180511.html
