Iovino, Raja chosen for 37th Senate District special election
Two Mt. Lebanon residents will battle to represent the vacated 37th Senate District that includes the South Hills and Peters Township.
During separate meetings Jan. 27, Democrats chose Pam Iovino and Republicans gave their nod to D. Raja, whose names will appear on the shortest of ballots in a special election scheduled for April 2.
Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter
Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter
Pam Iovino surveys a crowd of Democratic delegates at Library fire hall Sunday when she was chosen as their special election candidate in the 37th State Senatorial District.
The Democrats opened their proceedings to the public while the Republicans met for more than two hours in a closed session. Each candidate was chosen on the first ballot, with the runner-up pledging support to the first-place finisher in gestures of party unity.
The earlier of the two mini-conventions began at 11 a.m. at the Library fire hall in South Park Township, where Democrats chose Iovino, a U.S. Navy veteran and former Veterans Affairs presidential appointee, as their candidate. The vote was 137 for Iovino, to Dr. Bob Solomon’s 115, who then pledged his support to the nominee.
“We’re not starting tomorrow, we started three months ago,” she said after being declared the victor, “making sure we had the field organization and relationships, the fundraising started and (making) labor aware.”
Olivia Benson, who stunned those gathered by announcing she was dropping out of the senatorial race, received two votes. In front of 200-plus credentialed delegates, she declared her candidacy for state auditor general in 2020. Democratic Auditor General Eugene DePasquale is term-limited.
Iovino, 62, was a congressional liaison before she retired from the Navy as a captain to assume the Senate-confirmed appointment by President George W. Bush as assistant secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs. She was later director of veterans’ services for Allegheny County.
The 37th District has gone back and forth between Democrats and Republicans since the 1980s.
Both Iovino and Solomon were also-rans in November 2017 in the nominating round for the March 2018 special election that paved the way to Democrat Conor Lamb’s victory over Rick Saccone to succeed disgraced Congressman Tim Murphy in the 18th District.
Iovino alluded to that special election when “all eyes were on us a year ago to see if we could flip a congressional seat” and called on members of her party “to keep this momentum going.”
She pledged to fight for working families, raise the minimum wage and job opportunities with family-sustaining salaries while protecting the environment.
“Just by geography, there’s a lot of overlap,” Iovino said as supporters congratulated her on the nomination.
Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter
Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter
Greg Smith of Pleasant Hills, left, congratulates candidate D. Raja, who won a majority of GOP delegates’ votes.
A second set of delegates met later in the afternoon at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Bethel Park to choose the candidate they hope will succeed Republican Guy Reschenthaler, who held the state Senate seat for nearly four years before he was elected to Congress Nov. 6 to represent the 14th District.
Before taking the oath of federal office earlier this month, Reschenthaler had to resign his 37th District Senatorial seat, triggering the special election.
Addressing Republican delegates, along with Raja, hopefuls were Bob Dodato of North Fayette Township, George Karpacs of South Park Township, Jeff Neff of Sewickley, Demetrios Pantzoulas of Oakdale and Devlin Robinson of Bridgeville.
After the results of the first balloting were announced, runner-up Robinson threw his 27 votes to Raja, who had garnered 41, as part of a call for unanimity.
Raja, a former Mt. Lebanon commissioner and current member of the Allegheny County Port Authority board, also chairs the Republican Committee of Allegheny County. He ran for the 37th Senatorial seat in 2012 but was defeated by Democrat Matt Smith. Smith’s resignation in 2015 paved the way for Reschenthaler’s eventual win.
“I think it’s a good outcome,” said Greg Smith, the Republican vice chairman of Pleasant Hills, where he is a borough councilman. “It’s time people in Southwestern Pennsylvania get beyond their discriminatory thinking and elect an Asian-American.”
Raja, 53, who was born in India and educated in Pittsburgh.
“I’m a first-generation immigrant, and like many of the conferees’ grandparents and great-grandparents, I’ve lived the same values – honesty and hard work, having compassion and picking yourself up,” Raja said.
“We represent the working people of the people. Anyone who works in any job, that’s who we represent. Lower taxes, education, it’s all of those.”
Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter
Surrounded by supporters on stage at the Library fire hall in South Park Township, a jubilant Pam Iovino raises her hand in victory shortly after noon Sunday.