2 vie for 37th District Senate seat
Women and Girls Foundation CEO to run against Reschenthaler
Heather Arnet, the CEO of the Women and Girls Foundation, will be the Democratic candidate against Republican Guy Reschenthaler in a November special election for the 37th District state Senate seat.
Because it is a special election, the nominee will be chosen by the Democratic committee members from the district rather than in a normal primary election. The committee vote, which is scheduled for Saturday in Mt. Lebanon, is just a formality, however, as Ms. Arnet is the only Democrat who met the filing deadline for the contest.
Mr. Reschenthaler, who had been serving as a district judge in Jefferson Hills, resigned from the bench earlier this month to accept the GOP nomination. He won over five other Republican contenders after five rounds of voting among Republican officials from the district, which covers much of Allegheny County’s southern and western suburbs and extends into Peters in Washington County. Mr. Reschenthaler had been elected to his judicial post in 2013.
Ms. Arnet declined to be interviewed, saying that she wanted to wait for her official nomination before commenting.
The Carnegie Mellon University graduate, 41, has lived in the Pittsburgh region since 2000. A member of the Pittsburgh school board form 2007 to
2009, she now lives in Mt. Lebanon with her husband and their son.
The 37th District seat opened with the resignation of former Sen. Matt Smith, who left the Senate to take a job with the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce. Before his victory in another special election in 2012, the district had been in GOP hands for a generation. Its occupants have included former Attorney General Mike Fisher, U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy and former state Sen. John Pippy.
Despite the seat’s GOP heritage, state Sen. Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills, the Senate minority leader, said that he was optimistic that Ms. Arnet would carry it for their party, which now trails the Republican caucus 30 to 19 in the Senate. But he acknowledged that the race would be intensely competitive, predicting that its total spending could exceed $2 million.
“Our prospects are very strong,” he said. “[Ms. Arnet] is a vibrant, well-qualified candidate.”
The Democratic leader said he was pleased that the party would field a woman candidate at a time when Allegheny County's legisla-tive delegation is entirely male.
The race gives the Demo-crats an opportunity to re-bound from a tough elec-tion cycle. While Gov. Tom Wolf won easily last year, his victory was a rare bright spot for the party in a year in which the GOP gained congressional and legislative seats nationally and across Pennsylvania.