Beaver County D chairman taking wait-and-see approach on rule changes

Beaver County Democratic Chairman Mike Sisk isn't ready to congratulate his party's state committee after it moved Saturday to change how it picks replacement candidates, nearly a month after its selection of Jason Petrella caused outrage among local Democrats.

"I don't know, we'll see," Sisk told PolitickerPA.com.

The Rules and Order of Business Committee, with the state Executive Committee, voted at the state committee's meeting to develop rules for selecting candidates if one picked by voters bows out of the campaign. The committee does not have any guidelines for picking replacement candidates when local county committees endorsement different people, a flaw exposed this August in the 47th Senatorial District when Sean Ramaley quit his campaign.

Sisk, who became chairman this summer, has criticized the state committee for not communicating, saying it did not instruct him how to endorse a local candidate. He said Wednesday that, except for his local state committee representative, the state committee still has not informed him that it plans to change the rules.

"No one ever communicates with me -- no one for the state committee," Sisk said.

In an interview Monday, Jack Hanna, co-chair of the Rules and Order of Business Committee, told PolitickerPA.com nobody will know if Petrella's selection over two competing candidates was the right move until after the election. Beaver County Commissioner Joe Spanik, who received the Beaver County Democratic Party endorsement, and Bob Grotevant, who received the local union endorsement, were the two other candidates.

"It's possible a mistake was made, and it's possible that there wasn't," Hanna said. "I don't think anybody is going to be able to have that answer until after the election."