Bob Grotevant

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.

The state Democratic Party moved Saturday to change how it picks replacement candidates, nearly a month after Jason Petrella's selection in the 47th Senatorial District left some local and state officials outraged over a process they deemed unfair.

The Rules and Order of Business Business Committee, in conjunction with the state Executive Committee, voted Saturday to develop rules for selecting candidates if one picked by voters bows out of the campaign, according to rules committee co-chairman Jack Hanna.

The process in place now does not instruct the party how to make the selection if the 50-member Executive Committee, comprising party members across the state who make the final decision, receives different endorsements from county parties within the district. That flaw was exposed in early August after state Senate candidate Sean Ramaley had to step down from his campaign in the 47th Senatorial District following his indictment in "Bonusgate."

The ensuing scramble within the district, which includes parts of Beaver, Lawrence and Allegheny counties, led to two endorsed candidates, former Senate candidate Jason Petrella in Lawrence and Beaver County Commissioner Joe Spanik in Beaver. To further confuse matters, a third pick, former Gov. Bob Casey (D) Press Secretary Bob Grotevant, received the local union endorsement.

Jason Petrella's selection to ballot by the Pennsylvania Democratic Party in the 47th Senatorial District on Wednesday has infuriated local Democratic and union leaders, who said the state party unilaterally made a decision while ignoring their recommendation.

The anger runs deep enough that the decision might even endanger the union's endorsement of the Democratic candidate.

As Dennis Bloom, president of Beaver-Lawrence County Central Labor Council, put it, "We gave them our two selections and kind of got slapped."

The two preferred selections Bloom referred to are Bob Grotevant, former spokesman for Gov. Bob Casey (D) who emerged as a last-minute candidate this week, and Beaver County Commissioner Joe Spanik, originally considered the favorite to replace Ramaley.