Jim Gerlach

==Links==
* Lois Murphy is an opponent for the 2006 general election.
* Liberty Slate has made Jim Gerlach a taget for 2008.
==Insights==
===U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach might challenge Pat Toomey in the 2010 Republican US Senate primary.===
: Deb Erdley can be reached via e-mail or at 412-320-7996, April 2009, Tribune-Review
A spokesman for the four-term Chester County Republican today said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, chairman of the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, called Gerlach on to discuss a Senate campaign, in the wake of Sen. Arlen Specter's defection to the Democratic Party.
Cornyn, who had endorsed Specter over conservative challenger Toomey, could not be reached for comment.
Gerlach spokesman Mark Campbell, however, said party officials were "very interested," in a Gerlach Senate candidacy.
Campbell said Gerlach is considering it.
"The congressman's decision is not going to be based on political opportunity, but on what he believes is best for the party. He believes the Republican Party needs to go back to being the party of John Heinz and Ronald Reagan," Campbell said. He described Gerlach as a fiscally conservative centrist Republican.
Specter said he switched parties after polls showed him trailing Toomey, a former Lehigh Valley congressman who nearly unseated him in the 2004 Republican primary.
The five-term Philadelphia senator's departure left Toomey and Johnstown pro-life activist Peg Luksik as the announced candidates for the 2010 GOP Senate primary.
Gerlach, 54 in 2009, grew up in Ellwood City. He represented southeastern Pennsylvania in the General Assembly from 1990-2002. Several months ago he formed an exploratory committee to weigh a 2010 gubernatorial bid.
Gerlach