Jim Wertz spent his early professional years behind a camera before moving to the head of the class as a professor at Edinboro (now PennWest) University.
Now, he steps on center stage as a political candidate who could help turn the Pennsylvania Senate from red to blue.
The Erie Democrat challenging two-term Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Laughlin (R-Erie) in the 49th senatorial district. PA Dems hope that the chair of the Erie Democratic Party can topple Laughlin and move them one seat closer to a majority position in Harrisburg.
Republicans presently hold a 28-22 advantage in the state Senate, but Democrats are hopeful that Wertz, along with Rep. Patty Kim (D-Dauphin) in SD-15 and Nicole Ruscitto in SD-37, can flip those seats. And with a Democratic governor in Josh Shapiro, that would put Dems in control of the chamber for the first time since 1994.
Wertz never anticipated running for office. The first member of the family to graduate from college, he was a union broadcaster and production manager for WICU-TV before founding his own production company.
He was elected Chair of the Erie County Democratic Party in 2018 and was moved to run for office since “Republicans in Harrisburg have shown they can’t be trusted to fight for our country, our schools, or the rights of workers to earn a living wage.”
The capper was while Wertz was serving as a contributing writer for a local alternative monthly – The Erie Reader. He wrote an opinion article entitled, “Erie at Large: A Congressman and a State Senator Walk Into a Bar” – suggesting that U.S. Congressman Mike Kelly (R-16) and Laughlin sought to invalidate mail-in ballots for the 2020 presidential election and that the pair were on proposed pardon lists in front of former President Donald Trump’s inner circle.
Laughlin sued both Wertz and the paper for $1 million in defamation. While some of the attorney fees were picked up pro bono, other additional costs would bankrupt the alt-biweekly.
