Scott Perry, a Trump ally who stoked 2020 election denialism, is drawing a crowd of Democratic challengers

U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, the ultra-conservative Republican from York County who definitely tried to have all of Pennsylvania’s 2020 votes tossed in the trash and then maybe sought a pardon from then-President Donald Trump, is drawing a crowd these days.

That crowd is the Democratic primary, where three — and maybe soon four — candidates are hoping for the chance to defeat Perry’s bid for a seventh term in the 10th District next year.

Clout goes live now to Janelle Stelson, the longtime news anchor at NBC affiliate WGAL in Lancaster, who told her audience Thursday afternoon that she was leaving the news game. Stelson has been rumored for months to be mulling a challenge against Perry.

“I’ve made the difficult decision to step away from the news after nearly 40 years as a journalist, 26 of them here at WGAL,” Stelson said during a broadcast, noting it felt “a little weird” to talk about herself as a story.

Clout told you two weeks ago that Stelson was said to be considering a move into politics. WGAL announced her departure to staff on Wednesday.

Republicans have a five-point voter registration edge in the 10th District — 44% of voters are Republican, 39% are Democrats and the rest are independents or members of smaller political parties.

But Democrats are hoping to capitalize next year on Perry’s ties to Trump’s failed effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Perry spoke on the House floor just hours after rioters ransacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, seeking to have Pennsylvania’s electoral votes thrown out.

He later refused to be interviewed by the House committee investigating that attack. A Trump White House staffer testified to that committee that Perry spoke to her after the Jan. 6 riot about receiving a presidential pardon, a claim Perry has denied.

And Clout reported last month that Perry is paying nearly $68,000 per year to rent two district offices from a campaign contributor accused of attacking police on Jan. 6 with a Trump flag.

The Democratic National Congressional Committee on Thursday declared that Perry’s “constituents are tired of watching him drive the clown car and will reject his extremism next November.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee cast Perry’s would-be challengers as “carpetbagging candidates” from “the radical left” while predicting a “bloody primary.”

A Perry spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Stelson moderated debates for Perry and his Democratic challengers before the 2018 and 2020 general elections.

She was a registered Republican until Feb. 1, when voter records show she became a Democrat. Someone privately registered two websites in June — StelsonForCongress.com and JanelleStelson.com.

Stelson lives in Lancaster, which is part of the 11th Congressional District. Members of Congress must be a resident of the state where their district is located but are not required to live in that district.

WGAL’s market covers 10 counties, including all of the 10th District, made up of Dauphin County and parts of Cumberland and York Counties.

Mike O’Brien, who retired this month as a U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, last week announced his run in the Democratic primary for the 10th District.

Two other candidates had already declared — Shamaine Daniels, a Harrisburg City Council member who lost to Perry in 2022′s general election, and Rick Coplen, who lost last year’s Democratic primary to Daniels.

Philadelphia’s Democratic City Committee, as Clout predicted last week, picked three lawyers Monday to fill three Common Pleas Court “magic seats” available on November’s ballot.

This round of magic seats saw some vengeance extracted.

Former State Sen. Larry Farnese wanted one of the seats, which become available when current judges seeking to be retained for another term decide to drop off the ballot.

Clout hears Farnese’s former colleague, State Sen. Tina Tartaglione, tanked his chances.

Farnese supported Stephanie Singer in the 2011 Democratic primary for city commissioner when she defeated Tartaglione’s mother. Marge Tartaglione, who died in 2019, had been seeking a 10th four-year term.

A dozen years later, revenge is a dish still best served cold.

Bob Brady, chair of the city’s Democratic Party, told Clout there may be three or four more vacancies for Common Pleas seats in early 2024 if some expected retirements happen.

Farnese may get an appointment to complete one of those terms, Brady said.

Here again, Farnese will encounter Tartaglione. Gov. Josh Shapiro makes appointments to fill judicial vacancies, which must be approved in the state Senate, where Tartaglione is the Democratic whip.

Tartaglione and Farnese didn’t respond this week to Clout’s hails.

One of the resignations could come from Common Pleas Judge Jacqueline Allen, who told Clout in June she was considering retirement but then did not withdraw — as many had expected — from November’s ballot by last week’s deadline.

Allen wanted her fellow judges to select her law clerk in May as the city’s next jury commissioner. Brady wrote a letter of recommendation for that. But the judges voted for another candidate.

So Brady got three magic seats instead of four.

“She stuck it to me,” Brady said with a chuckle.

The magic seat winners are James Eisenhower, Raj Sandher and Elvin Ross III.

They get fast-track candidacies for 10-year judicial terms paying $212,495 per year while not having to raise money for an expensive primary, hire political consultants, or even campaign.

Clout provides often irreverent news and analysis about people, power, and politics.