While many Pittsburghers were lined up outside big-box retailers Friday, Ray Linsenmayer joined a crowd that wasn’t much smaller: the throng of Democrats hoping to challenge Republican Keith Rothfus in the 12th Congressional District next year.
What’s more, he’s bringing some friends.
“I have 100 committed volunteers, and that’s before I announced,” said Mr. Linsenmayer, whose campaign launched online Friday. “That will help me be very competitive in the primary and the general election.”
A McCandless resident, Mr. Linsenmayer has worked in a variety of fields, most recently on financing alternative-energy projects for the military. But in recent months, he’s made his mark by forming an activist group, the North Pittsburgh Democratic Volunteer Corps, to mobilize Democrats in the decidedly Republican North Hills.
Allies credit him with aiding other 2017 candidates, some of whom won victories in Republican strongholds such as McCandless and the North Allegheny School District.
“He was the driving force of what we did up here,” said John Craig Hammond, a Democratic activist. “He organized the canvassing and we pretty much knocked on every door.”
Mr. Linsenmayer himself mounted a challenge to state Rep. Hal English, R-Hampton, in the 30th District last year. But he withdrew before the primary in the face of a challenge to his eligibility: The state constitution requires a legislator to have been a Pennsylvania resident for four years, and Mr. Linsenmayer fell short.
“I’d only been back for a couple years, so I had to leave the ballot,” said. “But that process taught me about the challenges for someone to win in this part of the state.”
Mr. Linsenmayer joins an already-crowded Democratic field. It includes North Hills residents Aaron Anthony, an English teacher at Shaler Area High School, brain researcher Tom Prigg, Duquesne University environmental educator John Stolz, and lawyer Beth Tarasi.
Mr. Linsenmayer called himself “an Allegheny County Democrat -- I’m pretty moderate.” But he said he favored abortion rights and would resist Republican efforts to repeal President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. “It needs to be tweaked,” he said, “but I’m obviously against repeal.”
Beating Mr. Rothfus won’t be easy, he allowed. The incumbent Republican has turned aside Democratic challenges with ease since first being elected in 2012, and the 12th District -- which sprawls from Beaver County through the North Hills and parts of of four other counties -- is forbidding terrain. But Mr. Linsenmayer said his tactical skill would help.
“Keith is at every fish fry, every Rotary Club gathering,” he said. “To beat him on ideas -- which I believe we can -- we have to first beat him on the ground.”
Chris Potter: cpotter@post-gazette.com or 412-253-2533
First Published: November 25, 2017, 12:00 p.m.
