Former state Treasurer and Auditor General Barbara Hafer is considering a challenge to Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, in southwestern Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District.

Barbara Hafer

The entry of Hafer, whose candidacy has been courted by national Democrats, would likely transform the race into one of the most closely watched and competitive in the country. In an interview last week, Hafer emphasized that she had not committed to the race but was actively considering it.

"[Rep.] Mike Doyle called me and said, I want to show you something," Hafer said, referring to the Democratic congressman who represents the adjoining 14th District. "When a politician says he wants to show you something, that always means a poll."

"I'm not a candidate but I haven't ruled it out," Hafer added. "I need to talk to the governor; it's easy to get into a race but it's tough to get one up and running."

Hafer is one of several Democrats eyeing the seat, which the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee contends is one of the most vulnerable GOP-held targets in the state. Murphy, a psychologist, author, and former state senator, won it in 2002, after it was tailor made for him in the Republican-controlled redistricting following the 2000 Census.

Republicans dispute the DCCC analysis, pointing to Murphy's two comfortable elections in which he won the nominally Democratic district in near landslides.

Democrats are targeting several GOP seats in Pennsylvania in next year's congressional elections, victories that would be essential for them to meet this goal of recapturing the House majority they lost a decade ago when opposition to former President Bill Clinton's health-care proposals and the promises of the Newt Gingrich-devised Contract with America allowed Republicans to capture the House for the first time in a generation.

National Republicans are less intent on making gains in the state's House delegation next year because in Pennsylvania, as nationally, they are dealing from a position of strength. Though the Democrats have a majority in party registration statewide, Republicans hold 12 of the state's 19 congressional seats. Nationally the Democrats would need to make a net gain of 15 or 16 seats next year to overturn the GOP's House majority.

Elsewhere in Western Pennsylvania, another Republican incumbent, Rep. Melissa Hart. R-Bradford Woods, could face the most credible challenge of her Congressional career next year. Like Murphy, Hart has a history of demolishing Democratic opponents in a district where Republicans are in the minority.

Hart first won the seat in 2000, when it had an even stronger Democratic configuration. She defeated former state Rep. Terry Van Horne with ease in a contest that had been expected to be competitive. In two subsequent re-elections, she soared to victory over Steven Drobec, an underfunded former US Airways employee.

Two Democrats have already declared their interest in taking her on, and both appear to have the potential to be better funded and more formidable than Hart's previous opponents. They are Georgia Berner, a Lawrence County business owner, and Jason Altmire, who resigned his position as an executive at UPMC to make the race for the 4th District, which includes parts of Beaver, Butler, Lawrence, Allegheny and Westmoreland counties.

The potential field of opponents is more fluid in the 18th District, which runs from the Ohio border east through Washington, Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, including suburbs west and south of Pittsburgh and part of the Monongahela valley.

In addition to Hafer, George Matta, the Allegheny County clerk of courts, said he hopes to make a decision soon on whether to enter the race. Matta's row office will go out of existence at the end of his current term. He noted, however, that he might be considered for the new appointed position that would replace it.

Matta, a former mayor of Duquesne, said he had just begun to think about the House possibility because he had been a supporter of state Sen. Sean Logan, D-Monroeville, who, after publicly declaring his interest, decided late last month to forego the race.

Tom Kovach, of Peters, a loss control engineer for an insurance company, announced last week that he was seeking the Democratic nomination to take on Murphy and said he planned to stay in the race regardless of the decisions of other potential candidates. Kovach is a former unsuccessful candidate for the state House, is a U.S. Navy veteran and holds a master's degree from Pitt's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

Hafer is by far the best known of that group. The former Republican was briefly a candidate for next year's U.S. Senate nomination, but, at the request of party leaders including Gov. Ed Rendell, agreed to bow out of that race to give her successor, Treasurer Bob Casey Jr., a clearer shot at toppling Sen. Rick Santorum. Some Democrats, concerned about Casey's pro-life position on abortion, had strongly urged her to reconsider and enter next year's Senate primary, but she reaffirmed her support for Casey in an e-mail to supporters last month.

Hafer served two terms each in the offices of treasurer and auditor general and was the GOP's unsuccessful candidate for governor against the late Robert P. Casey in 1990. She sought that party's gubernatorial nomination again prior to the 2002 election but left the field after the party hierarchy united behind former Attorney General Mike Fisher, who is now a federal judge. Hafer, who had been a Democrat in her youth, subsequently endorsed Gov. Ed Rendell in the general election and later switched her registration to Democratic.

Hafer, a former Allegheny County commissioner, noted that throughout her years in Harrisburg, she had always voted from her old hometown of Elizabeth, which is part of the 18th District. She said that one of her chief reservations about a potential race is that it would take her away from the consulting business she formed after leaving state office. On the plus side, she said, is that, "My husband is enthusiastic about it."

Hafer described a challenge to Murphy as "a tough race," but noted that DCCC polling painted an encouraging picture for her and other Democrats.

While President Bush carried the district's communities in 2000 and 2004, she said, "The world has changed; the numbers for Republicans, including the president, have dropped dramatically."

Rep. Rahm Emmanuel, D-Ill., the DCCC's chairman, declined to comment on the details of the committee's candidate recruitment but said that he and other officials had had conversations with several candidates that he regarded as strong potential challengers for Murphy.

The DCCC has peppered Murphy with critical press releases in recent weeks, trying to raise questions on his position on Social Security, among other issues.

"I never put all my eggs in one basket," Emmanuel said, describing Murphy as a prime target regardless of which Democrat is nominated.

"The issues are going to be what matters," he said, maintaining that DCCC polling showed a majority of voters in the district felt that the nation was on the wrong track and that a strong plurality said they would prefer a Democrat to a Republican as the district's next congressman.

"This is a district with an acute sense of economic anxiety," Emmanuel said.

Carl Forti, communications director for the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, was dismissive of the Democrat's hopeful projections for gains across Pennsylvania and the nation.

"The Democrats talk about a lot of districts but in half of those districts they don't even have a candidate," Forti said. "No candidate; no money; no competitive race. They can talk all they want about [Murphy] being vulnerable but right now, he's looking at another landslide."

Emmanuel, while also mentioning his party's designs on the Hart seat, said the other targets in the state included the eastern Pennsylvania districts held by Republican Reps. Jim Gerlach, Mike Fitzpatrick and Don Sherwood.

Gerlach and Fitzpatrick, winners of relatively close races in 2002, had been anticipated as Democratic targets. Sherwood, a Wyoming County Republican, is a new name to the Democrats' list. He was first elected in 1998, and seemed a sure bet for re-election in a district whose Republican base was shored up in the post-2000 redistricting process. His vulnerability emerged, however, with a lawsuit filed earlier this year by a 29-year old Washington woman who claimed that the married Sherwood had beaten and choked her during a five-year affair.

Gerlach, a Chester County Republican, was first elected in 2002. Fitzpatrick, of Bucks County, is finishing his freshman term in the House. Several Democrats are lining up to run against Fitzpatrick. Gerlach faces a likely rematch against Lois Murphy, the Democrat he defeated by just 7,000 votes in 2004.

Asked to suggest the GOP's prime targets in the state, Forti, the Republican spokesman, said, "We'll take a look at the Schwartz district; we'll probably take another long look at Kanjorski."

He referred to Rep. Allyson Schwartz, D-Phila., who is in her first term representing a district that includes part of Philadelphia but is dominated by its suburbs, and Rep. Paul Kanjorski, a congressional veteran from Northeastern Pennsylvania.