Unhappy with plans for a nonbinding straw vote for a nominee to succeed the late John Murtha, Washington County's Democratic committee will hold its own nonbinding vote.

Besides, says Chairman George Vitteck, they've already rented the fire hall.

"I already sent out the letters, I already rented the hall. So, let it be what it's going to be," said Mr. Vitteck. He said he rented the Bentleyville Fire Hall for an endorsement meeting immediately after a preliminary letter from the state committee advising county chairs to assemble their members and poll them on their preference for a nominee in the May 18 special election to fill the unexpired term of Mr. Murtha, who died Feb. 8.

The Washington County vote is set for 9 this morning -- one hour before the officially sanctioned nonbinding vote set for the Lamplighter Restaurant on Route 22 in Delmont, Westmoreland County.

The competing meetings add to an already confusing process which, in the end, has no force other than persuasion.

At the official vote today, 82 delegates will attend. They include state committee members who live in the 12th Congressional District, which comprises portions of Cambria, Somerset, Indiana, Westmoreland, Allegheny, Fayette, Armstrong, Washington and Greene counties.

Also voting at the Delmont meeting will be 47 nonelected delegates appointed by county chairs.

Voting in Bentleyville will be all members of the Washington County Democratic Committee -- including members that don't live in the 12th District.

Mr. Vitteck said he was going by an original instruction letter.

"It didn't say anything about state committee people. It said county committee people," he said.

Neither the Delmont nor the Bentleyville vote has any force other than that of a hint. The actual nomination will be made by 50 members of the state Democratic Party's executive committee -- which comprises members from across the state.

"I imagine this will mean that we'll just go ahead without their votes," said Patrick McKenna, a spokesman for the state committee.

The first hint that Washington County was not onboard with the straw poll came earlier this week, when Mr. Vitteck failed to submit a list of appointed conferees who would participate in the Delmont vote.

One member said those appointed delegates are at the heart of the split by Washington County.

"What this is, it's the party bosses trying to pick someone to run," said Clifton Cochran, one of the elected Washington committee members.

Yesterday's decision to boycott the Delmont meeting came on the heels of a protest by one of the congressional hopefuls, former auditor general and state treasurer Barbara Hafer. On Tuesday she issued a statement decrying the party leadership's decision to allow county chairs to appoint additional conferees to round out the total number of eligible voters to 100.

"That's how mixed up the process is," Ms. Hafer said yesterday. "What can I say? It's a flawed process."

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