Source: Corman expected to rally GOP support behind Barletta to stop Mastriano

At least one top Republican seeking the party’s gubernatorial nomination is preparing to throw his weight behind Lou Barletta out of fears that front-runner Doug Mastriano is too far right to beat apparent Democratic nominee Josh Shapiro in November’s general election.

A source close to the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Times Leader that senate president pro tempore and gubernatorial candidate Jake Corman, a Centre County Republican, is expected to announce his support for Barletta on Thursday, at which time he will encourage other GOP candidates to do the same.

Corman is scheduled to appear with Barletta in Harrisburg on Thursday for “a major announcement,” according to a release from the Barletta campaign, although the details were not revealed.

Barletta, 66, is a former Hazleton mayor and U.S. Congressman who was an early and enthusiastic supporter of then-candidate Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign.

As the Associated Press reported on Tuesday, “Mastriano, 58, a state senator since 2019 and a retired U.S. Army colonel, is running to the right of the nine-person Republican field and against the party’s establishment.”

“Mastriano is a prominent peddler of the unsubstantiated claims that widespread fraud marred the 2020 election and that Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf was responsible for thousands of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes. During the pandemic, he belittled efforts to contain the virus and spread conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 vaccine,” the AP wrote.

“That has long made Republican Party officials and movement conservatives uncomfortable about Mastriano’s prospects in a fall general election matchup against Democrat Josh Shapiro, and they are becoming more vocal about it.”

Among them, state Senate Republican floor leader, Kim Ward on Monday endorsed a rival candidate, Dave White, and singled out Mastriano as unable to attract the moderate voters necessary to win a general election in Pennsylvania, the AP wrote.

Mastriano “has appeal to base Republicans, but I fear the Democrats will destroy him with swing voters,” Ward wrote on her personal Facebook page. She added that “winning the primary and losing the general because the candidate is unable to get the voters in the middle, isn’t a win.”

A recent Franklin and Marshall College poll cited by the AP showed 20% of GOP primary voters saying they support Mastriano. Bill McSwain and Barletta trailed slightly, with 12% and 11%, respectively.

Attorney General Shapiro, who is the only Democrat seeking his party’s nomination, headlined a meet-and-greet event at Luzerne County Democratic Headquarters on Saturday, where he took aim at Mastriano as his likely opponent, emphasizing Mastriano’s connection to the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol.

“The guy I’m going to be running against? He was there on Jan. 6,” Shapiro said to the crowd.

“While I was in court, fighting to protect the right to vote, he [Mastriano] marched to our nation’s capital, he breached the police lines and he was there at the insurrection on Jan. 6,” Shapiro said, while also acknowledging that he “wasn’t aware” of any charges currently pending against Mastriano.

Earlier this year, the congressional committee investigating the failed Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection attempt issued Mastriano a subpoena to testify, and as of yet there is no indication whether he has responded. During a debate in late April, Mastriano responded to a moderator’s question about whether he feared legal ramifications by stating “there are no legal issues.”

According to the AP, Mastriano told a Lancaster-area news outlet that Shapiro’s attack will “absolutely” help him win the primary, and that the Republican establishment “is in a panic mode” at the prospect that he will be the party’s nominee.