Wait, Peterson is retiring? He's only been a US Representative for a dozen years or so. His predecessor in the district lasted eighteen years. Peterson's been a *good* congressman, and I haven't heard a peep about any challengers - we're as close to a pocket borough as you get in the US, even if he wasn't a pretty good fit for the region. Is he sick? Not seriously, according to the press release.

That'll throw the cat in among the canaries. I don't think anyone in the district was prepared to have a contested congressional election worth talking about, and at the same time that Peterson's been in a very public slapfight with the governor over I-80, at that!

Who're the possible candidates? Corman's a joke, most of the Centre County state senators and representatives are Democrats except for Benninghoff, who's got some seniority but is too much of an old state bull to make the jump to national. Maybe James Rhodes from Clinton? Hanna's got the seniority for the Democratic side of things, and is conservative enough to be an old Democratic bull in a deeply hick-red district. Causer from Potter seems kind of young, but likely. What about Joe Scarneti? He's pretty loud on the subject of Fast Eddie's turnpike scam. Sam Smith from Jefferson, on the other hand, looks too old to be running for Congress for the first time.