Greg Vitali Faces Serious Primary Opposition

“What goes around comes around.” That’s what they were saying on the night of November 4, 1992, when Greg Vitali was elected as the first Democrat to represent Pennsylvania’s 166^th House District since – who knows, maybe since John C. Fremont was the Republican candidate for president in 1856?

If Ardmore’s (Haverford Township) Jen Leith has her way, things will be “coming around” again on April 28, 2020. Mark your calendars. That’s the day of the Pennsylvania Primary, when Leith hopes to make Greg Vitali’s 14^th term in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, his last.

First Vitali Had to Beat the Democratic Committee

Before the 35-year-old Vitali could make Delco political history in November of 1992, he had to pull off an upset in the Democratic Primary, taking down the endorsed candidate, 29-year-old Jack Stollsteimer.

Stollsteimer made some history of his own last month, when he was elected as Delaware County’s D.A. He was the first Democrat to accomplish that – also since John C. Fremont was the Republican candidate for president in 1856.

Stollsheimer was also the last serious opposition Vitali has had to face in a Democratic Primary (for Pennsylvania House), until now. In general elections, he has gone from barely eking out a win in 1992 (with nearly 30,000 votes cast, Vitali won by fewer than 900); to crushing his Republican opponent in 2018, when he won 72.73% of the vote.

Vitali Accused of Bait and Switch

He was running for Congress, then he wasn't and then he was again

Vitali was at the center of a controversy last year when he was one of 10 candidates seeking the Democratic nomination in the newly created 5^th Congressional District. He finished a distant fifth in that race, gathering only 9.43% of the vote (Mary Gay Scanlon won that primary with 28.37% of the vote. She went on to easily win the general election that year).

On January 29, 2018 Vitali announced that he was a candidate in the “old” 7th Congressional District Democratic primary (The Pennsylvania Supreme Court didn’t redraw the map until February 19, 2018). On February 26, Vitali announced that he would not run for Congress. Instead he said that he would seek another term in the State Legislature. Then on March 6, 2018, he said the he was a candidate for the new 5^th District house seat, and that he would simultaneously run again for his state house seat. Coincidentally, or as some might say, very non-coincidentally; March 6 was the last day candidates could file to run for the Pennsylvania House.

Holly Otterbein and Andrew Seidman later reported in their Clout column, that three other prospective candidates had been planning to run for the 166^th District seat (one of whom was Jen Leith). But after Vitali said he wasn’t running for Congress, they decided to not run.

Otterbein and Seidman wrote that Leith described Vitali’s last minute-minute switch as “Exhibit A of what causes people to get frustrated and say forget it, I’m not going to be part of the political system.”

And in 2017, Leith Won the Primary for County Council - Then She Withdrew

Less than a year before Leith was crying foul over Vitali’s “Bait and Switch,” Clout reported that she herself was involved in what they described as a “switcheroo.” In March of 2017, Leith along with Brian Zidek, won the endorsement of the Delaware County Democratic Committee for the upcoming County Council Primary. Clout described her as a “fine choice…Leith on paper seems like a rock-star candidate.” But then Clout went on to describe how Leith announced that she was dropping out of the race after winning the Democratic Primary.

Clout wrote that “Leith, executive director of the Douty Foundation, actually dropped out of the race a couple of months ago, right around the March 22 deadline for candidates to formally withdraw from the race. But Democratic officials kept it quiet and allowed Leith to be nominated anyway. Why? So they could sub in [Kevin] Madden after the primary instead of running a write-in campaign to get him nominated. Sneaky.”

Leith told the reporters that “shortly after hitting the campaign trail in February, she realized that she had “personal and professional commitments I have to tie up before I can be the candidate I want to be.” She vowed to run in another race down the line.”

In a letter to the editor that appeared in the Inquirer on December 31, 2018 she wrote:

State Rep. Greg Vitali writes (Dec. 21) that the state has failed in keeping the Department of Environmental Protection staffed. That’s true. Pennsylvania is at the bottom of states with environmental regulations that protect the people (like a gas tax). But Vitali as a 26-year state representative, also has failed. He can speak out about the lack of political will to enact environmental protections all he wants, but he needs to not just speak up, he needs to step up. He is part of the state government. Vitali has been in Harrisburg for nearly three decades with no pieces of substantive legislation. As the “environment” guy, he has failed the people of the commonwealth.

Former Vitali Campaign Manager Now Supports Leith

Larry Arata is one of the other would-be candidates who was contemplating a 166th House District run in 2018. Arata had been Vitali’s campaign manager in 1992 and was his campaign chair in 1994. He also became a candidate in the 5th District congressional race. He said that he “supports Jen, 100%.” Arata added that “Jen will pursue aggressive environmental regulation but will not limit her activity to that one area as she knows that her constituents need their state representative to be active in other critical issues such as solving the opioid crisis and reforming public educational funding. Jen has the integrity, intelligence and independence to represent us in Harrisburg. It is time for a change.”