Verobish

Andrea Verobish of Allegheny Township, a staffer for U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Centre, will represent the Republican party in a special election March 17 to fill the unexpired term of state Rep. Lou Schmitt, R-Altoona, who resigned in December to become a Blair County judge, after winning election to the bench.

Verobish defeated Blair County Controller A.C. Stickel Tuesday in a nominating convention held by the Blair County Republican Committee, with only committee members who live in Schmitt’s 79th District eligible to vote.

Verobish received 24 votes to Stickel’s 19 in what became a two-person contest, after Logan Township Supervisors Chairman Jim Patterson dropped out Tuesday morning, saying there were township projects that took precedence for him, according to committee Chairman Matt Zupon.

“I’m just blown away,” Verobish told the conferees after she learned she had won following the executive session secret vote. “We need to win and keep this seat.”

Zupon agreed.

The party “hasn’t been doing great” in special elections nationwide in recent months, he said.

“I don’t want (this one) to fall in line (with that trend).”

The Democrats will hold their nominating convention Jan. 24.

After the event, Verobish expressed surprise that she had defeated a former committee chairman and current county controller who is blessed with “a great reputation.”

She then revised that assessment upon further questioning.

She’d actually been confident of winning, based on good feedback in discussions with committee members, who had told her they were eager to see whether “someone new, young and passionate can be in Harrisburg and make an impact,” she said.

“I put in the work,” she said.

She is 37.

Stickel is 63.

He, too, had been confident before Tuesday’s vote.

He had emailed all the committee members twice and called everyone at least once — although he didn’t reach everybody, he said.

The reaction to those contacts had been “overwhelmingly positive,” he said.

Yet after the vote, he heard some conferees saying that people were looking for someone young.

He wouldn’t have changed anything about his approach, however.

“I am who I am,” he said.

He feels bad — though “not hurt, sad or sorry,” he stated. “(Rather) disappointed for the people of the 79th.”

As representatives, he and Verobish probably would have voted in the House “almost identically,” he said.

“But I have a ton of relationships (in Harrisburg) already,” he said. “I could have hit the ground running.”

In her speech to the conferees prior to Tuesday’s vote, Verobish claimed the moment.

“Now is the time for my generation of young conservatives to answer the call to public service,” she said.

The older generations may think young people are over-obsessed with YouTube and TikTok, and that they’re “not anchored to principles” and forever “swimming in the shallow end,” Verobish said.

But the basis for her service would be a set of core beliefs to which she would hold firm, and to which she would be accountable, she indicated.

She has never been unsure of those principles, she said.

They include standing up for the “dignity and value of every life, especially the unborn”; protecting the competitiveness of women’s sports; providing the resources for public schools to educate students on “what matters”; supporting the second amendment; opposing the legalization of marijuana, given that “taxing vice and addiction” is no way “to raise money for roads and schools”; and support of “safe and responsible (resource) extraction.”

In his speech accepting the nomination to stand for Tuesday’s vote, Stickel emphasized his long experience with tracking and handling government funds in both the private and public sectors, and helping to implement public policies that produced “tangible results” in the form of taxpayer savings.

He, too, is pro-life and pro-Second Amendment, he said.

He favors “the right to choose the best education,” and favors “term limits for unelected bureaucrats,” he told the conferees.

“I am not running because I need a job,” he said. “I’m running because I’m called to serve.”

Verobish adopted the core principles cited in her acceptance speech for the Tuesday vote in the aftermath of 9/11, which occurred while she was in eighth grade at Hollidaysburg Area Junior High School, she said.

“I looked to the president,” she said. “He would protect us.”

That is when she decided to become a Republican, which guided her in the political involvement that followed, she said.

She plans to run “a positive, issues-based, exciting new campaign” for Schmitt’s unexpired term, she said.

She hopes to “get a lot of people involved who maybe haven’t been involved before,” she said.

With its dense housing, the city is a good place for door-knocking, she said.

She’s confident, given the massive Republican edge in voter registration — 55% for her party; 29% for the Democrats and 15% for “other” — according to a party official; and given the overall satisfaction of 79th constituents with Schmitt’s performance, she said.

Stickel hasn’t given up his ambitions for the 79th.

He’ll probably run in the primary on May 19, when a place in the general election for the next full two-year term for the seat will be at stake, he said.

Such a primary campaign will not be a repeat of the effort that culminated on Tuesday, because while Tuesday’s election involved only 44 committee members, the primary will target all the voters of the 79th, Stickel pointed out.

Verobish was a staffer for former 30th District state Sen. John Eichelberger, who was present Tuesday.

Verobish earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from Gannon University.

She is a 2006 graduate of Hollidaysburg Area High School.

She lives in Allegheny Township with her husband, Don, and two young daughters. Her first home was in Ebensburg, she said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.