Chester County Commissioner and Tredyffrin Township resident Carol Aichele is on the candidate list of Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor hopefuls. She is on a list that includes as many as a dozen Republican candidates who have expressed an interest in Pennsylvania’s second-in-command position. How does a candidate try to position his or herself as a frontrunner as the candidates start to look ahead to the May primary. . . ?

The GOP is holding six non-binding straw polls throughout the commonwealth starting tomorrow in Harrisburg. All meetings will take place before the February 13 state Republican Party Committee when historically an endorsed candidate is announced along with a US Senate and gubernatorial candidate.

There is some talk that with such a long list of candidates the solution could be an open primary on May 18. However, tomorrow the non-binding straw poll will begin to help the State GOP sort out their favorites among the large pool of hopefuls, all jockeying for frontrunner positioning.

Here is the latest list of the top 10 GOP Lieutenant Governor candidates. State Rep Tom Killion of Delaware County was on the Republican candidate list for Lieutenant Governor but dropped out of the race today.

Carol Aichele, Chester County Commissioner
Chet Beiler, Lancaster County
Jim Cawley, Bucks County
Russ Diamond, Lebanon County, reform activist
Nick DiFranceso, Dauphin County Commissioner
Steve Johnson, York; founder/CEO of Homecheck, Inc.
John Kennedy, Cumberland County
Jean Craige Pepper, Erie County
Rick Schenker, Erie County executive
Joe Watkins, Philadelphia political commentator