And that’s no exaggeration.


With county Republicans setting a Nov. 24 deadline for candidates to file for screening for county commissioner, GOP hopefuls barely had time to take a breath, or a nap, between Tuesday’s election and the opening salvos of the 2007 cycle.


It promises to be a bloody one.


At least 13 Republicans are said to be considering a run for commissioner.


That figure doesn’t include the 19 candidates for judge — 16 of them Republicans — who already have gone through a ranking process by the Lancaster Bar Association, and a possible two-man shootout for district attorney (see related story, A14).


The extraordinary number of candidates is prompted in part by controversy over the performance of Commissioners Dick Shellenberger and Pete Shaub, the Republicans.


Democrat Molly Henderson, the third commissioner, finds herself in the midst of similar, if more muted, strife within the minority party, which is trying to avoid being fragmented by dissension over Henderson.


“The real question is, does my party want to be united?” said county Democrat chairman Bruce Beardsley. “And frankly, that remains to be seen.”


On the GOP side, the early start comes because party leaders, stung by grass-roots criticism of its candidate selection in the 2003 commissioner contest, are forming a review panel to assess the qualifications of commissioner candidates.


Only two candidates are definite about running at this point; others said they are still considering their options. “You do one [election],” said Chad Weaver, one of those considering a run, “and then all of a sudden the next one is right behind you.”


“I think,” county GOP chairman Dave Dumeyer said, “everybody just wants a little bit of a vacation right now.”


In a typical cycle, official candidate announcements usually don’t come until Christmas or later. This isn’t a typical cycle.


Prodded by voters and by a coalition of GOP leaders from across the party spectrum called Republicans for Trust and Accountability, the county committee has agreed to form an unprecedented review panel to screen commissioner candidates before the party’s area committees start their own straw polling in late January.


The panel, chaired by a former commissioner, Terry Kauffman, will include 13 to 15 members, six of whom will be Republicans who are not committee members.


Dumeyer said the panel will hold its first meeting Monday; he expects to be able to release the names of the panelists sometime after that.


“They’re going to be working somewhat quietly on this thing,” Dumeyer said, “in the background.”


Prior to 1998, the party’s advisory committee — which includes leadership, elected officials and representatives from area committees — screened candidates and made recommendations to the full committee.


But after the GOP amended its bylaws in 1998, the job of screening countywide candidates was given to the full committee.


Dumeyer has pointed out that the 2003 election was only the second held under the new bylaws, so shortcomings with the system weren’t immediately apparent.


In 2003, the party endorsed newcomer Shellenberger but failed to reach the two-thirds majority needed for a second endorsement. Shaub, running for a second term, and Shellenberger won the primary.


A series of controversies since then, including the sale of the Conestoga View nursing home to a private operator, opposition to the proposed Penn Square convention center and the departures of 17 top managers, have roiled the courthouse.


Shellenberger has aligned with Henderson on most issues, with Shaub in the minority. Shaub has said he doesn’t plan to run again.


Some Republican committee members reported taking heat on Tuesday from voters disenchanted with the courthouse controversy.


Dumeyer said the screening committee will be examining the credentials of candidates to make sure there are “no legal, personal or other encumbrances.”


“We want to make sure the people who come before the committee are pretty solid, squeaky clean,” he said.


The screening panel is expected to make a final recommendation by Jan. 20. After that, the area committees run a series of straw polls, culminating in the countywide endorsement convention in late February.


While the screening process isn’t mandatory for candidates, “I think it will be to their benefit to go through that process,” Dumeyer said.


At least 13 Republicans are said to be considering a run for commissioner.


Only former Lancaster Township Supervisor Tony Allen and Rapho Township Supervisor Jere Swarr are definite about their intentions.


Swarr was endorsed, along with Shaub, in 1999 but lost the primary to unendorsed incumbent Paul Thibault.


“I’ll be running,” Allen said. “We have to do something to straighten this county out.”


Another Rapho supervisor, Lowell Fry, confirmed he is considering a run, too. While it would be unusual for the party to back two candidates from the same region, Fry said, “I guess we’ll let [the committee] sort through it.”


Shellenberger has said he hasn’t decided on whether he’ll run again, but he has been making the rounds of area committees, a move widely seen as setting up a re-election campaign.


Also thinking about the race are county Controller Dennis Stuckey, county Youth Intervention Center director Scott Martin, Hempfield School Board member Bob Still, East Hempfield Township Supervisor Heidi Wheaton and Manor Township contractor James Miller Jr.


Wheaton won a spot on the government study commission on Tuesday; Miller, who finished behind the 11th-place winner Don Ranck, now is 26 votes ahead of Ranck as the count of provisional and absentee ballots continues.


Chad Weaver, an aide to U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, said he has been too busy with the last campaign to think about 2007, but he will “come to a decision in the near future.”


Martin, who coordinated the Santorum campaign here, agreed: “A lot of us are very tired from a very grueling campaign. Right now I’m just interested in catching up with my honey-do list at home.”


Former city Mayor Charlie Smithgall said he’s been asked to run, but he hasn’t made a decision yet.


Two others said to be interested, businessman Lloyd Smucker and county Treasurer Craig Ebersole, weren’t available for comment Saturday.


Potential candidates within county government are said to be concerned about having to declare their candidacies on Nov. 24, before the commissioners finalize the 2007 county budget.


Two whose names had been floated — county Recorder of Deeds Steve McDonald and Dumeyer, the GOP chairman — said they will not run.


“I’m flattered,” Dumeyer said, but “I think from a party standpoint, I’m in the position where I’m setting up part of the process. ... I don’t think that my integrity would be intact if I were to go ahead and run.”


On the Democratic side, the timeline isn’t as condensed. Beardsley, the county chairman, has given candidates until Dec. 31 to tell him of their intent.


One candidate, city Controller Craig Lehman, already has announced his bid, backed by some of the most prominent city Democrats.


That may be a signal that the city party — the largest and most organized Democratic committee — isn’t united behind Henderson.


Although she holds the commissioners’ swing vote, and thus key influence over the county’s agenda, Henderson has allied with Shellenberger on some issues against traditional Democratic interests, including Conestoga View and a housing development on the Sunnyside peninsula.


She has said she is planning to run for a second term.


The third name floated for the Democratic ticket is Jon Price, a Clay Township supervisor who ran for the party’s nomination in 2003.


Beardsley said almost a year ago that his toughest task would be trying to hold the party together through the commissioner race.


“Our party must consciously decide that we want to be unified,” Beardsley said, “and that’s what sort of what we’re talking about now.”


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