Rothfus on the air

Republican Keith Rothfus will be hitting the television airwaves starting Tuesday in his race against Rep. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless. His campaign will be sending out a video of the ad later this evening, and we will post in due course. In an interview today Rothfus confirmed the campaign will be up at the six-week mark -- which, he notes, is earlier than Altmire was on the air in his 2006 race against Melissa Hart.

In other news, after scoring a campaign appearance from Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind. -- a potential 2012 presidential candidate -- Rothfus will get a boost from businessman and 1996/2000 outsider presidential candidate Steve Forbes, who will be in town Oct. 16 for a couple of events, Rothfus said.

The NRCC also bumped his status to "contender" in its "Young Guns" program. Rothfus said it's all part of his campaign reaching "critical mass."

Altmire was up big in an internal poll his campaign put out a few months ago and the race will likely have to tighten before national Republicans or other outside groups put serious money into it, but stay tuned for more activity once Rothfus goes on the air and gains more name recognition.