Bruce Castor, a Montgomery County Commissioner, told PoliticsPA in a story posted this morning that he's thinking about challenging Gov. Tom Corbett in the 2014 Republican primary:

“I am considering the possibility of becoming a candidate for Governor,” Castor said. “I believe that Governor Corbett is vulnerable.”

For months, murmurs of a possible primary challenge have circulated among Republican insiders. Castor is the first person to say he’s pondering a run and he’s among the top tier of potential candidates.

“It looks to me like Governor Corbett has not fulfilled the promise he came into office with,” Castor said. “That could change and everything could end up being terrific a year from now. But if it’s not I want to be in a position where I haven’t sat on my hands.”

Castor, a former district attorney, has faced Corbett before, in the 2004 primary for attorney general. Corbett won with 53 percent. 

The AP quoted Corbett's political adviser, Brian Nutt, pointing out that Castor's comments arrived just before the annual Pennsylvania Society weekend in New York City, with its mingling of political and business movers.

"This is the season of people talking about running for any number of elected offices," Nutt told the AP.

There's no election on the calendar, but Allegheny County Democrats have a date to nominate their candidate for the 42nd District House seat previously held by soon-to-be-Sen. Matt Smith.

Smith resigned his House seat Nov. 30 after winning the 37th District Senate seat formerly held by John Pippy, a Republican. Smith ran concurrently for the two seats.

The speaker of the House will call a special election to fill the seat after members are sworn in, and the speaker is elected, on Jan. 1. County and state Democratic committee members living in the district are scheduled to vote on their candidate Dec. 16 in Mt. Lebanon.

"We usually try to get the nomination organized and the candidate chosen as quickly as possible," said Grant Gittlen, executive director of the Allegheny County Democratic Committee.

As of this afternoon, no candidate had submitted a letter of intent, which they must do to secure a spot on the ballot. But this story by politics editor James O'Toole names former Mr. Lebanon commissioner Dan Miller as a candidate for the party's nomination.

From today's paper, an example of the nuanced relationships of state lawmakers as their colleagues have headed to prison.

Republican state Rep. Garth Everett succeeded friend and ex-lawmaker Brett Feese in representing a Lycoming County district in 2007.

Feese is now at SCI-Waymart, one of soon-to-be eight ex-lawmakers who are imprisoned for crimes related to their official duties.

Everett emailed the House Republican caucus this week, asking if any of their colleagues wanted to chip in for a Christmas donation to Feese's inmate account.

Some have already sent him checks, Everett said in an interview, noting that a number of lawmakers had asked how they could help their former coworker.

"It is what it is," he said in an interview. "We have some former members in jail. That doesn't mean they're not people."

The auditor general-elect won't be sworn in until January, but this morning announced his transition team for managing that process.

In the release, the soon-to-be fiscal watchdog emphasized that no taxpayer funds would be spent on his transition efforts.

His co-chairs are Joe Powers, a former top staffer in the state Department of Environmental Protection, where DePasquale spent three years, and Dave Myers, who served in senior management positions in the Rendell and Casey administrations.

His campaign manager, Liz Wagenseller, will be staying on as a co-coordinator for the transition, with Suzanne Itzko, a former deputy secretary for the Department of Transportation, as the other co-coordinator.

A number of the other high-profile names have ties to the Gov. Ed Rendell era, including David Sweet — who was Rendell's 2002 campaign manager and executive director of his transition team — and Chuck Ardo, a former Rendell campaign and gubernatorial spokesman.

Mary Soderberg was state budget secretary at the end of Rendell's tenure, and Abe Amoros also was a Rendell spokeman.

The list of committee chairs and other members can be found after the jump: