Here's my breaking news story on the candidate Democrats are running against McCandless Republican Jane Orie -- Ross Twp commissioner Dan DeMarco.

Orie had been unopposed, but now that she's been charged with corruption Democrats from Allegheny and Butler counties need 500 write-in votes to get DeMarco, who lost to her in 2002, on the ballot. County Democratic chair Jim Burn said the effort will include door-knocking and lit-drops targeting regular Dem voters, and canvassing before and on election day.

Since the switch to electronic voting machines, Burn said, Democrats have been successful with efforts to write-in county Councilman Charles Martoni in 2005 (he got 17 times the necessary number) and Brad Cline onto state House ballots versus Mike Turzai in 2004.

See Dennis Roddy's story here on the new attempt by Orie's lawyer to dismiss the charges.