DENVER -- The speakers' roster at the Democratic National Convention reads like a who's who of Pennsylvania politics, highlighting the Keystone State's potentially pivotal role in the presidential race.
Prominent Pennsylvania elected officials are getting premium billing -- Tuesday night with speeches by Sen. Bob Casey of Scranton and Gov. Ed Rendell of Philadelphia, and tonight with a prime-time speech by Rep. Patrick Murphy, a Philadelphia-area lawmaker and the only Iraq war veteran in Congress.
That, combined with presumptive nominee Barack Obama's choice of Scranton native Joe Biden as his running mate, shows the Democratic standard-bearer is planting a flag in Pennsylvania, analysts said.
"It's giving Pennsylvania its moment at center stage of this convention," said G. Terry Madonna, a political scientist at Franklin & Marshall College and an analyst covering the convention.
"Obama must win Pennsylvania," Madonna said. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, "has earmarked it as one of his three targeted states -- Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania."
Obama leads McCain in Pennsylvania by 7 percentage points, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll of swing states released yesterday. The poll shows the two locked in a statistical dead heat in neighboring Ohio.
Several members of the Pennsylvania delegation said Obama or Biden could make a swing through the Pittsburgh region shortly after the convention ends on Thursday. McCain plans to be in Washington County on Saturday.
"I think you are going to see a lot of action right after the election in our little neck of the woods," said Clifford Levine of Squirrel Hill, a delegate and one of Obama's earliest backers in Pennsylvania. "Western Pennsylvania is really ground zero of the campaign."
Politicians are relishing the chance for national recognition.
"It's a great honor," Murphy said of his invitation to speak at the convention. First elected in 2006, he faces Republican Tom Manion in the November election. Murphy said his comments will focus on how "Obama led the fight to pass the largest increase in veterans' benefits in our country's history."
Obama lost one race in Pennsylvania this year, when Hillary Clinton defeated the Illinois senator in the April primary. Much of the convention has focused on uniting the party's Clinton and Obama factions.
"This is our week to really get on the same page," Murphy said.
Casey was a fixture of Obama's Pennsylvania campaign, but Clinton's father, Hugh Rodham Sr., was born in Scranton and Clinton's support in Casey's home turf proved too strong.
"I'm honored to stand before you as Governor Bob Casey's son and a proud supporter of Barack Obama," Casey told the delegates in the Pepsi Center. "Pennsylvania is home to some of the hardest-working, toughest, most decent people in America."
It was a poignant moment for Casey, who opposes abortion, to refer to his late father. Robert P. Casey Sr. once was shunned by the Democratic Party because of a similar stance on the abortion issue.
At the 1992 convention, the party refused to allow the elder Casey, then the governor of Pennsylvania, to speak partly because of his anti-abortion views and partly because he had not endorsed the Clinton-Gore ticket.
"In a time of danger around the world and economic trouble here at home, I know that Barack Obama will lead us, heal us and help us rebuild the country we love. I know this because I know Barack Obama," Sen. Casey said in his speech.
Murphy, Casey and Biden are white Catholics, which could help Obama with one of his weakest demographic groups. McCain leads Obama in Pennsylvania by 15 points among white Catholics, according to the Quinnipiac poll.
Rendell backed Clinton and was widely credited with helping her defeat Obama by about 9 percentage points in the primary. His invitation to speak at the convention underscores Obama's effort to woo Clinton supporters and recognizes Rendell, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, as one of the highest-profile Democratic elected officials in the nation and whose support Obama will need to capture Pennsylvania's 21 electoral votes.
"I think the Obama campaign absolutely realizes it's going to be a pitched battle in Pennsylvania," Rendell told the Tribune-Review in an interview before his convention speech. "Senator McCain will be in Washington County with his vice presidential pick on Saturday. That will be his 10th trip to Pennsylvania since he became the nominee."
Rendell said Obama's 7-point lead in the latest poll is hardly a cushion. The poll has a 2.8-percentage-point margin of error.
"It's still going to take a lot of work. Pennsylvanians are going to want to hear from Senator Obama," Rendell said in the interview.
McCain has spent about $3.6 million in Pennsylvania this election, compared with $2.8 million for Obama.
Obama has vastly outspent McCain nationwide by about $336 million to $150 million, according to the Federal Election Commission.
David M. Brown can be reached at dbrown@tribweb.com or 412-380-5614. Salena Zito can be reached at szito@tribweb.com. Staff writer Mike Wereschagin contributed to this report.
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