The race to succeed state Sen. Jeff Piccola isn’t all about the Republicans this year.

Two Democrats, clergyman and business consultant Alvin Q. Taylor and attorney Rob Teplitz, are vying for their party’s nomination.

Some party leaders think they have their best chance since 1936 to hold the Dauphin County-based 15th District seat.

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“If something is important, we have to invest in it. And what’s happened under the Corbett Administration is that public education is being treated as some other expense, as opposed to an investment in our future,” Teplitz said, adding that doesn’t need to mean tax increases.

“I’ve spent my career finding ways to get money out of administration and into the classroom so that teachers can teach, and children can learn.”

Taylor argues the current legislature has provided political paybacks to big business —specifically the lower-than-other-state’s taxation of Marcellus Shale gas companies — at the cost of Pennsylvania families and their kids’ schools.

“There has been from this administration, blatant disregard for the economic plight of the average citizen and missed opportunity in the ‘extraction tax’ of the Marcellus shale industry. ... With the 2012 election, the citizens and voters can speak and have an opportunity to correct this situation,” Taylor said.

Teplitz is a bit more of an open book. In recent interviews, he has:

Expressed support for reviews of existing gun laws to see if there are additional ways to try to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.

Come out against privatizing state liquor stores, arguing there’s no way to do it that ensures the annual $500 million revenue stream for the state. Teplitz believes a better option for the state and consumers is to continue to modernize the system so it is more customer-friendly.

Said he would push to have a commuter tax put back on the table as a part of helping Harrisburg through its debt crisis.

Opposed the bill requiring ultrasounds for women considering an abortion, and supported adding sexual orientation protections to the state’s anti-discrimination laws; and pledged to protect the state’s prevailing wage law for construction workers on publicly funded projects.

Taylor, by contrast, declined to answer many questions about specific issues, saying he prefers not to be boxed into strict positions, the better to handle issues on the merits as a lawmaker.

But he has offered some fresh ideas for dealing with Harrisburg’s incinerator debt, including using a Dauphin County hotel tax increase, host county funds from the Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course, and a special lottery to help the city.

Teplitz has gotten in minor trouble for playing politics before.

In 2000, he, along with two other auditor general staffers, was suspended for a day by his then-boss, Robert P. Casey Jr., after they barraged Casey’s re-election opponent that year, Republican Katie True, with barbed questions during a PCN call-in show. All three gave fake names.

Three candidates are seeking the Republican nomination: attorney John McNally III, or Lower Paxton Twp.; Harrisburg businessman Joshua First; and Lower Paxton Twp. supervisor William Seeds. Republicans have held the seat since 1940, when M. Harvey Taylor was elected.

But with Democrats now outnumbering Republicans in the Dauphin and York County district, this open seat race promises to be one of the Senate’s most hotly contested races in the fall.