State Auditor General Eugene DePasquale is now said to be “leaning towards” challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Scott Perry for Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District seat in 2020, according to sources familiar with his thinking.

DePasquale, currently in the third year of his second term as the state’s top tax dollar watchdog, did not respond to messages from PennLive for this story.

But one source who asked not to be identified in order to speak about what he knows of DePasquale’s current thinking, said Friday that the auditor general “is seriously leaning towards a run for Congress, and will likely make a decision by the end of June.”

The very possibility of a current statewide office holder’s potential entry in the race shows just how the new district maps imposed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last year have changed midstate Democrats’ attitudes toward seeking U.S. House seats.

That court-ordered redraw came as the result of a gerrymandering lawsuit brought by the Pennsylvania League of Women Voters and a group of aggrieved voters.

Where once these races were actively avoided by top-tier Democrats, Lutheran pastor and retired Army officer George Scott showed the political world Democrats can be viable in the new 10th, which covers all of Dauphin County, the eastern half of Cumberland County, and the northern half of York County.

Running as a first-time candidate, Scott garnered 48.7 percent against Perry, signaling to Democrats who were hanging back last year that the 10th is much more competitive than the districts it replaced - in fact, only one of Pennsylvania’s 18 districts was closer.

There is one announced candidate in the race for the 2020 Democratic nomination so far.

Hershey native Tom Brier, an attorney who last year gained notice regionally and beyond for his book “While Reason Slept" on what he sees as America’s gradual slide away from its founding Constitutional objectives, jumped into the race in March.

Scott, meanwhile, told PennLive Friday he has been encouraged to give, and is giving, very serious consideration to reprising his 2018 campaign. He said he expects to make a decision by the end of the summer.

There may be others.

Attempts to reach Perry, a Republican from northern York County now in his 4th term, for comment on the Democrats’ early jockeying were not immediately successful.

DePasquale has acknowledged in the recent past that he is considering a range of political options for life after his current term as auditor general, which expires in January 2021. As per the state Constitution, he is not permitted to seek a third straight term in that office.

In the past, many observers had felt that that consideration leaned more toward statewide office, like potentially seeking to succeed Gov. Tom Wolf in 2022.

But Democrats reached for this story said the facts of the new lines; that DePasquale has represented York city - the hub city in the southern end of the district - in the Pennsylvania State House before; and that he would have a chance to be joining a Democratic majority in the U.S. House have all caused him to take a harder look at Washington.

There’s also this: While DePasquale also has shown some fundraising prowess - raising and spending nearly $1 million for his auditor general re-elect in 2016 against little-known opposition - that’s a level that makes him very viable in a Congressional race. But DePasquale would have to significantly raise his fund-raising game to compete for what would likely be hotly-contested races for governor and U.S. Senate in 2022.

Speculation about a Congressional bid steadily increased through the just-closed primary season, as DePasquale made the lion’s share of his political appearances, according to his personal Facebook page, in 10th District communities.

He has also been running a series of periodic ads on that same page on issues like high prescription drug costs.

Republicans are taking notice too; the state Republican Party Committee has recently attacked DePasquale for what its leaders have argued amounts to use of his current office as a publicity springboard for the next.

If this does indeed become DePasquale’s choice, Franklin & Marshall political scientist G. Terry Madonna said, a bid for Congress makes political sense as an achievable goal.

“There isn’t any doubt that this is a reasonably competitive district,” Madonna said, “so if he’s looking to continue his political career in many respects that seems to be a logical progression for him.”

The only direct comment for this story from DePasquale’s camp came from Bud Jackson, a spokesman for the auditor general’s state campaign committee. He said, via email:

"Ever since he was re-elected Auditor General, Eugene DePasquale has been encouraged by people and organizations from across Pennsylvania to extend his public service career at the end of his term by serving in another capacity.

“He is grateful for the outpouring of support and expects to have more to say sometime in July.”