Ending weeks of speculation, state Rep. Madeleine Dean, a Democrat from Montgomery County, will jump into the very crowded 2018 field for lieutenant governor on Wednesday.

State Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Montgomery (Pa. House photo)

In a phone interview, Dean, a three-term House incumbent, said she'd been exploring a bid for several weeks and meeting with local business leaders, politicians, labor organizers and others as she made up her mind.

"I wanted to see if there was an appetite for the run and if I could add something," to the field, she said. "There is an appetite for someone like me to be in this role and I think I'm the best person."

Dean is the second suburban Philly pol to step up to announce a challenge to embattled Lt. Gov. Mike Stack of Philadelphia. Chester County Commissioner Kathi Cozzone is also in the running for the nomination.

From the west, for John Fetterman, the tattooed and goth-garbed mayor of Braddock, Pa., near Pittsburgh, and Aryanna Berringer, a veteran from Westmoreland County, are also gunning for Stack's job.

Dean declined to comment on Stack's current travails - he's been slammed for his treatment of his domestic staff and state police security detail and is the subject of a probe of his spending habits.

Gov. Tom Wolf, who enjoys frosty relations with Stack, with whom he was forced into an arranged political marriage in 2014 and has long been rumored to be in the market for a replacement. Under state law, governor and lieutenant governor candidates run separately in the primary, but as a ticket in the general election.

Dean said she'd had a "very nice meeting" with Wolf a couple of weeks ago, where she told him about her candidacy. She declined to discuss specifics of that session, but did say that Wolf was "entirely focused on his own re-election."

"I wanted to make sure he knew of my sincere interest," she added, continuing, "My thought is that my experience as a progressive woman from the southeast would be a very good fit for the re-election of Gov. Wolf. Add to that my experience in Harrisburg and my skillset and I think I'm in a better position," than the other candidates in the field.

Dean, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, was elected in a special election in 2012 to fill out the unexpired term of then-Rep. Josh Shapiro, who'd gone on to become a Montgomery County Commissioner. She was elected to a full term representing the suburban 153rd House District that November.