At Erie Brewing Company, in front of Republican supporters, small business owner, Micah Goring, announced his campaign for the 3rd Legislative District in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

The seat has been held by Democrat Ryan Bizzarro since 2013 and Goring said he is running primarily to help boost the local economy for small business owners but State Representative Bizzarro said he is already doing that.

"We have this great community and small business owners like Erie Brewing Company do wonderful things to make the community better, they give us places to go, buy Christmas presents, all these great things and we need to remove the regulations so that they can do their jobs and hire more people," Goring said.

"People can look at the numbers they simply do not lie when it comes to supporting our local economy, small businesses, schools, non-profits, I am there and I am the guy supporting people who do not even live in my district let alone taking care of the people who live in my district," Bizzarro said.

While running to keep his seat in District 3, Bizzarro is also running for State Treasurer. Goring believes running two races could be a distraction but Bizzarro said it is a chance for people in our area to have more of a say statewide.

"I think it is a little bit disingenuous to say I am going to run for both of these positions, I know for me I can only focus on one, I am a one job at a time kind of guy," Goring said.

"I think that people should be happy that for the first time since Gov. Tom Ridge Erie County has somebody on the statewide platform, it is not everyday that somebody from Northwest Pennsylvania gets to step up and be a large voice for their region and I am honored to be that guy for this cycle, I think running for both offices is the smart thing to do because if you lose me, you lose all the money and all the influence, period," Bizzarro said.