"It is totally wrong for us to discourage these seven people from running for office," former Northampton County Councilman Ron Angle said. "The bottom line here is: Let the people decide."
Despite the tumult, Welch accepted the endorsement Saturday and said he was ready to continue his fight against his intraparty rivals to decide who takes on the Democrats.
"As a party and conservative movement, it is time to unite to defeat the Obama-Casey agenda," he said. "I look forward to a spirited debate over the coming months about the future of this great country."
Corbett spent the weekend working to mend the rifts that had opened and avoid the political embarrassment of having his choices rebuffed. During a debate Friday night, he was spotted taking individual committee members aside to lobby for their votes.
The governor hopes to enter this year's statewide races with a unified and geographically diverse slate of Republican candidates comprising Welch in the Senate race, Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed for attorney general, State Rep. John Maher of Allegheny County for auditor general, and Washington County Commissioner Diana Irey Vaughan for treasurer.
All received endorsements Saturday.
But that outcome wasn't so clear in the run-up to this weekend's endorsement convention in Hershey.
Delegates from the party's Southeastern caucus - made up of Republican committees in Philadelphia and its suburban counties - balked earlier this month when the governor announced he was backing Freed in the attorney general's race, not State Sen. John Rafferty of Montgomery County.
