COURTHOUSE — The fallout from the controversial Republican endorsement for the 17th District state Senate seat continued Wednesday.

“The endorsement was fair and above board,” said Montgomery County Republican Chairman Ken Davis in responding to earlier claims by county Sheriff John P. Durante, who was one of the candidates for this seat, that Davis had “hijacked” the election for his own candidate.

“He (Durante) is just unhappy because he lost face,” said Davis. “Let’s face it. He got his butt kicked.”

Durante, in turn, played a voice mail Davis left him over the weekend, berating him for usurping Davis’s authority.

“I am not a little kid and should not be treated that way,” said Durante. “That is the way he treats all of the committee people. It’s time that the committee people take back this party.”

Lower Merion Commissioner Lance Rogers, a 33-year-old Republican lawyer, won Monday night’s endorsement by municipal committee people in a 112-57 vote over Durante, a 58-year-old Conshohocken Republican who last year won election to a third four-year term as county sheriff.

The state Senate’s 17th District, which is represented by Democrat Connie Williams, includes the Montgomery County municipalities of Norristown, West Conshohocken, Bridgeport, Conshohocken, Narberth, Upper Merion, Plymouth, East Norriton and Lower Merion. It also includes the Delaware County townships of Haverford and Radnor, two Delaware County municipalities that have Davis and Durante locking horns.

Durante maintains that the approximate 100 municipal committee members from Delaware County should have participated in the endorsement. Davis disagrees, contending it is traditional for the county that forms the largest part of the district to make the endorsement so as not to have split endorsements.

Davis noted that he had a similar arrangement with Bucks County this year, supporting that county’s congressional candidate in a district where a small section comes into Montgomery County, and with Chester County concerning a state House seat that overlaps both counties.

When Durante announced for the seat in January, he said he could already see the “handwriting on the wall.”

With Davis, who also is from Lower Merion, already personally supporting Rogers’s candidacy, Durante said he knew he would have to look elsewhere for votes to offset the approximate 90 committee people votes in Lower Merion.

While gaining support from GOP leaders in the other municipalities, Durante said he spent time and money campaigning for the votes from committee people in Radnor and Haverford.

He said he was never informed that the Delaware County committee people would not be participating in the vote. In fact, he said, Montgomery County committee people received campaign materials from Republican Radnor Township Commissioner Lisa Paolino, who is also seeking the same seat, as well as a letter from Delaware County Councilman Andy Lewis urging them to vote for Rogers.

In a mailing Durante sent out just days before the endorsement vote, Durante told the Delaware County committee people he was looking forward to meeting them at the endorsement vote.

“He was ill advised if that is what he is claiming,” said Davis, who added that Durante’s advisors knew the Delaware County committee members were not invited to the endorsement meeting.

Last Saturday at the state GOP Committee meeting in Harrisburg, an irate Delaware County Republican Chairman Tom Judge confronted Davis with the letter Durante sent to his committee people, asking Davis what had happened to the agreement they had, according to Davis.

Davis subsequently called Durante, leaving a message in his voice mail. “Let me tell you first of all you have no right to invite people outside our county to an endorsement meeting,” Davis said in the voice mail message to Durante. “That is my prerogative.”

If the Delaware County GOP committee people or Paolino showed up at the endorsement meeting, they would be asked to leave, Davis said in the message.

“I work well with you and you’re my friend and I love you, but this isn’t going to happen and now you have Tom Judge upset,” said Davis. “In the event you happen to win the endorsement, you’re going to have a problem dealing with (Judge), which is not a good place to be.”

Judge could not be reached for comment.

Durante described the message as “hurtful,” particularly when he has been a party loyalist who refused to get involved with factions of the fractured organization that want to topple Davis as chairman.

“But now I can see where they were coming from,” said Durante.

Another issue on which Durante and Davis disagree involve comments Durante made after losing the endorsement.

Davis said Durante “demanded” $6,000 to drop out of the contest to cover the costs of his campaign in Delaware County.

“We don’t pay anyone to drop out of a race and we don’t reimburse candidates who lose,” said Davis.

Durante maintained he never demanded any money from the party but had suggested it was only fair of the party to reimburse him for his Delaware County campaign expenses because Davis never told him that group would not be a part of the endorsement vote. He said he never proposed it as a condition for his withdrawal from the contest.

“I’m out of the race, aren’t I, and I don’t have any check from Mr. Davis,” said Durante. “That’s just nonsense.”

Margaret Gibbons can be reached at mgibbons@timesherald.com or 610-272-2501 ext. 216.