For those of us not registered with one of the major political parties, there is not much to cheer about when it comes to Pennsylvania’s closed primary system since we can’t vote for any of the major parties’ candidates, but just between you and me, we hit the jackpot this year.

The original field of 15 Democrats and 19 Republicans vying for the seat now held by Republican Pat Toomey of Lehigh County has been whittled down to five Democrats and seven Republicans, still a crowded field by any measure. We unaligned voters can just watch the carnage from the sidelines and not have to give the primaries much thought. With the filing deadline of March 15 in the rearview mirror, here (in alphabetical order) are those who filed their nominating petitions and are still standing going into the final 49 days before the May 17 primaries:

• Democrats: Kevin Baumlin, John Fetterman, Malcolm Kenyatta, Alexandria Khalil and Conor Lamb.

• Republicans: Kathy Barnette, Jeff Bartos, George Bochetto, Sean Gale, David McCormick, Mehmet Oz and Carla Sands.

The landscape is strewn with 10 Democrats and 12 Republicans who announced they were candidates but then either dropped out or didn’t qualify because of technical issues. They are:

• Democrats: Eric Orts, Sharif Street, Valerie Arkoosh, Walter Sluzynsky, Kael Dougherty, Lew Tapera, Larry Johnson, Alan Shank, Kyle Norton and John McGuigan.

• Republicans: Vince Fusca, Craig Snyder, Sean Parnell, John Eichenberg, Max Richardson, David Xu, Ronald Johnson, Bobby Jeffries, Richard Mulholland, Martin Rosenfeld, John Debellis and Everett Stern.

A U.S. senator is paid $174,000 annually.

For the past several months, we have been bombarded by ads from Republicans Oz and McCormick, and, more recently, we have begun seeing the ads of Democrats Fetterman and Lamb. As we get closer to the primaries, I am sure we will see some of the other candidates from both parties fill our TV screens, but many of them are limited by the amount of their campaign war chests. Thank goodness for the remote and the mute button.

The most controversial of the Senate ads run so far this political season is the one that had its first airing in the Pittsburgh market during the final quarter of this year’s Super Bowl and whose centerpiece is “Let’s Go, Brandon,” a code phrase for “(expletive) Joe Biden” being chanted in the background. The ad then began appearing in all markets, including ours, and the criticism has intensified to the point where even some Republicans are urging McCormick to drop the ad.

This gaggle of glut will be trying to sell themselves to the party faithful. Meanwhile, each party’s leaders are hoping that the infighting and strident name-calling will not wind up giving ammunition to the opposition for the main event - the general election on Nov. 8.

You are probably as bewildered as I am when you see candidates from the same party trash each other in the primaries then rally behind the same “devil,” who just days ago wasn’t worth a lick, and say, essentially, that now here is a person who is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and all is forgiven. That, my friends, is one of the reasons why politics has such unsavory connotations.

(A quick word about the date of the general election. Many believe it is held on the first Tuesday in November. While this is true most of the time, it’s not this year. That’s because Election Day is statutorily set by the federal government on “the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.”)

Make no mistake about it: Pennsylvania will be one of the battleground states in this year’s midterm elections to determine whether Democrats maintain their slim control in the U.S. Senate or whether it will return to Republican hands. Right now, the Senate is split 50-50, but with Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris as Senate president, she has the tiebreaking vote. As of this writing, she has used her tiebreaker 15 times. Other than ties, she does not vote.

Each state gets two U.S. senators regardless of population, each of whom serves six-year terms. Every two years, about one-third of the Senate is up for election.

Our other senator is Democrat Bob Casey, whose term expires in 2024. Casey won re-election in 2018 when he defeated former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta of Hazleton, one of the GOP candidates for governor this year. Toomey announced in October 2020 that he would not seek a third term. In his last election in 2016, Toomey defeated Democrat Katie McGinty by 1.5 percentage points. In that election, more than $160 million was spent. This year’s expenditures are expected to top $200 million, possibly the most expensive in the nation.

We unaligned voters will bide our time until the dust clears after May 17 and we’re left with just two major party candidates to consider.

Ballotpedia has identified Pennsylvania as a battleground state tilting Republican in this year’s Senate race. Ballotpedia is a nonprofit and nonpartisan online political encyclopedia that covers federal and state politics.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.