Governor's race: Governor Comeback Rendell crushed "Outsider" Lynn Swann. At 8:10 PM, USA Today called the race for Rendell. At 11 PM, with 63%, Rendell claims victory.
U.S. Senate race: Bob Casey convincingly defeated Rick Santorum. At 8:05 PM, AP projected Caseyas the winner. At 9:58 PM, Santorum conceded the race. He displayed class, something that eluded him in the Senate. Now he can battle Lord Sauron on his own dime.
15th U.S. Congressional District: Dent struggles, but retains his seat. He escapes defeat by an unknown with no funding, getting just 53% of the vote. Dent spoke of the need to put aside partisanship and be conciliatory. I hope he remembers that in his second term.
18th Pa. Senatorial District: Although Lisa Boscola and Bonnie Dodge are both strong women, Lisa was stronger. Boscola gobbles a whopping 72%.
16th Pa. Senatorial District: I like Rick Orloski, but Pat Browne kept his seat. Browne wins a close one, with 53%.
24th Pa. Senatorial District: Rob Wunderling trounced his invisible Democratic opponent. 60%.
131st Legislative District: Minger Upset in 131st? Incumbent Beyer Dishing Out the Dirt. I called this a c-c-catfight, and the fur is still flying. Beyer is slightly ahead, but who knows?
132d Legislative District: Mann easily retained Her state house seat, but is she Democrat or Republican? Mann grabbed 80% of the vote.
133rd Legislative District: Joe Brennan in the 133rd: Why Not the Best? Joe wins, and so do the rest of us, with 66% of the vote.
134th Legislative District: Act Blue for the Other Casey, Blue Collar Casey. I'm feeling pretty blue because Reichley has 61% of the vote.
183rd Legislative District: Harhart or Upstart? Act Blue for Russ Shade in 183rd. In a big disappointment, Harhart sleepwalks her way to a win with 61%. Shade's magic dust helped Stoffa, but not him. That's too bad for the rest of us.
187th Legislative District: Follweiler - Fresh Air in 187th Legislative District. This one is too close to call, and I've got a baaad feeling.
LEHIGH COUNTY ORDINANCE 2006-155: "Shall the Lehigh County Home Rule Charter be amended to abolish the elected offices of the Clerk of Courts, the Recorder of Deeds and the Register of Wills, and to consolidate the functions of those offices into one elected office to be known as the Clerk of Judicial Records?" Lehigh County's Superclerk of Judicial Records? Get Real. Lehigh County Comm'r Grammes is Kryptonite to SuperClerk Proposal. Sixty-two percent of the voters approved this supposed cost-savings measure. Boy, are they in for a surprise.
The fat lady hasn't sung fpr Gerlach just yet.
ReplyDeleteWe lost a number of the state house races because they were simply underfunded and undersupported by the state and local parties at all points during the campaign. Neither Rendell or Casey had any coatails in the Lehigh valley because they did very little to help any of the State candidates. They create a "coordinated" campaign which gobbled up most of the volunteers and money then demands that you give them volunteers of which you have so few to start with because they have already absorbed,most of what you might have had, for them to do anything for you. Until the state party sees beyond the top of the ticket
ReplyDeleteThe Democrats aren't going to win very many more state seats in the Lehigh valley
ReplyDeleteif they continue this way
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm disappointed in some local results (I'm stuck with Reichley and Browne), I'm certainly happy with with the Rendell and Bob Casey victories. And with the great results on the nat'l level, I think that Dent may be smart enough (if he wants to keep his seat next time) to read the writing on the wall and will be more than willing to join with the dems on things that matter.
ReplyDeleteNow if the dem's want to exist beyond 2008, they've got to start taking some meaningful action on real issues. Forget the "symbolic" bullshit that the repubs tried (like flag burning and gay marriage) and let's move to get out of Iraq, do something about the Medicare drug plan, reduce the deficit, etc.
dg
the race in the 6th is still in limbo and Gerlach took over after results from Chester County came in (the largest part of the district). Those results don't come in until after 3 AM typically. Expact that in this district and other Chesco based districts
ReplyDeleteLooking at the state results, Greta Brown did very well in Lehigh County... well enough that Dent didn't even clear 50%.
Although I'm happy about US Congress, I'm distrubed that Dems did not do better in state house races. I will have comments about that, but won't post them now. I wouldn't blame Rendell or Casey.
ReplyDeleteOk,I do blame Casey and Rendell we saw this in 2004, and 2005. Everyone at the top of the ticket won and then were was wholesale Slaughter of twp and boro candidates all over the state
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThe Democrats in general did Horrible in the Lehigh valley. We picked up nothing in the middle of this big wave
ReplyDeleteAnon 2:57, Yoiu're absolutely right. Dems and reformers seeking state rep. seats in this area did badlky. But instead of pointing above, I'm looking in a mirror right now. I didn't lift a finger to help Minger, Shade or Casey.
ReplyDeleteOh there is plenty of fault to go around, but the usual offenders keep popping up Coordinated campaigns : That waste the areas resources are only interested in increasing the votes in cities and highly urbanized suburbs next to the cities then blowing everyone else off., and the
ReplyDeleteHdcc which is full of people that haven't won a challenger race anywhere outside of a major urban area in probably at least a decade or more. They sit in there and do nothing make phone calls act important and waste money candidates could use.
Rather than helping Democratic candidates become viable they (the hdcc) demands that they (candidates) be viable (meaning have a ton of cash on hand) before they help them. Which is rather hard since they are looting the local donor bases.
So every 2 years we have the Hdcc and the Coordinated campaign in the Lehigh valley destroying local state candidates so in the end we either end up with candidates with deep pockets that almost win but don't get enough volunteers to do turn out because the campaign loots all of them or candidates with not deep pockets and the coordinated campaign looting all the Volunteers.
Resulting in what we saw on tuesday night ARCHIE FOLLWEILER winning in Berks where the coordinated campaign stayed out of it but losing in Lehigh because of the coordinated campaign. Shade losing in Northampton and Lehigh because coordinated eat all the volunteers and Hdcc ate all the money. As well Chris Casey losing because the hdcc wouldn't pony up money for him because he wouldn't let them run his campaign into the ground completely.