Democrats Win Pennsylvania House

The final votes have all been counted, and in the 156th state legislature district of Pennsylvania, Democrat Barbara McIlvaine is ahead by 23 votes. While it pains me to link to Rick Santorum's favorite political reporter, Carrie Budoff, she does have the latest:Smith pulled ahead of Royer by 23 votes in the final tabulation.

"This will change control of the state House," said Clifford Levine, the Democratic attorney.

The whole Republican crew immediately bolted from the building.

"I don't know, I don't know," one of the GOP lawyers said when asked what they would do next, before he left. Wow. There will probably be further action after this point, but it looks very, very likely that Democrats will narrowly control the Pennsylvania House for the next two years. Great stuff.

Tags: Pennsylvania, state legislatures (all tags)

Comments

20 Comments

23 Votes?

Wow.  Every vote really does count.

by lisadawn82 2006-11-28 09:48AM | 0 recs
Re: 10 votes

That is what John Fox won by when he beat Joe Hoeffel in each man's first run for congress from the 13th.

by phillydem 2006-11-28 10:03AM | 0 recs
Re: Democrats Win Pennsylvania House

Nothing like one final boot in the ass for Republicans this cycle.

by sethpen 2006-11-28 09:48AM | 0 recs
Re: Democrats Win Pennsylvania House

Nothing like one final boot in the ass for Republicans this cycle.

The whole Republican crew immediately bolted hobbled from the building.

by lisadawn82 2006-11-28 09:50AM | 0 recs
Re: Democrats Win Pennsylvania House

23 votes!

23 votes!

23 votes!

And the whole Pennsylvania legislature changes hands.

The dusty old Philadelphia lawyers at the Federalist Society must be getting mighty drunk. Just think, the courts will be backed up for months while they sit in detox.

by blues 2006-11-28 09:56AM | 0 recs
Re: Not much the GOP can do now

The Republicans challenged every ballot on every conceivable nit-picking point so they can't well argue now that those ballots ought to be included in the count. They are skunked and it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.

I also wonder if now that Dems have the house if a few more moderate Republicans, especially from the SE, will switch parties to partner with a governor who just got reelected with over 60% of the vote including a massive landslide in the SE.

by phillydem 2006-11-28 10:01AM | 0 recs
When does the redistricting begin?

I am hoping that with the House and the Gov, they will redistrict immediately.

Will that happen?

by dataguy 2006-11-28 10:30AM | 0 recs
Re: When does the redistricting begin?

Nope. The state Senate (29R-21D) must approve any redistricting.

by PantherDem 2006-11-28 10:32AM | 0 recs
Why did they... uh flee?

I mean c'mon it takes time to issue arrest warrants.

Once they are smashed they completely fall apart, it's pathetic.

by MNPundit 2006-11-28 10:03AM | 0 recs
Once they are smashed they completely fall apart,

Isn't that the truth!  They haven't had to be on the defensive in over a decade so they truely don't know how to act/react.  

by lisadawn82 2006-11-28 10:05AM | 0 recs
Re: Democrats Win Pennsylvania House

Is this going to yield any benefits in reapportioning?

by Chango 2006-11-28 10:05AM | 0 recs
Yep!

See here:
http://www.fairvote.org/redistricting/re ports/remanual/pa.htm

The house has a redistricting committee and the governor has veto power, so the Democrats could theoretically change the districts. However, it's pretty unusual to redo the districts between census years, so unless they pull a Delay, redistricting won't happen until 2010.

by sxp151 2006-11-28 10:16AM | 0 recs
Why not?? WHY NOT???

PA is totally gerymandered.  I would redistrict immediately.

by dataguy 2006-11-28 10:31AM | 0 recs
Re: Why not?? WHY NOT???

But it's not your decision. :)

Democrats generally keep with traditions and don't do things for purely political purposes. Republicans are different. Our side has an ethical basement, so we're always at a disadvantage. I'm not saying that's how it should be, but our leaders are just not going to go tit-for-tat, whether in the US House or PA House.

by sxp151 2006-11-28 10:58AM | 0 recs
Re: Yep!

Nope -- the "Pennsylvania General Assembly" refers to both chambers, not just the House.

by Adam B 2006-11-28 12:07PM | 0 recs
Re: Democrats Win Pennsylvania House

Probably not.

by phillydem 2006-11-28 10:11AM | 0 recs
Re: Democrats Win Pennsylvania House

I posted pretty extensively over about this on DKos, but since there's a strong PA contingent here, I won't bother.

I will just say that this is a victory for the 50 State Strategy and a victory for people power.  On Election Day, the real machine was rolling for Rendell and Casey.  But it was us, the Young Dems, the party faithful, Committeepeople, and just people who were excited about Barb that were out there making the difference.

It's a great time to be a Dem here in Chester County.

by Chesco Dem 2006-11-28 10:35AM | 0 recs
Congrats to PA Dems...

...from a former (very disloyal) Delaware County Republican. I followed the lead of my late dad, who was a registered Republican that loathed Nixon, Reagan and Papa Bush, not to mention Curt Weldon. Like my father, I registered Republican for 2 reasons: a) to have some kind of voice in municipal and county elections in the primary since the Dems always lost the general election; b) voting in the presidential primary was irrelevant, since Pennsylvania's primary is so late it rarely if ever has any influence; and c) you can vote for anyone you want in the general election, regardless of party. In my first presidential vote, I was a Republican for McGovern.

Unfortunately, my old state house district (162nd) remained Republican, but I have relatives who live in the 156th, and I suspect they might've been two of the 23 votes that put the Dems over the top.

by monchie 2006-11-28 10:38AM | 0 recs
Re: Why did they... uh flee?

Almost certainly.

by Phoenix Woman 2006-11-28 10:58AM | 0 recs
Re: Democrats Win Pennsylvania House

I'm just a little worried what type of Damage De Wesse is going to do to the party, as speaker. If he pulls anymore of these midnight pay raises or midnight bill passages or does anything else in the dark of the night the way thing were being done for the past couple years we are going to get smashed by the voters.

by orin76 2006-11-28 11:03AM | 0 recs

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