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Political Landscape Changing
Posted
4-8-2000
The election is over and there weren't any terribly surprising results. Even
the low turnout was pretty much expected. The rainy weather didn't help and
we didn't make 30% countywide. Of course large parts of the county had no
contested local races and that didn't help. From a brief glance at returns,
it appears turnout was a little higher in northern Westmoreland County. But
it wasn't significantly higher.
I guess the biggest surprise
was the margin of victory for Ron Klink. Ron's victory was expected, but all
polling seemed to point to a close race between he, Tom Foley, and Allyson
Schwartz. He beat Allyson by 18% (over 100,000 votes) and Foley by a few
percent more. Ron clearly had strong support in the western part of the
state. I don't know the exact number of counties he won but it appears
everywhere from central Pennsylvania westward he cleaned up. Bobby Casey's
support must have helped too as he won three counties in the northeast part
of the state where Casey is from.
Terry Van Horne's victory
wasn't really surprising. The race was so divided with eight candidates.
Terry just had to get his base of Westmoreland County and Allegheny County
out and it added up to more votes than Matt Mangino could muster in Lawrence
County or Jerry Hodge could get in Beaver County. Terry essentially had two
counties going for him and no one else did. Jack Machek took votes from
Terry here, but it wasn't enough to be fatal. The other previously mentioned
candidates also had one or two candidates in their home bases taking votes
from them too. Terry 's 23% in such a large field was impressive and he did
it without having the most money to spend.
The other contested race in
Westmoreland County was for Terry's old job, Representative of the 54th
District. Even that outcome wasn't really surprising. John Pallone won
pretty easily over Gary Alexander and Robin Clark Connolly. He won by over
1,300 votes. That amount is sizable considering Gary won the Allegheny
County portion of the district by 350 votes. Clearly, John's victory in the
Westmoreland portion was large and I think his campaign gained more and more
momentum as Election Day neared. He will be a knowledgeable legislator and
should be able to hit the ground running when he gets to Harrisburg.
John's victory continues the
process of the next generation of elected officials taking office. There is
a growing contingent of younger baby boomers getting elected in our county.
Here's some of the people: Tom Ceraso, myself, Ted Harhai, Joe Petrarca, Jim
Casorio, John Pallone, John's brother Frank as District Justice, District
Justices Mark Mansour, Mark Bilik, and Joe Dalfonso. There are plenty more
baby boomers I didn't list but I think it is just part of the transformation
of the political landscape of our county. Nothing stays the same forever and
though political change can sometimes be bumpy, it is inevitable.
The primary election results
will set the stage for some heated battles in the general election. The
Klink-Santorum race should be hot, as I know Ron's a fighter and Santorum
will come out slugging too. There's so much at stake I don't think this one
will be good-natured or friendly. You can see the Van Horne-Hart race will
be nasty too, as the Republican's didn't wait 24 hours to put out something
negative on Terry.
It's only April, but I think
each candidate (if they are wise) will start working early. I sure hope my
fellow Democrats get at it soon and stay busy. They'll have less money so
they have to make up that disadvantage with hard work.
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