My thanks to Delaware County GOP Chairman Andy Reilly and Swarthmore Mayor Rick Lowe for joining me last night on 'Live From the Newsroom' as we broke down last week's Republican election.
If you missed the show you can catch the replay here.
The bottom line? Two things: People continue to stay away from these off-year municipal elections in droves, and the death of the Delco GOP has been greatly exaggerated.
As we know now, despite losing their longtime dominance in voter registration - yes, I know it's hard to believe but there are now acually more registered Democrats in Delco than Republicans - the GOP continued their iron-clad grip on the county courthouse, sweeping all seven county-wide races.
Reilly and Lowe offered their reasons why, with the GOP leader saying it's indicative that people in the county are happy with their government, while the Dem pointed to the whopping divide in money raised - and spent - by the two parties.
Also interesting was our peek at the future,; 2014 is going to be a huge election year, with the Pennsylvania governor's race topping the ticket, along with Pat Meehan defending his 7th District Congressional seat, and the state Legislature races, including what should be a very competitive race to fill the 26th District state Senate seat being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Ted Erickson.
Reilly indicated there are several people interested in the seat, including County Council Chairman Tom McGarrigle, state Rep. Nick Miccarelli, R-162, of Ridley Park, and county Executive Director Marianne Grace. One of them will face off against the likely Dem standard-bearer, John Kane, business manager of Plumbers Union Local 690.
Reilly noted that he fully expects Gov. Tom Corbett to not only be the GOP's candidate, despite his record low poll numbers and some grumbling from inside the part, and that he expects the governor to spend a lot of time in the crucial southeastern Pa. region. Corbett kicked off his run last week, including a stop in Media.
Lowe predicted U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz will win the Dem nomination and capture the governor's mansion.
Buckle your seatbelts, folks. They've barely counted the votes from last week and it's full throttle ahead for 2014.
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