A self-inflicted wound for Delco GOP

Welcome to Andy Reilly's nightmare.

Democrat Leanne Krueger-Braneky beat Republican Paul Mullen last night to capture the 161st District state House seat.

And Republicans have only themselves to blame. Or maybe Lisa Esler. The conservative write-in candidate did exactly what many in the party feared, managing to siphon off enough votes from Mullen to open the door to a win by the Democrat.

This started last February, with state Rep. Joe Hackett's off announcement that he was following his heart back to Delaware County and his career in law enforcement.

Hackett's move to give up the seat he had just won a second term for in November, and just weeks after taking the oath, struck many as odd.

Unfortunately, Hackett did not make this decision last fall, when he campaigned for the seat vigorously and easily turned back the Democrat Krueger-Braneky, who ran a good campaign and clearly was an up-and-comer in the party. Maybe a run for County Council was in her future? She didn't have to wait that long.

Krueger-Braneky got into the race she had just lost a few months before, then got a huge break from, of all people, the Delco GOP.

The party backed longtime labor leader Paul Mullen, a choice that immediately raised lots of eyebrows given Mullen's fairly consistent labor record of backing Democratic candidates. Those would include Barack Obama and Joe Sestak. And perhaps most importantly, Mullen was a fierce supporter of John Kane in his brutal, rough-and-tumble battle for the vacant 26th District state Senate seat with Republican Tom McGarrigle. Things got heated in that campaign, and it's obvious not everyone had forgotten some of the things that were said.

Many rank-and-file Republicans were livid at the choice of Mullen to run for Hackett's seat, let alone the party granting its endorsement.

Reilly was left to defend the process, but could not soothe enough of the ruffled feathers. In particular those of Lisa Esler.

The conservative leader of a Tear Party wing of the party was outraged at both the choice of Mullen and the process that elected him. And she said so fairly vocally in announcing her write-in challenge.

The fear was that she could siphon off enough votes from Mullen to open the door for a victory for Democrats and Krueger-Braneky. That's exactly what happened last night. The exact totals are still not official, but take away those write-in votes cast for Esler, which you have to assume would have gone to Mullen, and the Delco GOP still holds the 161st seat. Instead, they now find themselves once again on the outside looking in, with the seat swinging back into Dems' hands. After Brian Lentz won the seat, then gave it up to run for Congress, it appeared that redistricting would take a lot of the drama out of what had become a swing district, instead putting it solidly in the Republican camp.

Of course, that did not take into account a self-inflicted wound, which is what the party is dealing with this morning.

Last night Dem party leader David Landau was heralding a 'new day' for Delaware County Democrats. I'm not buying. Instead, I think GOP leader Andy Reilly probably got it right.

"This is an indicator of what can occur when Republicans don’t stick together,” he said.

Rack up a big win for Delco Democrats.

And Republicans have only themselves to blame.

Geez, next thing you know someone will be telling me Democrats have elected a candidate to Delaware County Council. Nah, that can't happen.

Unless maybe the Dems can round up some more GOP write-in candidates.