I used my print column today to revisit the 161st District special election from last week in which the mighty Delco GOP suffered a humiliating defeat, in no small part because of a fissure in the party that sparked a write-in candidacy.
Penn-Delco School Board member Lisa Esler, clearly irked at the process that led the party to endorse labor leader Paul Mullen, waged a vigorous write-in campaign. In the process she did exactly what local Republicans feared. She managed to siphon off enough votes to open the door for Democrat Leanne Krueger-Braneky to claim victory.
It struck me over the weekend that there is a lesson to be learned by the national GOP from right here in Delco.
One of the most important - and to me overlooked - aspects to come out of last Thursday's initial GOP debate was the threat by the bombastic Donald Trump, who finds himself increasingly under fire from inside his own party even while continuing to lead in the polls, to run as an independent or write-in if he does not get the GOP nod.
National Republican leaders are trying to figure out how to handle the live grenade that is the Trump campaign.
Make no doubt, he is the reason some 24 million viewers turned on the TV to check out the debate.
But Trump continues to do and say things that make some party leaders cringe, such as his off-key remarks concerning Fox TV analyst Megyn Kelly during the initial debate questioning.
If Republican leaders want to know just how dangerous a write-in campaign can be to their chances, they need look no further than right here in the special election for the 161st District state House seat right here in Delco.
Republican leaders have to figure out how to live with Trump. A write-in campaign would be a huge blow to their chances of recapturing the White House.
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