I'm still trying to get my arms around the depth of the setbacks suffered by the Delco GOP last Tuesday.
Party leaders seem to believe they are paying a price for the unpopularity of President Donald Trump.
His name was not on the ballot, but a lot of people believed the midterm was a referendum on Trump's first two years in office.
If that was the case, consider the Delco vote a huge thumb's down.
I think there is merit to the party leaders belief that they paid a big price for Trump. But I don't think that is the only explanation.
This was a vote to expand what our elected leaders looks like. In other words, not just white man.
This was a big vote for women.
Mary Gay Scanlon took the newly constructed 5th District seat in Congress. It was a lock that a woman was going to take this seat, because Scanlon was running against another woman, Republican Pearl Kim. Scanlon will fill the seat vacated when Rep. Pat Meehan resigned.
But it wasn't just the congressional seat, which Republicans will tell you was set up for Democrats by the state Supreme Court when they redrew the maps. Ironically, this stemmed from a legal challenge to the old boundaries. It was the bizarre shape of the 7th Congressional District - dubbed "Goofy Kicking Donald Duck" - that led to the historic court ruling that it was a blatant example of partisan gerrymandering. That 7th District seat went from being a tossup to being solidly red under those old boundaries. Now Republicans claim it was shifted 360 degrees in the other direction, with a district now set up to favor Democrats.
But it was not just the congressional race.
The losses suffered by the local GOP in state races may be even more stunning.
Sen. Tom McGarrigle, R-26 if Springfield, lost to Democratic challenger Tim Kearney, mayor of Swarthmore.
A very popular state rep, Jamie Santora, lost his 163rd seat in Upper Darby to Mike Zabel.
Labor leader Dave Delloso snagged the 162nd seat being vacated by Rep. Nick Miccarelli, turning back former county Sheriff Mary Hopper.
It appears as if another incumbent, Rep. Alex Charlton, R-165 of Springfield, will lose his seat to Democrat challenger Jenn O"Mara.
Tuesday's vote completely flips the Delco delegation in Harrisburg. A group that was once dominated by Republicans is now down to just two seats. Ironically, one of them is Rep. Chris Quinn, R-168 of Middletown, who continues to cling to a slim lead over Democrat Kristin Seale, despite being vilified by the opponents of Sunoco's Mariner East 2 pipeline. Seale has yet to concedein that race. The other is Rep. Steve Barrar, R-160 of Concord, who survived a strong challenge in his district, which spills over into Chester County.
I got a feel that this might be more than an anti-Trump vote in a reaction to my Letter From the Editor that ran on Monday. I noted that I happen to like both Tom McGarrigle and Jamie Santora. I believe they capture a bit of everyday citizens that is too often missing in Harrisburg.
But a reader suggested there might have been more to the vote against McGarrigle than first appeared. He suggested there was a backlash to the series of mailings that demonized his opponent, Tim Kearney, on the issue of sanctuary cities and immigration. The mailers consistently referred to Kearney as a "Swarthmore resident," as if that was some kind of disease.
He asked me if I approved of these kinds of tactics, turning neighbor against neighbor
"I've never been so dismayed by a campaign," he wrote to me with examples of the campaign literature used against Kearney.
He thinks the move backfired, and the literature actually worked against McGarrigle.
I agree with him.
One thing is certain. Those representing us - both in Harrisburg and D.C. - will look little like the group that was there just a few weeks ago.
And that's not a bad thing.
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