Here's a confession: I've always liked Andy Reilly.
That likely will not come as a surprise to Delaware County Democrats, who for years have accused me of being in Andy's pocket, under the thumb of the all-powerful Delco GOP.
Of course, Andy and his GOP brethren had the same suspicions, but their's stemmed from their belief that I was always plotting for ways to knock them from their perch atop Delco politics.
Times change.
So do demographics.
Politics is a lot like sports. When you encounter a losing streak, changes are made.
And it's usually not the players who are seeking other options.
It's the manager.
Just ask Ron Hextall.
It did not exactly come as a surprise that Reilly is moving on, relinquishing his post as chairman of the county Republican Party and taking a post with the state GOP as chairman of the Southeast Republican Caucus.
The Delco GOP is still reeling from two drubbings at the polls.
First they lost both seats on County Council, along with all three county row offices.
That was followed up by the disastrous midterms, in which they came up short in races for Congress, along with several key state Senate and House races.
So the announcement soon came that Reilly was moving on.
Reilly and several GOP leaders pointed to an very unpopular President Trump as the heart of the GOP's woes in this election. I've heard from a lot of other people who are not so sure.
I will miss Reilly. He's one of the few leaders who could talk rationally about our differences, and he wasn't afraid to put his name on his feelings and have it run on our op-ed page.
There was only one thing that he always hated - and he would always let me know it.
It irked him to no end when we would refer to him as the GOP "boss." He believed it sounded like an organized crime kingpin. And he pointed out we usually did not refer to his Democratic counterpart in the same way.
The chairman is moving on.
That's what happens when the team hits a losing streak.
I will miss him.
We talk about it on today's editorial page.
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