Thoughts on the Aftermath

I am not surprised with how the election turned out. With regard to some local races ...

Ed Rendell beat Lynn Swan for the PA governorship. Maybe next time the Republican Party can pick someone other than a football player as their candidate. Rendell is very popular in Pennsylvania’s metropolitan areas, so the Reps needed somebody with real experience or at least a better-communicated platform to have a shot at winning.

Bob Casey, Jr. beat Rick Santorum for his Senate seat. The intense dislike for Santorum in the blue areas of PA made this no surprise. Casey’s campaign was basically, “I’m not Santorum.” The fact that this was all he needed to unseat Santorum should be a wake up call to the GOP.

Turning to my little part of the state, House District 6 is at Jim Gerlach with 51% of the vote to challenger Lois Murphy’s 49%. This reflects in large measure the increasing Democrat demography of Montgomery County. Formerly solid “R,” as more Dems have moved out of Philadelphia and settled in MontCo the balance is shifting blue. I can see the Dems slowly turning MontCo into a reflection of Philly, in which case it may be time to bail the hell out of Dodge.

In the Connecticut Senate race the message to the Kostards seems to be, “PWNED!”

As of the time I write this, the Montana and Virginia contested Senate seats still hadn’t been decided. If the Dems pick up both they’ll gain a bare majority, while if they pick up one the Reps will keep theirs, since with VP Dick Cheney as President Pro Tempre of the Senate, they’ll still have enough votes to break any deadlocks.

So, on the national level the balance of power has shifted a bit. It looks like we’re going to see two years of gridlock.