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GOP rebounds in Pa.—or does it?
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| Contributor | Monsieur |
| Last Edited | Monsieur Nov 06, 2009 05:17pm |
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| Category | Blog Entry |
| Author | Michael Livingston |
| News Date | Friday, November 6, 2009 11:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | I posted yesterday on the Republican Party’s undeniable gains nationwide. Similar claims are being made for the state GOP: it’s bounced back and faces a brighter tomorrow.
Are they true?
On the surface, they would seem to be. Joan Orie Melvin’s election to the state Supreme Court has got to be satisfying for a party that has gotten used to losing at the statewide level. In my own Montgomery County, the party took six of seven judicial races despite a very aggressive Democratic campaign and a deficit in voter registrations. All this from the same GOP that lost the 2008 presidential race in Pennsylvania by more than 10 points.
The problem, of course, is that it isn’t the same electorate. The Republicans did well on Tuesday, partly because they campaigned hard, but largely because the great bulk of last year’s Democratic voters, especially in Philadelphia and other cities, didn’t participate. That’s a victory in itself—the Democrats were supposed to be using 2008 as a basis for future strength—but it doesn’t tell you a whole lot about what will happen when all those people come back. Local elections are also notoriously non-ideological; local judicial candidates seemed most concerned to let you know who was Jewish. |
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