Pa. Election 2011, Congrats Tea Partyers

The Democrats broke a bit of a losing streak in state judicial races, yesterday, Nov. 8, when David Wecht handily beat Republican Vic Stabile to win a seat on State Superior Court, which is the 15-member body that is the intermediate appellate court for civil and criminal cases from county Common Pleas Courts.

There was a lot of ticket splitting, however. Republican Ann Covey appears to have beaten  Kathryn Boockvar in the race for Commonwealth Court, which is the nine-member body
that is the intermediate appellate court for issues involving taxation,
banking, insurance, utility regulation, eminent domain, election, labor
practices, elections, Department of Transportation matters, and liquor
licenses.


The unofficial tally in the Wecht race as of this morning was 1,012, 324 votes to 842,366.

Stabile, the party choice, had a chilly relation with the Tea Party who pushed his opponent Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Paula Patrick in the primary election.

The unofficial tally in the Covey race  is 959,869 to 875,294.

Ms. Covey also had a Tea Party opponent in the primary, Philadelphia Common pleas Court Judge Paul P. Panepinto. Ms. Covey, however, reached out to conservatives, especially pro-lifers, and Ms.  Boockvar is an extreme liberal activist.

All state judges were retained with at least 70 percent of the vote. Republican campaign literature requested yes votes on retention.

One very ill omen for the Democrats in next year’s presidential races was the loss their bastion of Westmoreland County, with Republicans taking control of it for the first time since the 1950s.

Closer to home, Tea Partyers Lisa Esler and John Dougherty 3rd easily won seats on the Penn Delco School Board.

Democrats took control of Chester City with John Linder beating incumbent Republican Wendell Butler in the mayor’s race and Elizabeth Williams and Nafis Nichols winning council seats, giving the Dems control of the city for just the second time since the Civil War.

It is not as though the Republicans have done such a great job in that city.

Linder, a professor of social sciences at Delaware County Community College, took on  Dominic Pileggi in 2008 in an unsuccessful bid for a state senate seat. He has expressed support for school choice and scorn for the teachers union, which is one of the pollutants that has ruined the Democrat  Party.

And in Springfield, Republican Bob Layden was easily elected to complete the last two years of Jim Devenney‘s unexpired term as the township’s 6th Ward commissioner.

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