Results of the First Special Election of 2023
By Bob Small
GOP State Representive Lynda Schlegal Culver will soon become State Senator Culver, based on the results of the very first Special Election of 2023, which took place on January 31. She handily defeated Patricia Lawson with approximately 70 perent of the vote in the 27th District.
Mrs. Culver becomes the 17th active female state senator in Pennsylvania. She was in her seventh term as state representative prior to the election. And she will become the first female state senator for the 27th district.
This special election was required because State Senator John Gordner resigned to work with President Pro Tem Kim Ward.
Mrs. Culver said she plans to work for better jobs and higher wages for her constituents. She wants to make businesses friendlier by reforming the tax structure, while also reducing the size and cost of state government.
The GOP has a 2-to-1 registration advantage over the Democratic Party, so this outcome was no surprise.
The 27th Senatorial District includes all of Columbia, Montour, Northumberland and Snyder counties and parts of Luzerne County.
Mrs. Culver is a graduate of Shikellamy High School with a political science degree from Bloomsburg University. She resides in Rockefeller Township (Northumberland County) with her husband Tom and their son Joshua.
Patricia Lawson works as an adjunct instructor for Bloomsburg and PSU-Harrisburg. She is a speech pathologist.
Her campaign supported common-sense gun laws and term limits for elected officials. On the issue of abortion, she is pro-choice.
As was discussed in this space Thomas Anderson, the Libertarian Party candidate for this district, was denied ballot access on a much-disputed technicality, and was forced to run a write-in campaign. At the time of this report, his write-in totals are not yet available.
Of course, there will now be a special election for Culver’s House seat, yet to be announced.
Minor typo, Bill: “Shikellany”. It’s “Shikellamy”.
My dad is from Northumberland, and Chief Shikellamy figured prominently in the history of the area in the middle of the 18th century. He was an Iroquois chief, and the Shawnee and Lenape Indians were subjects of the Six Nations. Shikellamy was the Six Nations’ representative, a governor, if you will, to make sure the subject tribes stayed loyal to the Iroquois.
And there’s an old-timer’s legend up there, about Northumberland and Sunbury, and the rivalry between the schools. If you stand on the west bank of the Susquehanna, the Northumberland side, at the confluence of the two branches, and look east across the river, you can see Shikellamy’s profile on the bluff. And it’s said that Sunbury will always beat Northumberland, so long as Shikellamy smiles down on the town.
Fixed. Thank you, Brad