With 87.77 percent of returns in as of 11:20 p.m., Mitt Romney has easily won the Pennsylvania Republican Presidential Primary getting 57.1 percent vote. Rick Santorum, who had withdrawn from the race is second with 18.9 percent; with Ron Paul in third at 13.2 percent and Newt Gingrich last at 10.8 percent.
Romney also won in New York, Delaware, Rhode Island and Connecticut which pretty much ends what little doubt their may have been as to who the Republican will be who takes on Barack Obama this November.
There were, as of this writing, 707,386 votes cast in the Republican race versus the 547,228 Democrats who hit the button for Barack Obama, who was uncontested.
In the GOP U.S. Senate primary, Tom Smith, a businessman with blue collar roots easily took the nomination getting 265,564 votes or 40 percent of the total. Former State Rep. Sam Rohrer is second with 149,369 votes with Steve D. Welch, who was endorsed by the State Republican Party, in third with 133,984 votes. David Christian has 67, 767 votes and Marc A. Scaringi has 48,040 votes.
While the GOP Senate results might give heartburn to party leaders, the Democrat raceshould cause that party’s leaders to start shaking in fear. Incumbent Bob Casey has 122,787 votes cast against him in favor of Joseph Vodvarka, another businessman with blue collar roots, who ran an almost non-existent campaign. Casey’s vote total is 503,234.
In the 9th District State Senate GOP Senate Primary, Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi fought off a dogged challenged from a grandfather citizens activist to be on the November ballot. With 96.6 percent of the ballot counted, Pileggi is up 10,814 to 2,537 in Delaware County over Roger Howard. In Chester County, though, which is Howard’s home turf, Pileggi is up 4,376 to 4,062. Remember, Pileggi is one of the most powerful political figures in the state and nobody had heard of Howard three months ago.
In another bit of an upset on the Democrat ballot, Kathleen Kane, a former Lackawanna County prosecutor, beat former Congressman Patrick Murphy to take on Republican David Freed in November in the attorney general race. She got 54 percent to Murphy’s 46 percent.
In the Republican Auditor General race John Maher beat Frank Pinto 66.2 percent to 33.9 percent to take on Democrat Eugene DePasquale in November.
In other matters, Ron Paul supporter Tom Boggia (2,240 votes) will be among the three directly elected delegates being sent to the GOP convention from the Democrat leaning 1st Congressional District which includes southern Delaware County. The others are Romney supporters Marion Taxin (3,017 votes) and Christopher Vogler (2799 votes).
In the 7th District, all elected delegates will be Romney people: Michael Puppio Jr. (19,263 votes), Robert Willert (17,916 votes), Andy Lewis (17,714 votes), and Patrica Booker (16,803 votes).