Back in 1934, the Democrats elected a Governor of Pennsylvania (George Earle) and a Senator from Pennsylvania (Joseph Guffey) on the same day. A 21 year old who voted in that election would now be 93 years old. He or she has not had that same experience ever since.
This year, for the first time since 1934, the Democrats are going to elect a Governor (Ed Rendell) and a Senator (Bob Casey) on the same day. It's almost official. Today, Rick Santorum's #1 cheerleader in the Philadelphia media, Philadelphia Daily News columnist John Baer, conceded the obvious: Santorum's negative campaign has been completely ineffective, and Casey will win decisively. See http://www.philly.com/.... That Rendell will win a landslide victory has long been a consensus judgment of the mainstream media.
With the only two statewide elective offices clearly going Democratic, where is the rallying point for Pennsylvania Republicans? It is not in the Congressional seats, where,
incredibly, five Republican incumbents out of 12 could be going down to defeat, from Melissa Hart in the West to Don Sherwood in the Northeast, to Curt Weldon, Jim Gerlach, and Mike Fitzpatrick in the Southeast.
It's not in the Pennsylvania Senate, where the top two leaders, Robert Jubelirer and Chip Brightbill, lost in the primary.
And it's not in the Pennsylvania House, where my involvement is deepest, and where Democratic gains are likely in Allegheny and Erie Counties in the West, Centre County in the center (where else?) of Pennsylvania, and Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lehigh, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties in the Southeast and the Philadelphia media market, where the statewide Rendell/Casey landslide will be the greatest.
No less than 11 Republican state house incumbents were defeated in the 2006 Republican primaries. To put this in perspective, it is more Republican defeated in primaries than in my prior thirty years of House general elections COMBINED.
When I was sworn in a member of the Pennsylvania House after winning a special election in May, 1974, I was one of all of 91 members, two less than we have today with one Democratic vacancy. By the end of the year, as a result of the generous gift of Watergate that Richard Nixon gave the Democratic Party, the Democrats had 114 members.
My guess is that we are approaching a victory on the level of 1974, when many candidates won upsets that surprised even the most optimistic Democratic veterans. That year, and this year, was a time in which money and effort went extremely far because large number of voters were actively looking for Democrats to back.
Generally speaking, candidates spend an enormous amount of time looking for potential constituencies. This year, potential constituencies are actively looking for Democratic candidacies to back.
If you want to help Pennsylvania move from a shaky purple state voting Democratic in Presidential elections and Republican in most other elections, this is your chance. Money never went farther than it will go this year. Getting control of the state house is getting control of legislative redistricting for 2012.
Getting control of the Pennsylvania House is converting Pennsylvania from an often negative example in spending priorities, consumer protection, environmental protection, choice, and education policies into a much more positive example for other states to emulate.
If you would like to learn more about our fine Pennsylvania candidates, and either volunteer to help them or contribute to their campaigns, please access our House Democratic Campaign Committee website at http://pahdcc.com.
This November will be the repeat of the 1934 Democratic landslide that the ever-shrinking band of Democratic veterans from that election have long been waiting for.