Chairman's Report: From the Desk of County Chair Cliff Wilson
Election 2006: Blowing Away the Republican Party
RENDELL & CASEY AMASS RECORD VOTES IN DELAWARE COUNTY
JOE SESTAK DEFEATS TWENTY-YEAR REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN AS DEMOCRATS TAKE NATIONAL HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
BRYAN LENTZ BECOMES THIRD DEMOCRAT FROM DELCO IN STATE HOUSE DELEGATION
When the British surrendered to the Americans at Yorktown, the band played The World Turned Upside Down. It would have been an appropriate song for the Republican Party “celebration” (assuming they had one) on the evening of Nov. 7th.
The candidate for Governor got 74%.
The candidate for US Senator got 62%.
The Congressional candidate the usual 56%.
BUT, there was one difference - the candidates were
DEMOCRATS. The percentages were the usual Republican percentages. On Nov.7th
the voters of Delaware County, in a non-Presidential year, blew away the
Republican party, its tightly disciplined machine and all the myths
surrounding them.
Ed Rendell, our Democratic Governor, carried all 424
precincts in the county. Bob Casey, our challenger to the Republican
incumbent US Senator, won 401 of 424 precincts. Rendell carried all 49
municipalities and Casey all but 3.
It was in the race for Congress that the Republicans, who
acted like they owned the seat these past twenty years, were swept away.
Admiral Joe Sestak won 56% of the vote in our county, carrying 307 precincts
in Delco (Weldon won only 70). Weldon, who lost his own precinct in
Thornbury, while Joe carried his family home precinct in Springfield and the
entire township of Springfield, was confined to pockets of strength in the
west and the battlefront Ridley Township, where Gannon’s unsuccessful effort
to stop Bryan Lentz brought out a record Republican vote. The unofficial
election night totals for the three counties gave Sestak 147,347 votes and
Weldon 113, 993. (The Delco component of that was Sestak 107,153 - Weldon
84,607).
An army of Democratic Party workers and volunteers not seen
in an off-year covered every precinct in the county. There were over 650
committee persons, elected officials and regular volunteers added to over
400 election inspectors and clerks. The Sestak Campaign provided the largest
contingent of first time volunteers which (if one includes the Rendell-Casey
door knockers) equaled over 2000.
Democratic candidates for state legislature ran well and did
this party proud - considering that most of them did not have the resources
nor the help of the statewide campaign committees. Our State Senate
candidate Mike Farrell, who did get State Senate help (in October), came
close to pulling off the upset of the state last Tuesday night when he
received over 48% of the vote against the Republican incumbent. The
leadership of this party knew early this year that that seat was winnable
and the State Senate experts came around to that thinking after a September
poll.
Our workers and local leaders must now never doubt the
ability of a Democrat to win - we must give our all to all our candidates
because Farrell proved Rendell right - every Democrat in Delco had a shot.
And Bryan Lentz, who was by many favored to win, did just that. He defeated
a long time incumbent who survived a major campaign four years ago - despite
the slimiest negative campaign against any of our candidates. Bryan Lentz
was able to win over 51% of the vote and will join Thaddeus Kirkland and
Greg Vitali in the state House of Representatives in Harrisburg.
Our other challengers did not win. Our challengers do not get
over 35% of the vote except in Presidential years (another myth now
shattered). Casey Roncaglione (43.01%), Marie DeYoung (42.88%) and Fred
Dewey (40.95%) crossed the threshold mark - had they had the support of the
state campaigns those results could have been different. And the same is
true for Marilyn Woodman (endorsed by the Daily Times) and Larry Healy and
Shawn Diggory. The Republican challengers to Kirkland and Vitali did not
reach the percentage levels that our Democratic challengers reached -
another upside down. Kirkland won with 68% and Vitali with 67%.
Our Philadelphia-based incumbents whose districts contain
parts of Delaware County were all re-elected easily - Congressman Bob Brady,
State Senator Anthony Hardy Williams and State Representatives Bob Donatucci
and Ron Waters.
The Saturday before the election two great rallies were held
- one in Brookhaven and one in Radnor - attending both was former Vice
President Al Gore. The combined attendance was over 1500. This was the
campaign that brought Bill Clinton, Wesley Clark, Howard Dean, and Nancy
Pelosi to Delaware County. This was the campaign in which our Congressional
candidate raised over 3 million dollars and the State Senate campaign
committee spent over three-quarters of a million on our Senate candidate.
Delaware County gave Ed Rendell the second highest percentage
of votes of the 67 counties in the Commonwealth, exceeded only by
Philadelphia. We added to the Democratic seats in Harrisburg. And we elected
a new Democratic Congressman, who won with the greatest percentage of any
challenger to an incumbent Republican in the entire nation. During this
campaign, two Republican committee persons and one elected official switched
parties (another upside down). Let’s face it - take a good hard look at the
elections of 2000, 2002, 2004 and now 2006 and you start to realize the D in
Delco stands for Democrat.
A Note of Thanks
Everyone who worked in this campaign deserves the thanks of
the citizens of this county and this nation for helping putting America back
on the right course. But I want to thank some individuals whose names were
not on the ballot. Our 1st Vice Chair Tony Campisi who in addition to his
party duties served Bob Casey as county coordinator. Six local chairs who
assisted me as regional coordinators: Peter Jesson, Don Dix, Paul Scoles,
Herb Blackson, Jim Donahue, and Angela D’Alessandro; and working with them
Rich Aldred, Bill Thomas, Nancy Baulis, and Brian Eury. Mike Shaw, our party
secretary, did a first rate job managing Mike Farrell’s campaign and we owe
much to Mike Farrell for stationing Larry Puchalski at our county
headquarters to assist the coordinated effort. Dave Diano and Dave Freeman
gave much time to helping all the candidates with VoterWeb and with numerous
labels and lists requests. Ann O’Keefe headed our legal voter protection
team and Ray Santarelli, our Party Solicitor, and Gerry Lawrence as Election
Commissioner got quick resolutions to issues that arose throughout the
campaign period. Our Treasurer Mary Ballard worked tirelessly to see that
bills were paid and we didn’t overrun the budget.
And to the hundreds of committee persons and volunteers we say thanks - for helping take back our country and our county.