06 Help PA Voters Throw the Rascals Out!

by Christopher Walker

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Supporters 1,138
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If you live somewhere else, you may not be aware that Pennsylvania voters statewide are extremely cross with the state legislature because they voted themselves a pay raise and bent the law to cash it during the same year it was voted.
A widespread “vote the rascals out” movement gained rapid momentum. Many state legislators who’ve usually been complacent about re-election faced contested primaries this time, as well as opponents from the other party. About 30 even decided to retire rather than face their constituents’ wrath.
“Throw the rascals out” is a frequent impulse by disgruntled voters that typically peters out before Election Day; but Pennsylvania voters demonstrated they mean business this time, by voting not to retain a state supreme court justice at the midterm opportunity in 2005 and, in a special election voting a Democrat into the state senate from a district that had long been held by the GOP.
Theoretically Democrat incumbents are just as threatened as Republicans; but the GOP controls both houses, so if a lot of incumbents lose office in 2006, the balance of power might shift. All individual incumbents face the same danger, but the Republican Party has more to lose. The two highest-ranking Republican state senators lost their primaries, voted out of office before November even gets here. Democrats need to gain 9 seats in the lower house and 6 in the state Senate to take control.
Voter anger about the pay raises will abate by the next cycle. This controversy gives Democrats a unique opportunity in 2006 at a real shakeup in a battleground state where incumbents are normally so safe that they frequently run unopposed for re-election. Voter anger with the state legislature also enhances our chances of toppling 3-5 GOP Congressmen, holding the Governor’s mansion, and retiring extremist Rick Santorum from the US Senate.
Below are a few Democrats. Some are progressive incumbents who deserve to escape the voters’ wrath. The others are running for open seats or against Republican incumbents who may be more vulnerable than in a normal year. Let’s see if we can take advantage of an unusual opportunity to flip one or both houses of the state legislature in this battleground state.
Below them I’ve posted a reminder of some of the outstanding Democrats running for Congress who may benefit if Pennsylvania voters arrive at the November polling booths still mad at incumbents in general or at their local state legislators in particular.

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