How Did Election 2013 Go For Us?

On November 5th you went out to the polls and voted. The results in Dauphin County show that we have a lot to be proud of.

Where did we win?

The party's biggest non-Harrisburg city wins were in Middletown and Susquehanna township. 

In Middletown our candidate for Mayor, James Curry III, defeated his Republican opponent with a margin of close to 300 votes. On council there three out of the four contested seats were won by Dems as well. Ben Kapenstein, Anne Einhorn and Victoria Malone won in the 2nd and 3rd wards, respectively. 

In the Susquehanna School District Democrats swept all four seats. Carol Karl, Helen Spence, Clifton Edwards, and Jesse Rawls Sr. were all winners. This means that there will be a governing majority of Democrats in the district.

The one contested seat for Susquehanna Township Commiser went to a Democrat as well. Justin Fleming bested his incumbent rival by 100 votes for the spot.

There were three contested spots for Swatara Township Supervisor. In Ward 2, Democrat Tom Connelly walked away as the winner. In the 4th ward candidate Megan Jones lost, but only by a narrow 25 vote margin. A similarly close margin for the Mayors races was lost as well.

On the Central Dauphin School board Democrat Eric Epstein defeated his republican incumbent opponent in region 2. 

In an open seat race for Derry Township supervisor, Democrat Matthew Weir was one of two winners. The Sun though has a one Republican on the record already seeing a blue future for Derry.

As one Republican leader put it, “Two years from now, a Ballard-Todd team could bring Democrats to control the Derry Township Supervisors.

Maria Marcinko was the highest vote-getter by nearly 200 in the race for Steelton borough council. 

It is great to know that we have strong Democratic bastions like the city of Harrisburg, where the party's candidate Eric Papenfuse won in his bid for mayor of our troubled capitol. 

I think it is more telling though that even outside of our county seat Democrats are winning elections. Not long ago the moment you left Harrisburg proper, you were in solidly red territory. Wins this week go to show that our influence is spreading and our candidates' hard work is paying off.

Where we lost. 

Democrat Anne Ginrich Cornick lost her bid for Judge of the County Court of Common pleas. She was defeated by a wide margin and this is an unfortunate loss for the county and the party. Currently the County's Court of Common pleas bench is made up of largely Republicans who live in the suburbs. Cornick is a Democrat who lives in the city itself. Kelly Summerford also lost his county-wide bid for prothonotary

What the loss clearly shows though is that a Democratic registration advantage does not mean anything if the opponent is better organized. The Young Dems, as I have said many times before, are working hard to change that old GOP organizational advantage to a Democratic ones. David Madsen, our President, was a driving force behind the parties big wins in Middletown. Brendan Murray also campaigned vigorously for Anne and the whole Democratic slate, as did many other YD's. 

This energy is what it takes to win elections, especially in off years. Let us enjoy our victories but as we turn to 2014, start thinking about how you can get out an help your local candidate.

This is Your Rep: Charlie Dent Edition

This one goes out to all you left leaning independents living in Middletown, Hershey, and Derry Township. 

Charlie Dent wants to be seen as a moderate Republican. A pragmatist surrounded by loons. It might even look that way unless you are paying close attention.

Dent represents PA's 15th congressional district. A sweeping district from the Lehigh Valley out Hershey and Middletown in our county.

He has made headlines since the beginning of the government shutdown trying to come off as a moderate, calling for a "clean" continuing resolution to fund the government. He was quoted on September 28th saying

"Let's see what the Senate sends back," said Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) "If they send back another clean CR, I suspect -- again, I'm not making a decision on what's going to be on the floor -- a clean CR would likely to be on the floor at some point."

"I'm prepared to vote for a clean CR," he said. "I don't want the government to shut down." 

He definitely wanted to be seen as leading House Republicans back to sanity. Here is Vickers from the 15th.

A deal to end to the federal government shutdown may be in the offing, U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent said Tuesday. 

During an appearance on MSNBC's “Daily Rundown” this morning, the Allentown Republican said a GOP House conference deal to end the shutdown could be sent to the Senate today. 

The proposal would delay implementation of the medical device tax in the Affordable Care Act for two years, prevent members of Congress, all the White House staff from participating in the act's health care exchanges, and remove Senate language on a reinsurance tax.

We all know of course how this became an obvious dead end, but it also shows Dent's bad faith.

With the shutdown having gone on for weeks, Dent, while brandishing a claim to moderation, was no more active on the matter than anyone else in the House Republican Caucus; he was acting clearly in bad faith.

If Dent truly was concerned with the shutdown and its effects he would have signed the discharge petition when it was proposed. He didn't and the shutdown went on for 16 useless days. Geeting explains it best.

Charlie Dent is in lockstep with House Republicans on the goal of defunding Obamacare, repealing Obamacare, and replacing it with hand-waiving at capping damages in medical malpractice lawsuits and similarly ineffectual policies. 

He’s been called a moderate in the press recently because he publicly disagreed with a tactic – shutting down the government – House Republicans wanted to use to try to defund Obamacare. He correctly predicted that wouldn’t work to defund Obamacare. But he’s still for defunding Obamacare and replacing it with nothing even closely approximating universal insurance coverage. One wonders what he would’ve done had he judged the shutdown to be an effective tactical move.

Also, how can we forget that time he voted for H.R. 3 which redefined rape?