November 28, 2006

Dems Pick Up PA State House

It seems good news for Democrats just keeps coming. Going into the election, the party held 94 seats out of 203 in the Pennsylvania State House. The party picked up enough seats to earn a 101-100 lead after most ballots were counted, though two seats – both previously controlled by Republicans – were close enough to require recounts.

Republican Duane Milne kept a narrow 144-vote lead after provisional, overseas and absentee ballots were all cast, creating a 101-101 tie and putting control of the chamber in the hands of the 156th House District. In that race, Republican Shannon Royer led his Democratic opponent, Barbara Smith, by just 19 votes (out of close to 30K cast) going into today’s final counts.

After all the ballots were tallied, Smith reversed the gap and emerged with a 23-vote victory, handing control of the State House to Democrats in a chamber few thought they had a chance of picking off.

While a recount is almost certain, if Smith’s lead holds, Democrats will have won 11 state legislative chambers nationwide in ’06.

The 320-seat Democratic pickup may not be a historical high – the party out of power in the White House picks up an average of 324 seats in midterms, and the GOP won more than 500 seats from Democrats in ’94 – Democrats chose their spots strategically. The party won seats in every region of the country, including the South, stopping a decade-long slide in the region. [REID WILSON]

Posted at 03:19 PM

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