Democrats Win Special Election In PA-12

This is a good night.

I'm gonna have a beer.

And Nitwit Newt is predicting the GOP will take as many as 70 seats in November!
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37399.html

narrowly? he won by 7%

I thought the same thing. 8% is a "narrow" lead!!!! Whoever wrote this must be leaning Republican.

Critz wins...Specter, a Republican, loses...and Mitch McConnels hand picked guy loses. The death of the Democrats is a myth...like safe off-shore drilling and tax cuts for the rich that pay for themselves.

R's kicking up as much dust as they exit as they can. These two will face off again in Nov 2010.

JOHNSTOWN, PA — Republicans today accused Democrat congressional candidate Mark Critz of “illegally campaigning” inside Cambria County polling places. The Pennsylvania Republican Party and the campaign of Tim Burns, Critz’s GOP opponent in the 12th Congressional District, said Critz was witnessed inside polls in Westmont.

Critz’s campaign did not deny that he had been inside some polls but maintained that nothing improper or illegal occurred.

“Mark did no electioneering within polling locations,” Critz spokeswoman Holly Shulman said. “These are nothing more than desperate attacks which we’ve seen from Tim Burns throughout this campaign.” The Burns campaign circulated a photo purportedly showing Critz inside a polling place in Westmont.

And the state GOP committee quoted a section of the Pennsylvania Election Code saying “no person, when within the polling place, shall electioneer or solicit votes for any political party, political body or candidate.”

“Get out of the polls, Mark!” Republican Party spokesman Mike Barley said in a statement issued to reporters. “Your presence breaks the law, intimidates voters and election workers and could influence the outcome of this election.”

The Burns campaign questioned whether Critz had a “poll watcher certificate” that would have allowed him inside the voting place. Critz’s campaign did not say whether the candidate had such a certificate.

Sally Winder, judge of elections in the Westmont No. 5 precinct, said Critz entered the polling place, shook the hands of a few poll workers, and was told he had to leave. He complied, she said.

Fred R. Smith, Cambria County election supervisor, said Critz should have been asked to leave the precinct.

Although Smith reported receiving one phone call from a man who was "out of control" over Critz allegedly being in a Westmont precinct, he had not received any complaints that Critz improperly campaigned inside the precinct or interfered with anyone who was voting or waiting to vote.

A person could lodge a formal complaint with the county board of elections. Smith said he was unsure what, if anything, would be done about such a complaint.

i wouldn't celebrate too much. this guy's a democrat, but he's hardly liberal. he said he would have voted against health care reform and that he'd vote against cap and trade. he's also pro-life and holds a number of other conservative positions. that's pretty typical of this district though. it's the kind of rural area that's dominated by Democrats left over from the steel mill and mining days. they still support Dems out of loyalty to the unions and the regions' history of Democratic votes, but they're overwhelmingly conservative on most issues, especially social. an area like Johnstown which is one of the hubs of this district is anything but progressive, even if it's overwhelmingly in the hands of Democrats.

8% when there were less than 100k votes in the entire election. That's a BIG win. And this is just a special election. One thing about the Repubs, when they feel they are losing, they don't even bother to vote.

They would rather do absentee ballots and 'pretend' they didn't vote for the loser. Which is fine, because there will be a HUGE Democratic turn out for the November elections.

And the Repubs and Tea Party psychos will end up splitting their votes on no win candidates based on extremist ideology.

Didn't they learn anything from the Brits?

the pubs are sorely mistaken if they think they're going to win back congress by catering to a bunch of tea party crackpots.

I think some here are missing the point (perhaps wilfully). This is precisely the kind of district the Republicans must take back from the Dems to win control of the House. These are precisely the kind of voters that were supposed to have become alienated by "Obama's radical socialist agenda" (not to mention his color). Conditions are more favorable for Republicans now than they're likely to be in November. And still their hand-picked candidate got rolled.

If they couldn't beat Critz how ae they going to beat folks like Altmire? Boccieri? Holden? Lipinski? Spence? Skelton? Arcuri? They'll win back some seats in the south which flipped during the past two "wave" elections, but there aren't enough seats there to win back a majority.

This doesn't even touch on the opening Kentucky gave us by nominating Paul. The Dems cose the stronger and more progressiv of the two potential Dems, Conway, to oppose him. As did Pennsylvania (in an "outsider" election, Sestak will be far stronger against Toomey). And Halter looks positioned to knock off Lincoln in the runoff, giving Dems an outside shot at holding that seat (Blanche has none).

I'm feeling better about November tonight than I have in months.

IMO, this was the most important race of the night; by far.

If nothing else, it will give the national media cause for pause on calling 2010 a wave election for the Republicans.

It still might turn out to be that, but.............

......PA-12 is a solid reminder; all politics is local.

Trying to Nationalize a local election, like the Republicans tried to do in this one, is a VERY risky proposition.