GOP Bails on Weldon
Yesterday, PoliticsPa.com reported that the Republican Party had decided to pull out its assets for its usual 72-hour GOTV program in Delaware County.
While this move all but puts a fork in Weldon, it has farther reaching effects. Let’s just say this: were I State Rep. Tom Gannon, I wouldn’t be sleeping peacefully right now. His race with Brian Lentz was close enough already, but without the vaunted GOP turnout machine running at full power (and while the county GOP bosses will try something, anything to keep Tuesday from being a disaster, long-term trends moving east to west in Delaware County suggest it is a task akin to sweeping back the ocean) you could see the beginning of the end of the Delco GOP machine. Even long-time Weldon supporters, firemen and so on, think Weldon’s corruption charges are enough to run him out of office. So, it’s no surprise the NRCC is bailing.
With Weldon likely losing to Joe Sestak and Lois Murphy clinging to a lead over Jim Gerlach, it looks like Democrats will finally be able to build a strong beachhead in Delco and Chester County. A number of state rep races, particularly in Chester Co., look to flip to Democrat — something that should start evening out the flow of money in the county between the two parties, as businesses recognize the need to hedge their bets.
I’ll take a closer look Monday at all of the races and offer my predictions, plus what the final congressional numbers look like.