Smith Wins!
Democratic Party sources tell us that Barbara McIlvaine Smith has won the recount for the 156th District seat by a mere 23 votes.
Obviously, this is subject to more lawyering — but as the GOP has already made and failed at a number of legal challenges to ballots cast, they don’t have a lot of bullets left in the chamber.
This sets up a great news/bad news scenario:
The great news: Smith will be a great State Representative. Running with her in 2004 in a neighboring district, I came to appreciate her work ethic and morality. She’s smart, dedicated and will be a big addition to the Chester County delegation and working with Sen. Andy Dinniman, gives the Democratic Party a real voice in Chester County. While I haven’t heard anything about the results of the race in 167 featuring another good friend, Anne Crowley, this is a big day for Chester County Democrats.
The bad news: can you say Speaker Bill DeWeese? Will DeWeese be prepared to carry the governor’s water in the house — or revert to his egocentric ways? Deadlock here could prove disastrous for the party over the long haul. Other bad news: whichever GOP was pondering a switch of parties waited a bit too long.
Of course, a ton of other questions: how will the GOP cope as minority? Will the change make John Perzel more or less of a deal-maker? All of this could prove very interesting to watch.