Republican incumbent Warren Kampf secured his third term representing Chester and Montgomery Counties by defeating Democratic challenger and business woman Marian Moskowitz by 15 points, 57% to 42% percent with 100% of precincts reporting.
In the 11th hour, the 157th district lost 625 voters when the Chester County Election Board relocated Phoenixville precinct #477 to the 155th State House district. The move not only gave the 155th district 3,000 more voters than the 157th district, but also removed a significant portion of non-Republican voters from the Chester and Montgomery areas.
These voters, who helped President Obama win the area in 2012, had been integral to Moskowitz’ hope to flip the district.
Moskowitz is the third Democratic challenger that Kampf, a former Philadelphia and York County prosecutor, has defeated. Paul Drucker, the district’s first Democrat in 41 years, failed to defend his seat in 2010 when he lost the incumbency to Kampf. Kampf would again defeat Drucker in the 2012 elections.
This year’s race focused primarily on Kampf’s stance regarding transportation, including his support of the Paoli Transportation Center to create jobs in the region. Kampf also supports pension reform and was the main sponsor behind House Bill 1353, which requires new state employees to make an increased contribution to the pension program.
The new 157th district includes areas of Montgomery and Chester Counties.
2 Responses
We need to nominate Warren Kampf for Governor in 2018.
Such sour grapes in this reporting. Can we please not try to spin this as a “redistricting” trick? Moskowitz phoned in her campaign (as did many PA Dems thinking they could coast on Wolf coattails. There were none.) Kampf beat Moskowitz handily, and at the end of the day, those 625 votes would not have been near enough to beat him, assuming she could actually even earn all of them.