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Parties Trade State House Special Election Wins

It’s a draw. Tuesday’s special elections for State House saw Republicans flip the 48th and Democrats flip the 178th.  

In the 48th, Republican Tim O’Neal defeated Democrat Clark Mitchell.  The seat was formerly held by Democratic state Rep. Brandon Neuman who vacated the seat when he was sworn in as a Judge for Washington County.  The final tally was 55% to 44%. 

In the 178th, Democrat Helen Tai defeated Republican Wendi Thomas in Bucks County. Former GOP State Rep. Scott Petri was named to lead the Philadelphia Parking Authority. She won 51% to 49%. 

Meanwhile in Republican Clint Owlett cruised in the 68th district seat, beating Democrat Carrie Health 3-to-1 in the conservative Northern Tier district. The seat was vacated when Rep. Matt Baker took a position with the Department of Health and Human Services

State and National Democrats trumpeted Tai’s win and didn’t mention Mitchell.

“Pennsylvania voters made their voices heard – they are ready to send a representative to Harrisburg who will stand up for them and advocate for government and redistricting reform, smarter investments in our public schools, and fight the opioid crisis,” DLCC Executive Director Jessica Post said.  

For national pundits, the takeaways from the special elections come with a grain of salt. Independent and third party voters can’t vote in PA primaries, so typically they do not show up as strongly as they normally would in a general election.

8 Responses

  1. If you take a look at the votes in the Primary and in the Special Election, something weird happened. Wendi got 6,653 in the Republican Primary and Helen got 6,274 in the Democratic Primary. HOWEVER…Helen got 6,359 in the Special and Wendi got 6,263.

    This just doesn’t make sense. The only rational explanation is that Bucks County R’s thought they just needed to vote for Wendi once. BCRC may not have done enough to remind voters they had to vote for her twice, and thus, costing them a House seat.

    1. Great point Bucks Voter! If your Primary numbers are accurate, it certainly looks like a “Technical Win” for Helen Tai, and it appears that the Democrat Machine coached their voters much better than the Republicans. However, shame on those Republicans who couldn’t or didn’t bother to figure out if you only voted once for Wendi Thomas you had to vote for her against Helen Tai in the Special Election and not in the Primary where she was unopposed. Shame on the Wendi Thomas Poll Workers who did not properly coach the Republican voters.

      It’s obvious that Democrat voters knew what they needed to do by racking up more votes in the Special Election vs. the Primary. Maybe it’s time to have a recount circa the “Hanging Chad” Florida recount. What was the intent of those Republican voters who only voted for Wendi Thomas in the primary slot?

      Regardless, this special election should not have been this close. Going forward, The BCRC needs to start running “Real Republicans”.

  2. I hope the Bucks County Republican Committee learned their lesson: DO NOT run a RINO hoping to win over Democrat voters! “No Labels” Wendi Thomas tried her best to sound like a Democrat, and in the process: 1. lost the enthusiastic support of Conservative Republicans who were not motivated to vote for her and 2. was not able to obtain crossover Democrat voters. She deserved to lose! Was there any real difference between her and Helen Tai? Not much in my opinion! Message to the Bucks County Republican Committee: Please give all voters a real choice against Helen Tai in November! WAKE UP AND START RUNNING CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICANS WHO ARE PROUD TO BE CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICIANS. The Democrats certainly are not afraid of running proud progressive liberals. As the old saying goes – The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Case in point is the upcoming congressional race between “No Labels” Brian Fitzpatrick and Scott Wallace. Is another “Wendi Thomas like” loss in the offing? For the good of the Republican Party, stop the insanity NOW – The Democrats certainly hope that you don’t.

    1. Yeah, your boy Dean really showed em how its done with 35% of the vote. You need candidates who fit the district moron….

      1. Flump logic! Deflect when you refuse to address the issue and can’t face reality. Dean ran an honorable campaign with little money and no support from the Republican Party. On the other hand, Wendi Thomas with the full support from the Republican Machine failed. Your strategy of and I quote, “You need candidates who fit the district moron…” didn’t work all that great for Wendi. Did it? So much for your brilliant strategy.

  3. I ran a write in campaign in both of these districts and will do so again in November’s general elections so vote for me because I am better than them.

  4. Poops Tim and Helen on Flipping seat tonight and that way we can get Pennsylvania back into wrong track here

  5. congrats Tim and Helen on Flipping these seats tonight and that way for we can get Pennsylvania back into the right track here.

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