Despite an advantage in voter registration numbers, Delaware County Democrats could not loosen the GOP grip on the electorate in this Philadelphia suburb.
Voters gave Republicans a win for both seats on County Council, both seats for the Court of Common Pleas, as well as 3 other county row offices.
Mario Civera (28.2%) and David White (27.3%) will return to their respected positions on the Delaware County Council. As of 11:00 pm, the Republican ticket won 55.4% of the votes cast in the race, with 98.22% of the precincts reporting. Given that the county favored Barack Obama by 21 percentage points, it is a remarkable outcome that the local GOP has been able to hold off a surging Democratic force.
Republicans have long been strong in the county. Several traditionally Democratic groups, including numerous labor unions, backed the local GOP candidates. Republicans also enjoyed a significant fundraising advantage.
Meanwhile, the county Democrats sent an email out Monday morning that seems prescient after the election: “Dems stayed home, Gov. Corbett’s Pals re-elected to County Council”.
Efforts to link their opponents to the Governor did not help Patricia Worrell (22.2%) and Bill Clinton (22.2%); they only mustered 44.6% of the vote.
The County Council race mirrors the outcome from the County Court of Common Pleas. Together, William “Chip” Mackrides and Richard Cappelli earned a combined 55.1% of the vote.
The Democrats, Nancy Walker and Steve Chanenson, managed only to convince 44.8% of Delaware County voters to support them.
In both the Council and Court races, the lowest Republican scored at most 5 percentage points more than the highest Democrat.
The Delaware County Republican Party also won races for Sheriff, Controller and Register of Wills.
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9 Responses
As a Delco resident I am glad the Rs swept! Long standing republican controlled areas are a victim of their own success…low taxes, great schools and low crime so the locust liberals move out of philly and bring their Democrat vote with them and want things to change to what they just fled from.
Diaspora
Agreeing with me on this subject is the same as agreeing with Math.
Geez, a whole item on Delco, but nothing on Montco? Where the Dems elected yet another row officer, and TWO, count ’em, 2 Dems Common Please judges? For the first time ever? Montco. which has more voters and dollars than Delco, is Solid Blue, and getting Blue-er by registration count every year.
You know things are bad in Delco when you find yourself agreeing with David Diano
Actually Dems are making progress in Delco local elections. Results seem much closer than in past and they ran a full slate of candidates (not case in years past). GOP Council/Judgeship vote should not be taken as predictor of US Senate/House contests.
delco observer-
I agree with everything you said, except any claim that the Dems are the majority party in Delco.
Unless you have the majority of the “active” records in the voter file, you aren’t really in the majority. By that standard, the GOP is still the majority party by a little over 2,000 voters.
At the current rate of gain, the Delco Dems won’t cross the “active” threshold until after the 2014 elections, but before the Nov 2015 election.
To borrow a phrase…this is what it means to be a majority party that is ineffective in turning out its voters. The Republican brand is dying a slow death in Delaware County as a whole – Dem leadership is prolonging that death by its ineffective election tactics…you cannot win when you are the majority party by leaving thousands of votes on the table in overwhelmingly democratic areas like Yeadon, Chester, and Darby.
There is no “despite having voter registration advantage”. The fact of the matter remains that the Dems really are behind by about 2,100 voters.
The false narrative about more voters includes the voters flagged as “inactive”. The inactive voters are really a list of voters that have moved/died/dropped-out but haven’t been completely purged/deleted. The Dems have a lot more of these right now, creating the false impression of more voters.
Chairman Landau milked and hyped the false narrative for all it was worth. However, the GOP turns out about 20,000 more voters in an election like this. The Dems need about a 25,000 to 30,000 voter registration advantage to turn out close to number of voters as the Delco GOP.
Despite Landau claims of voter registration efforts, the yearly gains (dem vs rep) in Delco are the same or slower than under his predecessor. There is a constant trickle of Dems from Philly and young people that Landau has zero to do with (other than take credit for).
What is it gonna take to make Democrats in Delco to WAKE UP?
First thing’s first: Get a new party chair.