Election Follow-Up

The entire nation is looking at Tuesday's election and trying to divine its meaning. I heard two distinct themes while working the polls. One was from voters furious over the pay raise issue and determined to "throw the bums out." The other was massive discontent with George Bush, Congress, and the direction the country is headed. It was one thing to hear th elatter from dedicated Democrats and liberals. It was something else to hear it from Republicans. Many GOP faithful (at least they used to be) said they were ashamed to admit being Republicans. We handed out a few voter registration forms to enable them to change that affliction.

To take what happened here and try to extrapolate it on a national basis is bad though. The voters angry at the pay raise are limited to PA. This is strictly a state phenomenon. Though I do expect a nationwide voter backlash at the polls in November I don't expect it to be on the scale of what happened here.

Ed Rendell, in particular needs to take notice to Tuesday's results. After the Russell Nigro debacle in November and this bloodbath for incumbents he must convince the voters not to throw the baby out with the bath water come November.

For full election results visit the PA Department of State website. The conservative blog GrassrootsPA has links to some media articles about the "earthquake" in Pennsylvania. Interesting reading. This Patriot News article notes how Rick Santorum got 21,000 fewer Republican votes than newcomer Lynn Swann. Now that's VERY interesting. Even Republicans are fed up with our Man on Dog Senator.