Bucks
Election Results
Dear friends,
Good morning. “I just wish that we could create a political method to vote on the issues,” Walter Farley told me the day after the election. Farley and I served on the Bucks County Board of Commissioners 40 years ago. He’s a Democrat and I’m a Republican. Both of us are moderates. In our day, both parties criticized us because we got along too well. It was amusing.
Farley objects to the mudslinging and attack ads, which invade our homes via the radio, TV and telephone every election cycle. This year was particularly ugly…exorbitantly expensive too.
We’ve kept in touch throughout the years and had lunch the day before the election. We predicted that Ed Rendell would win in a land slide (he did), that Rick Santorum would narrowly lose (Casey clobbered him), and the Murphy-Fitzpatrick race was too close to call.
Too close to call? I'd say!
In Bucks County, there are 415,468 registered voters. In the governor’s fight, 273,961 actually voted or 66 percent. That compares to a 40 percent turnout nationwide. Out of 247,558 votes cast for congress, Patrick Murphy defeated first term congressman Michael Fitzpatrick by only 1,500 votes. Friends, that’s less than one percent.
There are 351 voting precincts in the eighth congressional district comprising all of Bucks, portions of Montgomery County and northeast Philadelphia. So Fitzpatrick needed just five additional votes per precinct to win reelection, proving that every vote counts.
Exit polls across America tell us that the President’s handling of the war in Iraq and corruption were the keys to the Democrat victory. Democrats swept back into control of congress, the first time since 1994. Rendell’s popularity and Santorum’s unpopularity set the stage for razor thin congressional races throughout the state.
I think that what tipped the scale in the eighth congressional district was Fitzpatrick’s positions about embryonic stem cell research and a woman’s right to chose. Like Santorum and President Bush, Fitzpatrick opposes abortion and federal tax dollars for embryonic stem cell research.
His stance runs counter to the average Bucks County voter who mirrors former Congressman Jim Greenwood, Fitzpatrick’s predecessor. As you remember, Greenwood was a pro-choice and pro embryonic stem cell research congressman.
Fitzpatrick’s concession statement illustrates what class he has. Fitzpatrick was an excellent Bucks Commissioner and gave 10 years of untiring, good work to the citizens. Facing an electorate that was so critical of the President and comfortable with the Governor, Fitzpatrick had two strikes against him.
He might have overcome those odds had he been a proponent of pro choice and pro embryonic stem cell research. In two years, the Bucks Republican Party will nominate an opponent to Patrick Murphy. If the GOP chooses a candidate who doesn’t fit the Bucks profile, they’ll go down to defeat again.
We’ll be discussing this election for the next 12 years. That’s how long it will take for the Democratic Party to become as arrogant and corrupt as the GOP has. And like 1994 when the Republicans returned to the majority, the Democrats will abuse their power too. It’s as predictable as the adage, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Personally, I think that moderate Republicans across America simply rebelled. Forty years ago, voters turned on Lyndon Johnson because of his “guns and butter” policies. Today the GOP looks more like the Democratic Party of old. The Bush administration has a bigger government than Bill Clinton had, with more employees and considerably more red ink.
To make matters worse, the Bush administration is fighting a war in Iraq with insufficient troops to keep the peace. And, like Big Brother, it continues to pass moral judgments upon our private lives. Is it any wonder that the average American has concluded…enough?
Going forward, here’s my question. Will ideologists or pragmatists control the Republican Party? Will Republican social conservatives and the religious right continue to dominate the GOP? If so, Rick Santorum could be the Republican standard bearer in 2008. Should that happen, you just might find Governor Rendell opposing him…with Illinois Senator Borak Obama as his running mate.
What a race that would be…both from Pennsylvania and each with strong, opposing positions on social and economic issues. Oh, what fun!
Finally, I thought of Walter Farley and his idea about voting on the issues. South Dakota has a provision where the electorate can call for a referendum to reject an unpopular law, which is exactly what happened on Election Day. Like South Dakota, America turned thumbs down on George W’s presidency.
The race for the 2008 Presidential election has just begun.
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith