Wowzers, Democrats flipped a deep red seat in a special election for the Pennsylvania state Senate on Tuesday night, with East Petersburg Mayor James Andrew Malone defeating Republican GOP County Commissioner Josh Parsons, a Trump lickspittle with all the trimmings, by a 50-49, 482-vote margin. How deep red is the seat in District 36? It has never gone to a Democrat EVER in the 42 years that the district has existed! And it has only gone for a Democratic presidential candidate ONCE since 1856(!), Lyndon Johnson in 1964! Trump won the district by 15.4 percent(!!) last year. So don’t give up hope, people!
The Pennsylvania Senate remains in Republican control, 27-23, but still, that’s a strong message.
ALSO in western Pennsylvania, Democrat Dan Goughnour also won HIS special election, allowing Democrats to keep control of the PA state House by a single seat.
Malone’s win is the second pickup for Democrats this year, after Mike Zimmer won a special election for an Iowa state Senate seat, a state where Trump won by 21 points last November, cha cha cha.
What did Malone do right (or Parsons do wrong)?
Malone focused on the usual: housing, funding for education, and funding first responders. And also respect, compassion, equity, anti-chaos, not backing away from supporting abortion rights, plus dragging to hell the way Elon Musk has “cut benefits for veterans, retirees and students” […] “so Elon Musk can get a tax cut,” and how it was time to “show Elon Musk and Josh Parsons that billionaires can’t control Lancaster!” Apparently this is a popular message and a good thing to run on!
Parsons, on the other hand, skipped out of the League of Women Voters’ candidate forum, so he could go to a farmer’s market and preach to the choir of the Musk-funded conservative group Early Vote Action with its weirdo “Gays for Trump” founder, January 6 tourist Scott Presler.
The president of the county’s League of Women Voters chapter was not pleased with Parsons’ no-show, she plopped a name tag on his empty seat and snipped to the media: “Currently, in the ultra-partisan and political environment, there is a track of candidates refusing to face their opponents in public.” And Malone and the awkward neckbeardy Libertarian, Zachary Moore, had a genial chat without him.
Presler then whine-Xitted to Musk that the seat was in peril, but Musk did not rain on the race with his millions, the way he did to turn out the Amish there last November. Instead he only responded with a “!!”
Or maybe Parsons lost all those votes because he is one of those frothing culture-warrior hate-chugging types, and an overall dick. He threw a “woke ideology” hissy fit about drag queen story hour at the Lancaster library, which made it the target of bomb threats. He made a show of ignoring the governor’s shutdown orders during the pandemic. He’s anti-immigrant, and blasted Lancaster City for its ordinance declaring itself a “Welcoming City.” He screeched that the local daily paper was BIAS. He also bragged that he was doing great running the county’s budget, and then oops, looks like the budget is going to have a $30 million hole next year! Then he went to a public meeting and refused to let the county’s budget director answer any questions about the county budget. He’s a Whitman’s Sampler with a little something to piss off everybody, and all the charisma and charm of the humanoid robot in “Small Wonder.”
And for his part, Malone’s campaign took a conciliatory tone and was all “kindness over criticism,” and he’s kinder than I am:
“If folks went and talked to their Republican neighbors, they would find out that they’re in 80-90 percent agreement on a lot of things,” he told voters Tuesday. “It’s easy to feel isolated, especially with the vitriol we have out of President Trump for the last 20 years. It’s very easy to feel like, ‘oh well, if they’re willing to follow him, they must buy into his bigotry and misogyny,” and he did not even add, “…though it could just be that they’re all pig-ignorant!”
Shifting demographics may have played a role, too. White people without a college degree in Pennsylvania are still the majority, but their numbers have been steadily shrinking. Trump won by 15.4 percent, but Dubya’s margin was 35 points.
Incredibly, Parsons seems to have accepted his loss. “Obviously we are disappointed in the numbers. We are still reviewing them, but it appears we will come up a little short.” How dignified!
Isn’t that all just as refreshing and wholesome as a dollop of macaroni salad?
I know I feel better!
OPEN THREAD!
[Philadelphia Inquirer / AP / The Downballot / New York Times gift link / (UK) Times archive link / Politics PA]
