Eyewitness to Delco political history
“I’ll believe it when I see it.” That is the way I signed off last Monday’s pre-election column, a reference to whether or not Democrats would finally be able flex their muscles – and that 16,000-voter registration edge they now enjoy – and do something they have never been able to accomplish. Namely, crack the epicenter of Republican power in Delaware County, the County Courthouse.
Of course, I couldn’t resist tossing in one more pithy Delco reference: “As our friends down at Harrah’s are fond of saying, don’t bet on it.” I lost the bet. I sat here last Tuesday night as the results came in, with Republicans sitting for most of the night on a couple-thousand vote lead.
Then, perhaps in a touch or revenge for what I had predicted, I saw it. I’m still not sure I believe it. First, Kevin Madden started to surge in the race for County Council. Madden and Brian Zidek had been involved in a bruising battle for two open seats on Council against Republican incumbent Dave White and his running mate, longtime former Magisterial District Judge John Perfetti.
This one got personal – and nasty. The Republicans fired the first shot, attacking the Dems as “Venture Vulture Capitalists” who took over companies, gutted them, then sold them off for a profit. The Dems fired back, zeroing in on White’s heating and air-conditioning business, suggesting a “pay-to-play” atmosphere in the courthouse. When the GOP responded that White had not done any business with the county since taking office in 2012, the Dems tied his company to municipal contracts.
The Republicans were not happy, and they weren’t thrilled that we chose to report the Dems’ allegations either. As usual, I fielded the normal GOP battle cry, the and Phil Heron once again are pushing their left-wing agenda and trying to knock off the county Republicans off their perch.
My consistent response that I have no dog in this fight, that I am happy to sit in the middle and take arrows from both sides, didn’t ease their feelings.
I’m guessing what started happening around 9:30 Tuesday night didn’t do much for them either.
Madden was now gaining steam, overtaking Perfetti. OK, I thought to myself, maybe there’s a chance he could snag one of the two seats up for grabs.
About a half-hour later, I had to revise my thoughts. Madden had now surpassed the incumbent White. Not only that, but Zidek was now ahead of Perfetti. Then I glanced at the results coming in for the row offices. I almost spit my teeth out. Democrats had surged in all three races. Not even incumbent Republican Sheriff Mary McFall Hopper was unscathed. She fell to Jerry Sanders, who made history on a couple of fronts. He now becomes the county’s first African-American to win a race for a county row office.
Jack Whelan provided the only GOP solace. The D.A. held off a challenge from Democrat Kelly Eckel to win an open seat on the county Court of Common Pleas.
By 11 o’clock, it was conceded.
Democrats had done what I had been challenging them to do for years. They made history, winning a race for a countywide office. Not only that, they swept – capturing two seats on County Council and all three row offices up for grabs.
Or had they? No, I’m not questioning their victory. Twoparty over. Republicans rule will be reality in Delaware County, at least for the next few years. My question is more about the how and why this happened. I’m looking at Chester County, where Democrats also did something that had never been done before, capturing county row offices there as well. And Virginia, where Democrat Ralph Northam beat Republican Ed Gillespie, and across the river in New Jersey, where Democrat Phil Murphy, who had never before sought public office, crushed Republican Kim Guadagno, who had served as lieutenant governor under Chris Christie.
From one end of the country to the other, the voters spoke. What I’m wondering is how much of this was pro-Democrat and how much was simply a repudiation of the first nine months of Donald Trump’s presidency.
But first I had to deal with the task at hand. I quickly posted a brief early story noting the stunning, historic victory by Delaware County Democrats.
Then came the hart part. I had to rip up the front page I had made up early in the day and start over.
Here’s another little insidethe-newsroom secret for you. Page One often is made up in advance. Expecting a Republican victory, I had a page set up exclaiming another win for the GOP, with a lead headline screaming “White On!,” since Dave White had been the target of so much of the Dems’ campaign.
All I needed was a photo of the victorious GOP pair. That didn’t happen. We actually did have a picture of the only Republican winner, Whelan, embracing his Ridley brethren, White, but that got bumped inside.
We had our photographer Rick Kauffman hustle over to the Dems’ party, where he got a shot of Madden and Zidek together. Now I needed a headline. I wanted to convey the sense of the history that had happened, and underscore the notion that two-party rule was returning to Delaware County.
I finally came up with – what else? – a play on words tying together the idea of Democrats and democracy in action. If nothing else Tuesday’s vote certainly was an exercise in democracy, and a huge night for Delco Dems. The result? DEM-OCRACY. I kind of knew what was coming the next day. Republicans were not happy. They took to Twitter and Facebook to again insist that my bias was showing. It didn’t help much the next day when our follow-up story was led by a front page that exclaimed, “How Sweep It is.”
To their credit, not one Republican official called to complain.
Here’s what I didn’t expect. I didn’t expect to roll out of bed Wednesday morning and see the “Morning Joe” team talking about Delaware County. Or the local races being highlighted in the New York Times and also on Chris Matthews’ “Hardball” show.
Delaware County was making national news.
Or course, a lot of people in Delco vent their spleens in our Sound Off column. That’s where this gem showed up Friday: “Well, at least Phil Heron and the rest of the Times were happy on Wednesday.”
Tired? You bet. Happy? Not really. I don’t take sides.
But I do try to keep fairly close tabs on the political scene, both locally and nationally.
The message sent Tuesday was a broadside to Republicans and a clear repudiation of the man who now leads their party. And it leaves the GOP with a problem. Do they stand with Donald Trump or run away from him?
Now all eyes shift mid-term elections.
That sound you just heard is the heartbeats of moderate Republicans like Pat Meehan and Ryan Costello kicking into overdrive. to the 2018