Once all-GOP Harrisburg contingent now all Dems
For the last eight years Upper Darby Township has been represented in the state House of Representatives by one Democrat and one Republican.
For three decades before that, two iconic Republicans represented the township in Harrisburg: Nicholas Micozzie in the
163rd and Mario Civera in the
164th. Civera eventually left and won a seat on County Council. Micozzie retired. Democrat Margo Davidson won the 164th seat. Republican Jamie Santora snagged the 163rd.
Until Tuesday.
Santora was upset by Democrat Mike Zabel, meaning the township delegation in Harrisburg has gone from all-Republican to allDemocrat in just a few years.
As the results of the 2018 midterm elections came in it was clear that the township would once again be unified under one party. But this time, it’s the Democrats who would win the township’s two House seats.
Davidson easily secured a fifth term in the House, but Mike Zabel, the Democratic challenger to Santora, had a much more uphill battle against the popular incumbent.
“Throughout the race I would ping-pong back and forth,” said Zabel Wednesday morning. “We would have great moments of doubt and moments it felt like we were going to win huge. I truly started to feel optimistic yesterday (Tuesday) when I was greeting people at the polls and the response was so enthusiastic and people knew who I was.
“That’s the challenge of running, ‘who is this person?’”
Zabel wasn’t as recognizable in the community as Santora, who before his two terms in the House was an Upper Darby Township council member-at-large for three years. On top of that, his campaign coffers were nominal.
Santora and Zabel both pounded the pavement for months, knocking on doors and having their campaign lawn signs dot the communities of Aldan, Clifton Heights, Upper Darby and Havertown, neither resting strictly on their platforms or party affiliation to guarantee their victory.
On Election Day, Zabel secured a solid 15,000 votes according to unofficial polling numbers from the Delaware County Election Bureau Wednesday morning. Santora earned 13,007.
“To be honest, it’s still sinking in,” said Zabel about the shock of his victory. “It’s a strange experience to wake up one morning and realize you’ve been elected for the first time.”
“I feel honored, I feel excited about the challenges that are coming. And, I feel very tired,”
Zabel joked. “We knocked on tens of thousands of doors and that was a point of pride in our campaign that we were talking to people. I was happy to win in that fashion because we weren’t able to compete with money.”
Zabel’s win on Tuesday was one of many for county Democrats in state and federal races, the first time many Republican incumbents were up to retain their seats since President Donald Trump won in 2016 and turned Pennsylvania back into a red state. A Democratic “blue wave” has been rushing across the county since then with the GOP losing in a slew of races last year and again this year.
Only two Republican state representatives in the who county managed to hold on to their seats for another two-year term: Stephen Barrar, 160 of Upper Chichester, and Chris Quinn, 168 of Middletown. Republican incumbent Alex Charlton, R-165 of Springfield, is down by a few hundred votes against Democrat Jenn O’Mara before counting absentee and provisional ballots.
Santora and Zabel were both asked last month if the blue wave would play a leading factor in this year’s race, and both did not say that it would, focusing more intently on the community and the residents who would focus on the issues and not the political environment at the national level
Their views changed a bit after the unofficial results were released hinting otherwise.
“This was about a national message, they didn’t make it local: That’s what happened,” said Santora Wednesday morning about his defeat.
Santora said during the campaign he talked to a lot of people who had overwhelming support of him as representative, but, “there were some who said they’d send a message to Washington” with their vote.
A similar message was observed by Zabel.
“People did not like the polarization of politics that they saw, particularly in Washington, D.C., and they didn’t like that Democrats had to do this, and Republicans had to be this way,” he said. “We’ve got to get out of the toxicity of the current political climate and I think people, largely and rightly, blame Donald Trump for that.”
Zabel added that the blue wave was a factor of his winning, “to an extent,” but was not the premise on which he banked his campaign.
“I was reluctant to say there would be a blue wave because I did not want Democrats to become complacent and think that they didn’t have to work for this,” he said. “Santora was a well-known, respected incumbent who had won his first two races by decent margins. In turn, we won by the margin that we did. There certainly was a blue wave factor, absolutely.”
“It certainly was not a repudiation of Jamie Santora,” Zabel added. “It was a movement to a better way.”
In his victory speech delivered Tuesday night at the county Democrats’ gathering at the Swarthmore Inn, Zabel said his campaign was about cleaning up the toxic atmosphere of politics, that decency was needed. He made his first decent act to compliment Santora for the last four years of service as state representative for the 163rd district.
Ideologies split the two candidates, but community service united them and both complimented the other warmly in that regard.
“I would never criticize (Santora’s) constituent service, that’s very important, he did a good job with that,” said Zabel.
Santora said his offices dealt with 10,000 service cases in the last four years and regularly touted how beneficial it was to be help to that many people in his district. One of the top ways to ensure great service, he said, is to make sure to have a great team in place that can help.
“I worked as hard as I could for my constituents. I’m proud of the work that my team and I did for the district,” said Santora.
In his call to Zabel conceding the race, Santora said he wants that strong community engagement to continue in order for the district to continue to prosper.
“Mike, I want you to be successful because you’re success in Harrisburg is our success back here at home,” said Santora recounting word-forword his congratulatory offerings to Zabel. “I truly meant that. If he’s successful, the 163rd is successful. He needs to continue the constituent services that we’ve been providing.”
Come Wednesday, Zabel was already starting to organize staffers and finding constituent offices for his first term. He didn’t want to pull back on any of the services or commitment to his soon-to-be constituents that Santora and Micozzie had established before him. If at all, he wants to do just as well, “if not better.”
Zabel didn’t think he would be able to serve as a state rep, noting his shyness as a young boy who would hide at family parties to avoid speaking to people. After careers as a teacher and an attorney, Zabel has bypassed those initial feelings that diluted his social tendencies. Throughout the campaign he went from an average Joe just walking down the street to a recognized figure who will now have to answer to tens of thousands of community members.
“Before you run for office, nobody’s really looking for you,” Zabel said as he chuckled. “When I’m out with my kids nobody would have noticed me in January because I was a guy who hadn’t run yet. One of the most fun parts of the job, I think, will be mixing with the community.”
Santora said he continues to stay engaged with public service in some way. The real estate broker currently sits as the vice president of the Upper Darby High School Home & School association. He hopes Zabel gets very active in the community as state rep, and Zabel wishes Santora stays involved in the community.