Posted on 11/04/2004 3:53:56 AM PST by Vigilanteman
Tuesday's election revealed an emerging trend in American politics -- Democrats crossing party lines to vote for conservative moral values.
Exit polls indicate it happened in the presidential race.
Political analysts say it happened in South Dakota, where Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle lost his bid for re-election.
And it happened in Westmoreland County, where incumbent Sen. Allen G. Kukovich, D-Manor, was unseated by Republican challenger Bob Regola, who successfully painted the senator as out of touch with the increasingly conservative 39th District.
Veteran lawmaker Kukovich, 57, was defeated by about 5,300 votes even though Westmoreland County Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-to-1.
"It's not about party. It's about ideology," said Philadelphia-based political analyst and Duquesne University law graduate Larry Ceisler. "What you have here are a lot of registered Democrats who are voting for Republican candidates more in sync with their views on social and cultural issues."
Kukovich's defeat ends 27 years of combined service in the state House and Senate in a district that includes about 250,000 people in 33 municipalities, among them Greensburg, Latrobe, Irwin, Jeannette and North Huntingdon. He is best known for helping to start the state's Children's Health Insurance Program and the PACE program that provides help to the elderly in buying prescription drugs.
Kukovich lost a costly and contentious race in part because Regola and the Republican Party managed to convince enough voters that the two-term Senate incumbent's views are too liberal, said G. Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin and Marshall College.
"You could say Kukovich is Pennsylvania's Tom Daschle," said Madonna, referring to the U.S. senator who was upset on Tuesday by conservative Republican John Thune, a Bush ally who had the strong backing of the national GOP.
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
Our other legislator, Tom Tangretti, is a pro-life, pro-2nd ammendment Democrat. He cruised to an easy victory.
The party bosses still can't figure it out.
This is great news, but the analogy to the Daschle race is way off. Republicans actually outnumber Dems in South Dakota. The problem is that some Repubs there will vote for a Dem who can deliver the pork, as long as they pretend to be conservative.
Westmoreland County ping
Great news! Is there a site that lists national trends on a state level? In Oklahoma, we took the State House for the FIRST TIME EVER! What goes on across the rest of the fruited plains?
Mrs. Vigilanteman and I were honored to play a minor supporting role in helping Bob Regola win this senate seat. The GOP extended their control over both houses of the state legislature by one seat each, 30-20 in the Senate and 110-93 in the House.
I was just thinking that Regola's win gives us the 2/3rds we need to impeach the Governor!
Good job w/ Regola. That is awesome!
Yeah - beating Daschle was easy compared to beating an incumbent Dem in a Dem district.
Gotta love Westmoreland County though!
Great job!
Western Pennsylvania is the original center of the Reagan Democrats and Kukovich, like Daschle, had a reputation of bringing pork home to his district. He was elected to the house as a moderate, rose to the Senate and rose so far in the leadership ranks by adopting every position of the far-left leadership-- abortion, gambling . . . you name it. Like I said, the House member who represents much of the same district refused to move left with the party and cruised to an easy victory over an opponent who was just as well-known and well-qualified as Bob Regola.
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