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Republicans gain majority on PA Supreme Court
Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | Amy Worden

Posted on 11/05/2009 6:13:00 AM PST by HamiltonJay

Joan Orie Melvin, a Republican judge from Western Pennsylvania, prevailed in the Philadelphia suburbs yesterday to claim a decisive win in the hard-fought battle for a vacancy on the state Supreme Court. Melvin's victory shifts the political balance on the state's most powerful bench to Republican, and could portend a re-energized conservative base in the 2010 gubernatorial and congressional elections.

(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: elections; goppickup; judge; judiciary; pa2009
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This didn't get much play nationally, but the PA Supreme Court now has a Republican majority after Tuesday's election.

Folks that think there were no 2010 overtones in the Tuesday night elections are simply lying out their butts. The more you dig, the more you see a national trend, and it bodes ill if you are in bed with Fauxbama or the democrats.

1 posted on 11/05/2009 6:13:00 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: HamiltonJay

And I helped. Yes. I did.


2 posted on 11/05/2009 6:14:39 AM PST by MestaMachine (One if by land, 2 if by sea, 3 if by Air Force 1, 4 if by Thread.)
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To: MestaMachine

You and I both.

We have a long way to go, though.

Look for Rendell to start talking about bailing out Philadelphia...too big to fail and all that.


3 posted on 11/05/2009 6:17:01 AM PST by Ghost of Philip Marlowe (I'd rather be a teabagger than an ankle-grabber.)
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To: MestaMachine

In times like these we need to have Republicans in charge. Having the Dems in charge is like letting a 10 year old drive a car, they feel grown up and cool doing it but don’t see that they trashed every car on the street and are about to run a stop sign!


4 posted on 11/05/2009 6:18:56 AM PST by freebird5850 (O-Bomba is not the Messiah. Jesus was a carpenter and could build a cabinet!)
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To: HamiltonJay

Tons of local races in every state went conservative or at least GOP.

They never make the news but has a massive influence.


5 posted on 11/05/2009 6:43:10 AM PST by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: HamiltonJay

So when does Specter decide to be a Republican again?


6 posted on 11/05/2009 6:56:32 AM PST by OrioleFan (Republicans believe every day is the 4th of July, democrats believe every day is April 15)
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To: HamiltonJay

Yes, this is big. The GOP won important judgeships at all levels. I worked my precinct, and it went 73-27% for Melvin.

On a side note, I was at the local GOP HQ the other day, and a guy stopped in for info, and they first thing he did was start complaining about “the Republicans” aren’t doing enough...and he whined that our local HQ wasn’t open much of the time. The first thing we told him was that we were looking for volunteers. You should have seen him tap dance then!
Point is, the local party can’t do anything without people getting involved. If you don’t help out, then you have no right to complain.


7 posted on 11/05/2009 7:03:06 AM PST by Ikemeister
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To: Ikemeister

Well that’s always the way it is, those that don’t step up are usually the ones who complain the most.


8 posted on 11/05/2009 7:10:34 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: OrioleFan

Spectre is politically a walking dead man, and has been since the day he sided with Fauxbama on the stimulus. He was in trouble before that, but that was the last straw for him.

If he was smart he would have just retired gracefully, but being the megalomaniac that he was, he has done what he has done since and basically is going to be tossed unceremoniously out on his butt, in either an embarrassing Democratic primary loss (avoiding the embarrassing republican primary loss was why he decided to change parties) or an absolutely crushing General election loss.

He’ll be lucky to get 40% of the vote in a general election, I would not be suprised to see him getting 35% or less if he is the D candidate in the general.


9 posted on 11/05/2009 7:14:47 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: HamiltonJay

Can Republicans cross over in PA primary and vote for the POS in the Democrat primary? Democraps do that to our candidates all the time. That’s how you end up with posers like McCain.


10 posted on 11/05/2009 8:48:52 AM PST by OrioleFan (Republicans believe every day is the 4th of July, democrats believe every day is April 15)
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To: OrioleFan

Nope, our primaries are not OPEN.. obviously you could change your party registration before the deadline to do something like that, but you can’t walk in on election day as a registered person for 1 party and vote for the other party. Which is how it should be the idea of an open primary is disgusting.

Parties are parties for reasons if you aren’t a member of a party you have no say in their selection process.

PA also has a sour grapes law, that says if you run in a primary and LOSE, you may not run in the general election.


11 posted on 11/05/2009 8:59:20 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: HamiltonJay

I was wondering about this election. This is great news as this was HUGE for Pennsylvania.


12 posted on 11/05/2009 9:24:35 AM PST by FlipWilson
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To: HamiltonJay

As it should be.


13 posted on 11/05/2009 10:23:17 AM PST by OrioleFan (Republicans believe every day is the 4th of July, democrats believe every day is April 15)
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To: FlipWilson

Is it huge? Is this new justice conservative or just GOP?

What issue coming up do you see this new balance affecting?

I ask as I’d like to tell my discussion group.


14 posted on 11/05/2009 11:56:47 AM PST by NucSubs ( Cognitive dissonance: Conflict or anxiety resulting from inconsistency between beliefs and actions)
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To: HamiltonJay

Downside in PA, we now have zero GOP Mayors in cities over 50,000. We lost the Altoona open and failed to win any Dem opens.


15 posted on 11/05/2009 6:09:09 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

It will be a long, long time before PA’s big cities elect Republicans for mayor. Most republicans are moving out of the city limits as fast as they can because of the hell holes the Democrats are turning the towns into.


16 posted on 11/06/2009 6:12:51 AM PST by 3catsanadog (If healthcare reform is passed, 41 years old will be the new 65 YO.)
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To: 3catsanadog; Impy

Well, Philadelphia hasn’t elected a GOP Mayor since 1947, Pittsburgh not since 1929 (although Luke Ravenstahl won by an underwhelming 55% on Tuesday against a divided field). Had there been more White voters in Philly, Sam Katz likely would’ve won in ‘99 or ‘03. Of the 6 remaining over-50k cities, Allentown last elected a Republican in 1997, Erie in 1961, Reading in 1995, Bethlehem in 1995, Scranton in 1997 and Lancaster in 2001. It’s not impossible (since aside from Erie, they’ve been fairly recent GOP wins), but from what I can tell, the GOP hasn’t put up substantial challengers (although we performed above average in Harrisburg on Tuesday after its 28-year incumbent Dem Mayor wasn’t on the ballot).

As you pointed out, though, in PA, cities can’t annex out to the ostensibly GOP-leaning suburbs like they can do in many other states, so most of the existing cities are exclusively just the “inner city”, and so who they’d tend to elect would be effectively preordained.

One curious place in PA (if not the whole country) is the city of Chester, which actually has a Black Republican machine left over from the days when Blacks were overwhelmingly Republican. A 75% Black city led by a Black GOP Mayor and represented by the Senate Majority Leader, who is the former Mayor.


17 posted on 11/06/2009 1:30:35 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
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To: fieldmarshaldj
One curious place in PA (if not the whole country) is the city of Chester, which actually has a Black Republican machine left over from the days when Blacks were overwhelmingly Republican. A 75% Black city led by a Black GOP Mayor and represented by the Senate Majority Leader, who is the former Mayor.

Wow.

Bad news there though. The rats won 2 of 5 council seats.

http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2009/11/04/news/doc4af114ca6ce4e666602122.txt

18 posted on 11/06/2009 2:55:53 PM PST by Impy (RED=COMMUNIST, NOT REPUBLICAN | NO "INDIVIDUAL MANDATE"!!!!!!!)
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To: Impy

Thumbs way down.


19 posted on 11/06/2009 2:56:38 PM PST by Impy (RED=COMMUNIST, NOT REPUBLICAN | NO "INDIVIDUAL MANDATE"!!!!!!!)
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To: Ghost of Philip Marlowe

Me three. I found out that I had to travel for work early on election day. Thankfully I was able to get to Media on the day of the deadline for requesting an absentee ballot and voted right there.


20 posted on 11/06/2009 3:08:56 PM PST by Windcatcher (Obama is a COMMUNIST and the MSM is his armband-wearing propaganda machine.)
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