Conservative Commentary on the Pennsylvania Special Election

     Because the Democratic candidate won yesterday's Special Election in Pennsylvania's 11th Senatorial District, liberals are potraying it as a referendum on Governor Tom Corbett.  They are exaggerating the significance of the election.

     The District, wherein I reside, has a nearly two-to-one Democratic voter registration advantage over Republicans.  It had been held for 38 years by the late Democratic Senator whose death created the vacancy.  The Democratic candidate was a popular former Berks County Commissioner who was known for preserving farmland.  She had escaped criticism for her votes to increase taxes 18% and 34%, which have resulted in an unnecessary surplus of $100 million, as well as her votes to increase spending, until the Special Election. 

     The Republican effort to inform the voters about her taxing and spending record resulted in her underperformance of the voter registration margin by several percentage points.  The fact that she was not pro-life, unlike the late Democratic Senator who held the seat, might have contributed to some degree, although it was not a major overt part of the GOP campaign.

     Governor Corbett's budget only came out a week before the election, after he had made a campaign appearance for the Republican candidate.  In it, he proposes to cut spending without raising taxes, as he had promised during his campaign.  However, the Reading Eagle, the only daily newspaper in the district, focused on the cuts to education while largely ignoring the many other, often less controversial, cuts in his budget.  Additionally, one of its reporters then took the GOP candidate's remarks (at the appearance I had posted about of Lieutenant Governor Jim Cawley) about Governor Corbett keeping his campaign promises out of context in order to make it appear as if he were gleeful about the painful cuts. 

     Another factor in the background was fear among organized labor that Pennsylvania would see a replay of the reduction of collective bargaining rights for workers as in Wisconsin, even though Governor Corbett had firmly declared that it would not happen in the Keystone State.  Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker had explained that his state enjoyed the strongest civil protection law in the Union.  Moreover, both the Democrats and labor were motivated to regain momentum after the 2010 Elections.

     Given the Democratic voter registration advantage and the popularity of the Democratic incumbent, the results of the Pennsylvania Special Election for the 11th Senatorial District suggest that Pennsylvanians prefer cutting spending to raising taxes, despite the negative portrayal of Governor Corbett's proposed budget.