April 26, 2016

Results In Senate, House, Congressional Races We’re Watching In The Primary

Here are the results so far from the House, Senate and Congressional race we flagged last week that were worth watching.
Four House incumbents-- Rep. Mark Cohen (D-Philadelphia), Rep. Tonyelle Cook-Artis (D-Philadelphia), Rep. Frank Farina (D-Lackawanna) and Rep. Lynwood Sava (D-Philadelphia)-- all lost their bids for reelection in the Primary.
Indicted incumbent Rep. Vanessa Brown (D-Philadelphia) beat 6 other opponents for the Democratic nomination for this seat with 36.4 percent of the vote.
Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Philadelphia) beat indicted incumbent Congressman Chaka Fattah.  No other incumbent members of Congress lost.
One key to this year’s races-- several incumbents survived by having multiple opponents in the Primary.
Actual counted election results are available at the Department of State’s Election Results website.
-- State Senate - Click Here for updated results
Updated: 5th District Philadelphia: Incumbent Sen. John Sabatina (D), who filled Lt. Gov. Mike Stack’s Senate seat in a special election last year, won his seat by 51 percent against a tough challenger Rep. Kevin Boyle.  The seat will stay Democratic.
✓ 9th District Delaware: Republican Rep. Tom Killian beat his Democrat opponent Marty Molloy by more than 10,000 votes in the special election to fill the vacancy left by Sen. Dominic Pileggi (R) after he was elected county judge last November.
✓ 13th District Lancaster: Scott Martin easily beat 2 other challenges in the Republican race to replace Sen. Lloyd Smucker (R) who is running for Congress.  The seat will stay Republican.
Updated-Switch. 15th District Dauphin: John DiSanto beat Andrew Lewis by 630 votes in the Republican Primary, after Lewis was leading most of the night.  Sen. Scott Wagner (R-York), who runs the Senate GOP Campaign Committee, endorsed John DiSanto.  Incumbent Rob Teplitz is facing a challenger in the Democratic primary-- Alvin Taylor, but is expected to win the primary.  The fall General Election may get interesting.
✓ 31st District Cumberland: Rep. Mike Regan beat three other Republican challengers in his bid to replace Sen. Pat Vance (R)  garnering 52.3 percent of the votes.  Sen. Scott Wagner also weighed in personally in this fight endorsing Regan.  Vance has endorsed Ritchie.  There is no danger the Republicans will lose this seat, since no Democrats are running.
-- State House - Click Here for updated results
✓ 12th District Butler: Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R), a leader of the very conservatives in the House, easily beat challenger Gordon Marburger with 59.7 percent of the vote.  The Republicans will not lose this seat.
✓ 49th District Washington: Alan Benyak won a 6-way race to replace long-time legislator Rep. Pete Daley in the Democratic primary with 35.8 percent of the vote.  The seat will remain Democratic.
NEW. 92nd District York: Dawn Keefer beat Anthony Pugliese for the Republican nomination by 760 votes-- 39.8 percent of the vote to 33.9 percent-- in a 3-way race.
Updated-Switch. 111th District Susquehanna: Jonathan Fritz won the Republican nomination with 40.3 percent against 2 other opponents, including former-Rep. Jerry Birmelin a  in the race to replace retiring Rep. Sandra Major.  The seat will stay Republican.
✓  NEW. 112th District Lackawanna: Freshman Rep. Frank Farina lost the Democratic nomination to former Rep. Kevin Haggerty 40 percent to 37.7 percent in a 3-way race.  The seat should remain Democratic.
✓ 131st District Lehigh: Rep. Justin Simmons (R) easily beat his opponent for the Republican nomination after promising to serve only 3 terms in the House.
✓ 175th District Philadelphia: Incumbent Rep. Michael O’Brien easily beat Sean Sullivan in the Democratic primary. The seat will remain Democratic in the fall.
✓ 182nd District Philadelphia: Rep. Brian Sims (D) beat Ben Waxman, his former aide, 39.6 percent to 34.5 percent in a 4-way race for the Democratic nomination.  The seat will remain Democratic.
✓ 190th District Philadelphia: Indicted incumbent Rep. Vanessa Brown (D) beat 6 other opponents for the Democratic nomination for this seat with 36.4 percent of the vote.  The seat will remain Democratic.
✓  NEW. 192th District Philadelphia: Freshman Rep. Lynwood Sava, who won a special election to fill this seat after Rep. Louise Bishop (D) resigned, lost a 5-way Democratic Primary contest to Morgan Cephas 44.5 percent to 14.6 percent.
✓  NEW. 200th District Philadelphia: Freshman Rep. Tonyelle Cook-Artis was defeated in the Democratic nomination by challenger Chris Rabb-- 47.4 percent to 40.4 percent in a 3-way race.  The seat will remain Democratic.
✓ 202nd District Philadelphia: Rep. Mark Cohen (D), the longest serving member of the House, lost his bid for the Democratic nomination in this district 56.9 percent to 43 percent.  It’s the first time in 38 years Cohen stood for re-election without his party’s endorsement.  The seat will remain Democratic.
-- Congress - Click Here for updated results
✓ 2nd District Philadelphia: Rep. Dwight Evans beat indicted incumbent Chaka Fattah in the Democratic Primary.  The seat will remain Democratic.
✓ 7th District Delaware: Incumbent Congressman Patrick Meehan (R) easily beat developer Stanley Casacio who had said Meehan isn’t conservative enough.  The Democratic Primary winner was Mary Ellen Balchunis, a La Salle University political science professor who ran against pastor Bill Golderer.  This district is competitive.
✓ 8th District Bucks: Republican Brian Fitzpatrick, brother of the former resident of this Congressional seat Mike Fitzpatrick, easily beat 2 other challengers.  Rep. Steve Santarsiero easily beat his challenger for the Democratic nomination for this seat.
✓ 9th District Blair: 15-year incumbent Republican Congressman Bill Shuster is in a tight race, but is ahead of challenger Art Halvorson in the Republican primary.  Shuster was cited for having an airline lobbyist for a girl friend.  He serves as chair of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.  There are no Democrats running, so the seat will remain Republican.
✓ 16th District Lancaster: State Sen. Lloyd Smucker (R) has a very comfortable lead over  businessman Chet Beiler after a down and dirty Republican Primary fight to succeed retiring incumbent Congressman Joe Pitts.  The seat will stay Republican.
NewsClips:
Fitzpatrick, Santarsiero Coast In Bucks Congressional Race