Election 2019: PA Democrats within range of taking over Bucks County Commission
Republicans have spent decades in charge of the three-member Board of Commissioners in suburban Philadelphia’s populous and competitive Bucks County, but Democrats finally have the chance to take the majority on Tuesday.
Team Blue already achieved a major breakthrough in 2017 when the took four of Bucks’ five so-called “row offices,” which are the countywide offices other than commissioner; until that year, Democrats hadn’t won a single row office in over 30 years. Republicans then got some more unwelcome news earlier this year when one of their two county commissioners, Charley Martin, decided to retire after 23 years on the board.
County commission races operate under different rules in Pennsylvania than they do pretty much anywhere else. All three seats are elected countywide, and voters can select up to two candidates. However, each party can only nominate two candidates, so the board will wind up with a 2-1 split no matter what. The question is which party will get that vital second seat that they need to control the body.
The board’s Republican chair, Robert Loughery, is seeking re-election, and he’s joined by state Rep. Gene DiGirolamo, who represents a Democratic-leaning seat in the legislature. The Democratic ticket features incumbent Diane Ellis-Marseglia and Bob Harvie, who serves as chair of the Falls Township Board of Supervisors.
In 2015, the last time the commission was up, Loughery took first place with 27% while Ellis-Marseglia was close behind with 26%. Martin managed to edge out a Democratic candidate for the third and final seat by a narrow 23.8-23.5 margin, a 728-vote victory that allowed Republicans to hang on to the majority for another four years, but that long streak could come to an end next week.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/10/30/1893488/-Daily-Kos-Elections-Live-Digest-10-30?_=2019-10-30T15:00:02.691-07:00#update-1572472276000
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