PENNSYLVANIA PRIMARY DAY FOLLOW-UP

Yes, I'm an optimist, even a hopeless optimist but I never believed for a minute that Chuck Pennacchio was going to stop Bob Casey. After Casey gratuitously endorsed Alito I had visions of Pennsylvania Democrats waking up and seeing that they were being hoodwinked by a non-ideological, careerist Inside-The-Beltway power structure that couldn't care less if they were inventing a new Joe Lieberman to savage progressive values and ideals inside the Democratic Party. But it didn't happen. That didn't stop me from donating money or from asking others to do so. DWT readers ponied up nearly $1,000 for Chuck's campaign.

There's no chance I'll be asking anyone-- including myself-- to donate money to Casey's campaign even though he's running against the worst Senator up for re-election. If you live in Pennsylvania you have to ask yourself if you want to get rid of the indescribably detestable Santorum by electing a reactionary Democrat who will almost always vote against important progressive values and ideals. Casey will be far worse than Lieberman. He'll vote better than Santorum in the Senate and he'll be absolute poison for the Democratic Party.

Other than the expected results there, PA looked pretty good last night. The 3 Democrats running in the primary for the Senate seat substantially out-polled Santorum (726,651 to 549,425) and even in the unlikely event that the 100,000 or so progressives who voted for Pennacchio and Sandals decide they can't vote for Casey-- and I wouldn't blame them-- Casey still drew far more votes than Santorum (613,890 to 549,425). Another indication of Pennsylvanians' dissatisfaction with Opus Dei's representative in Washington is that political novice Lynn Swann, running in a doomed campaign against right-of-center incumbent Democratic Governor, Ed Rendell (corporate whore), outdrew Santorum 570,704 to 549,425). That means over 20,000 Republicans who bothered to show up on primary day and vote for Swann just could not bring themselves to pull the lever for the state's incumbent U.S. Senator.

But these two top of the ticket races were not even the worst news for the much despised PA Republican Party. Bush's approval rating in what was considered a major battleground state just one year ago is a mere 28%-- and dropping rapidly. Pennsylvanians were not amused by the Republican-controlled state Senate voting itself a pay raise in the dead of night and the Republicans' two top legislative leaders, Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer and Senate Majority Leader Chip Brightbill, were defeated in their primary races! And at least 8 Republican state reps also lost their seats in the General Assembly.

On the federal level, the big shock of the night was the close call for one of Pennsylvania's biggest hypocrites, Congressman Don Sherwood in the 10th CD. A big family values loudmouth, Sherwood was caught in a widely publicized sex scandal involving an extramarital affair and domestic violence. An unknown school guidance counselor, Kathy Scott, nearly beat him in the primary. He will face much tougher opposition from Fighting Dem Chris Carney in November.

Completely underneath the radar of Washington punditry is the congressional race in the northwest part of the state, PA-03, a district held by Phil English (aka- Congressman Gluttony). He's being challenged by grassroots progressive Steven Porter. Neither man faced any opposition in yesterday's primary. Gluttony, an incumbent the DCCC doesn't think should be challenged, drew 30,042 votes. Porter-- with no DCCC help at all-- drew 30,612. Hopefully this will wake Rahm Emanuel and his shop full of hacks up.

Nor was this the only congressional district where more Democrats, fired up and smellin' blood, out voted dispirited Republicans. In the 4th CD, almost 56,000 Democrats went to the polls as opposed to 32,000 Republicans. In the 6th-- where Lois Murphy won a chance to take on rubber-stamp Republican Jim Gerlach again-- slightly more Democrats voted than Republicans. And in the 8th, where Fighting Dem Patrick Murphy is on his way to retiring Mike Fitzpatrick, about 5,000 more Democrats voted than Republicans.

Pennsylvania looks like a potential bonanza for Democrats in November where I expect to see wins by two Murphys and Sestak and possibly Porter and Carney. And since he will vote with Democrats on organization, I'll count Casey as a Democrat and predict he will beat Santorum (by a substantial margin). You can donate to Lois Murphy, Patrick Murphy, Steven Porter and Joe Sestak here.