Dan Wofford

State Sen. James Gerlach won a promotion to Congress in Tuesday's election, but the final exam was a lot harder than the Chester County legislator had expected. Unofficial returns from the three counties in the Sixth Congressional District show Gerlach beating his Democratic opponent, Dan Wofford, by just two percentage points. Out of nearly 200,000 ballots cast, Gerlach's margin was 5,361 votes. It was a cliff-hanger that wasn't decided until the wee hours of yesterday morning.

A vote for Wofford is a vote for fresh leadership Why should women in the Sixth Congressional District vote for Dan Wofford? Because independent-minded voters in this area are looking for fresh leadership with the vision and energy of Dan Wofford, and Ed Rendell, the Democratic candidate for governor. Because Wofford's firmly pro-choice while his opponent, state Sen. Jim Gerlach, not only is anti-choice but also has voted against funding family planning, which would reduce the need for abortions.

President Bush will fly into the Philadelphia area on Tuesday for a 2 1/2-hour visit to support Republican candidates for governor and U.S. Congress. Bush will speak on behalf of Mike Fisher and State Sen. James Gerlach, whose redrawn district covers pieces of Berks, Chester and Montgomery Counties, about 11 a.m. at the United Sports Training Center, on Route 340 near Route 30 in Downingtown. The speech will not be open to the general public. According to a media advisory, the President will arrive on Air Force One at Philadelphia International Airport at 10 a.m. and on Marine One at the Training Center at 10:30 a.m. The advisory states that he will depart from the Training Center at 11:55 a.m. and from the region at 12:25 p.m. Fisher, 57, the state attorney general, is running against former Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell, 58. Gerlach, 47, is a lawyer who has represented the 44th District in the Pennsylvania Senate since 1994.

Veteran Republican legislator James Gerlach appeared early today to have won his hotly contested race against political newcomer Dan Wofford for the Sixth Congressional District. While Democrat Wofford was in the lead for much of the evening, shortly after midnight, Gerlach pulled ahead thanks to a late surge of support from his home base in Chester County. "It has been a hard-fought campaign," said Gerlach, shortly after 1:00 a.m. "There have been a lot of dynamics going on in this race, but at the end of the day, the voters are sending us to Congress to represent them, and we appreciate that.

The tortured shape of the Sixth Congressional District - from Lower Merion Township out to Kutztown in Pennsylvania Dutch country - has been likened to a pterodactyl. But the race itself has been a bear. This was supposed to be the contest that harvested the bounty of Republican redistricting. This was supposed to be the race in which GOP State Sen. James W. Gerlach would glide to victory over Democratic opponent Dan Wofford in a district where half the registered voters are Republicans.

Tomorrow, the glorious pageant of democracy renews itself amid pomp, bustle, and the sacred secrecy of the voting booth. Or: Tomorrow, another bunch of scoundrels will stumble into a new chance to feed at the trough in another dispiriting election most notable for the number of eligible voters who will stay away. The election season now concluding has offered plenty of grist for either of those mills: the upbeat and patriotic, or the weary and cynical. The good news is that there is some good news to report from the campaign trail, along with the usual harvest of wretched behavior.

Lois Murphy was holding on to a slim lead early this morning in her effort to unseat incumbent Republican Jim Gerlach in the Sixth Congressional District. Murphy, as expected, piled up a 2-1 lead in Montgomery County, and the two seesawed in Berks County with Gerlach holding a small lead. But Chester County still had more than a third of its precincts outstanding. Gerlach won the district's single precinct in Lehigh County. "We are expecting the same turnout in Chester County that she got in Montgomery County," Gerlach spokesman John Gentzel said.

The Lieutenant Governor's Office said yesterday that plans for a special election to fill the vacancy left by the death of State Sen. Robert J. Thompson (R., Chester) are on hold until after his memorial service Saturday. Thompson, 68, who was chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and represented the 19th Senate District for nearly a decade, died over the weekend of complications from pulmonary fibrosis. Two years remain in his term. As presiding officer of the senate, Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker-Knoll has the authority to set the date for a special election.

After some surprisingly close election results, Chester County Democrats believe they've got growing momentum on their side while Republicans are grateful they dodged a bullet fueled by voter anger at events in Washington and Harrisburg. That anger apparently translated even to open-space referendums in Wallace and Schuylkill Townships, which were soundly defeated; another in Honey Brook Township barely squeaked into the win column. "Everything to do with money is very contentious," said Nancy Mohr, executive director of Chester County 2020, an open-space advocacy group.

Lois Murphy, the Lower Merion Township Democrat who came from out of nowhere to nearly defeat incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach for the Sixth District seat last year, may make another run. Murphy, 42, said it was "increasingly likely" she would seek a rematch. "I am very seriously thinking about it," she said during an interview Tuesday night at a reception and preelection rally held by Chester County Democrats at West Chester University. Also considering a run is political newcomer Mike Leibowitz, 27, also of Lower Merion, a former Republican who switched his registration to Democrat about two years ago. "I think the Democrats are the party that cares more about small businesses, families, public schools and creating jobs," said Leibowitz, a developer who specializes in rehabbing older buildings.

Democrats crashed through the walls of the formerly impenetrable Republican fortress known as Chester County on Tuesday, sending one of their own to the state Senate for the first time in more than a century. In a special election for the 19th District state Senate seat, Democrat Andrew Dinniman trounced Republican Carol Aichele by 13 percentage points, a margin that no politician can recall even for a Democrat winning a local office in Chester County. Democrats were predictably gleeful, and said it could bode ill for U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach, (R., Pa.)

The Lieutenant Governor's Office said yesterday that plans for a special election to fill the vacancy left by the death of State Sen. Robert J. Thompson (R., Chester) are on hold until after his memorial service Saturday. Thompson, 68, who was chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and represented the 19th Senate District for nearly a decade, died over the weekend of complications from pulmonary fibrosis. Two years remain in his term. As presiding officer of the senate, Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker-Knoll has the authority to set the date for a special election.

After some surprisingly close election results, Chester County Democrats believe they've got growing momentum on their side while Republicans are grateful they dodged a bullet fueled by voter anger at events in Washington and Harrisburg. That anger apparently translated even to open-space referendums in Wallace and Schuylkill Townships, which were soundly defeated; another in Honey Brook Township barely squeaked into the win column. "Everything to do with money is very contentious," said Nancy Mohr, executive director of Chester County 2020, an open-space advocacy group.

Lois Murphy, the Lower Merion Township Democrat who came from out of nowhere to nearly defeat incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach for the Sixth District seat last year, may make another run. Murphy, 42, said it was "increasingly likely" she would seek a rematch. "I am very seriously thinking about it," she said during an interview Tuesday night at a reception and preelection rally held by Chester County Democrats at West Chester University. Also considering a run is political newcomer Mike Leibowitz, 27, also of Lower Merion, a former Republican who switched his registration to Democrat about two years ago. "I think the Democrats are the party that cares more about small businesses, families, public schools and creating jobs," said Leibowitz, a developer who specializes in rehabbing older buildings.

Teenagers tend to tell their parents lots of weird things, but what Fred Liss heard from his 15-year-old daughter during the family's summer vacation in Spain last year just floored him. "She said she was going to tell people she was Canadian because she was embarrassed to be an American," he said, and her younger brother agreed. "It came out of nowhere to me. " The partisan spin that seems to have permeated nearly every aspect of American life had seeped into the fiber of his family, and he was not happy about that.

Lois Murphy was holding on to a slim lead early this morning in her effort to unseat incumbent Republican Jim Gerlach in the Sixth Congressional District. Murphy, as expected, piled up a 2-1 lead in Montgomery County, and the two seesawed in Berks County with Gerlach holding a small lead. But Chester County still had more than a third of its precincts outstanding. Gerlach won the district's single precinct in Lehigh County. "We are expecting the same turnout in Chester County that she got in Montgomery County," Gerlach spokesman John Gentzel said.

Lois Murphy plays the political game like a pro. As proof one need look no farther than two years ago when she orchestrated Gov. Rendell's successful campaign in Montgomery County, piling up a 93,000 vote margin for the Democratic leader in primarily Republican territory - a feat that helped propel him to Harrisburg. Now the insider is stepping out. Murphy has launched a bid for Congress from the Sixth Congressional District, hoping to turn her skills as a behind-the-scenes organizer into a winning campaign for herself.

Bob Martin's April 1 column ("Democrats' miserable showing: Contests are few in the party's suburban primaries. Voters deserve better") is wrong and does a great disservice to our voters in Montgomery County. The column illustrates that the author molded the facts to prove his thesis, regardless of the accuracy of those facts. Had Mr. Martin checked, he would have recognized that for a wide variety of reasons, each of the counties is politically very different. Unlike Mr. Martin, I am both unwilling and unable to clearly analyze the demographics, political history and issues in the other three suburban counties.

State Sen. James Gerlach won a promotion to Congress in Tuesday's election, but the final exam was a lot harder than the Chester County legislator had expected. Unofficial returns from the three counties in the Sixth Congressional District show Gerlach beating his Democratic opponent, Dan Wofford, by just two percentage points. Out of nearly 200,000 ballots cast, Gerlach's margin was 5,361 votes. It was a cliff-hanger that wasn't decided until the wee hours of yesterday morning.

Veteran Republican legislator James Gerlach appeared early today to have won his hotly contested race against political newcomer Dan Wofford for the Sixth Congressional District. While Democrat Wofford was in the lead for much of the evening, shortly after midnight, Gerlach pulled ahead thanks to a late surge of support from his home base in Chester County. "It has been a hard-fought campaign," said Gerlach, shortly after 1:00 a.m. "There have been a lot of dynamics going on in this race, but at the end of the day, the voters are sending us to Congress to represent them, and we appreciate that.