Post-Gazette Editorial – 11/5/06

This page was last updated on November 8, 2006.

Chance for change: The voters hold all the power on Election Day; Editorial; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; November 5, 2006.

For this summary of PG political endorsements, I’m not going to get into a point-by-point critique. There’s nothing in this editorial I haven’t addressed in previous critiques.

All I’ll do is point out the obvious. Out of 19 endorsements, 15 were for Democrats, or nearly 80%.

Call me a cynic, but I suspect the four Republicans were for one of two reasons. Either the endorsed Republicans were so liberal they were virtually indistinguishable from a Democrat (a common trait among elected PA Republicans) or the races are expected to be so lopsided one way or the other any endorsement would have no potential effect. While I’m not going to research the records of the nominated Republicans, I’ll check out the election results and let you know about my “lopsided races” theory.

11/8/06 - Using unofficial results as of this morning, my “lopsided races” theory turned out to be correct. The “endorsed” Republicans were State Sen. Jane Orie (40^th district), State Reps. Mike Turzai (28^th) & Mark Mustio (44^th), and Joseph Lucas to fill the 1^st District seat on the Pittsburgh City Council.

Ms. Orie won with 84.6% of the votes. Further, she had no Democrat/liberal opponent. Ms. Orie’s opponent was a candidate of the Constitution Party.

Mr. Turzai won with 71.5% of the vote.

Mr. Mustio won with 59.5% of the vote.

Mr. Lucas received only 14.3% of the vote, just barely ahead of the third place candidate. The winner, a Democrat, won with 46% of the vote.