Republicans win big in Pennsylvania

In a tight race for one of Pennsylvania’s Senate seats, Republican candidate Pat Toomey defeated Democratic candidate Joe Sestak by 51 to 49 percent of the statewide vote, with 99 percent of districts reporting. GOP candidate Tom Corbett won the governor’s race over Democrat Dan Onorato by a 9-percent margin.

As many pundits expected, the Senate will remain in Democratic hands, 50 seats to 46 seats, with four seats still undecided as of 1:45 a.m. Wednesday. However, the House of Representatives shifted to a Republican majority, as the party now controls 230 seats — 12 more than needed for a majority, with 40 seats still undecided — as of press time.

Despite Toomey’s and Corbett’s wins, both Sestak and Onorato enjoyed an overwhelming majority vote on and around Penn’s campus. At the 10 polling locations closest to campus, Sestak received 84.6 percent of the vote and Onorato 83.7 percent, revealing strong Democratic support at Penn.

Penn Democrats President and College junior Emma Ellman-Golan was “disappointed” but not surprised by the election’s results. However, the high Philadelphia and Penn voter participation “exceeded” her expectations.

“We didn’t need to persuade voters. We just needed to get them to the polls, and I think we did a great job,” she said.

According to College Republicans President and Engineering junior Peter Terpeluk, the Republican senatorial and gubernatorial races were “clearly a reaction toward the politics of the past year.”

“Elections mean something,” he added. “You can’t ignore that fact anymore.”

In the May Democratic Senate primary, Sestak defeated incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter in a close race, receiving 53.9 percent of the vote. Meanwhile, Toomey cruised to victory for the Republican nomination, beating Peg Luksik 81.4 to 18.6 percent.

In an Oct. 12 Rasmussen poll, Toomey received 49 percent of the vote compared to Sestak’s 39 percent. However, the gap between the candidates closed toward the end of the race — a shift which some pundits attribute to a late spending surge by the Democrat’s campaign. According to an Oct. 28 Rasmussen poll, voters favored Toomey 50 percent to Sestak’s 46 percent. Although leading by a smaller margin than earlier in the race, Toomey has been favored by the polls since the race’s outset.

Toomey, a former congressman from Pennsylvania’s 15th District, ran on a platform of small business and payroll tax cuts as well as decreased business regulation. He opposes same-sex marriage, but supports the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy as long as it does not negatively impact the military’s capabilities.

In the gubernatorial race, Onorato won a four-way Democratic primary but had trailed Corbett consistently since the outset of the general election season. Onorato made a minor dent in Corbett’s lead at the same time as Sestak’s October surge, but the Democrat never led in any poll, according to data compiled by RealClearPolitics.com, which tracks survey data.

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