Democrats win control of Pa. House

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - Democrats won control of the Pennsylvania House for the first time in 12 years as Chester County officials on Tuesday settled a pair of tight races three weeks after the election.

WEST CHESTER, Pa. - Democrats won control of the Pennsylvania House for the first time in 12 years as Chester County officials on Tuesday settled a pair of tight races three weeks after the election.

In the closest race, Democrat Barbara McIlvaine Smith won the formerly Republican 156th District House seat by 23 votes after officials tabulated hundreds of previously uncounted absentee ballots.

Smith defeated Republican Shannon Royer, who has worked on the House Republicans' staff for a decade, by a tally of 11,614 to 11,591, according to an unofficial count.

In the other race, in the 167th District, Republican Duane Milne, a West Chester University professor, defeated Democrat Anne R. Crowley 13,556 to 13,412, according to unofficial results.

The back-to-back ballot tabulations gave Democrats a 102-101 edge in the House, although Republicans did not immediately concede control after a stormy year brought on by constituent anger over last year's legislative pay raise vote and disenchantment with the political establishment in Harrisburg. Republicans maintained their 29-21 state Senate majority in the Nov. 7 elections.

Lawrence J. Tabas, a lawyer for the GOP, said his team was studying the possibility of seeking a recount in the Smith-Royer race — a process that could leave control of the House in question for weeks or even months.

"The numbers can change," Tabas said. "This could very well come down to every vote."

The Chester County commissioners, acting as the county Board of Elections, were expected to decide Thursday whether to accept 11 challenged provisional ballots in the Smith-Royer race — not enough to change the outcome, but possibly enough to affect a decision on whether to press for a recount.

Once the board issues a preliminary certification of the vote, which is not expected before Friday, the GOP will have five days to file for a recount.

In Harrisburg, House Democratic leader H. William DeWeese said he is confident his party's one-vote edge will survive potential legal challenges or attempts by Republicans to persuade one or more Democrats to switch parties before the new Legislature is sworn in Jan. 2.

DeWeese, D-Greene, served as speaker in 1993 and 1994 and was ousted following the 1994 election after a Democratic representative joined the GOP.

[Thorgrim]

This could be big as PA-01 and PA-02 are so gerrymandered by republicans its not even funny...90% over the R? Cmon thats just ridiculous...they took urban philly and jammed it into two urban districts, they turned downtown pitt into 1 district

so thats 1st, 2nd, 13th, 17th

over 500,000 democratic votes that are wasted in PA...put them in the right spots...

we only need about 150,000 democrat votes to pick up 5 seats in PA...thats 350,000 to spread around and give everyone a nice democratic cushion

if we did it Tom Delay style we could have PA send an entire democratic delegation

still need the PA senate though...