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Incumbents dominating in Philly state leg races
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The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
Incumbents dominating in Philly state leg races
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As the last polling places are counted for Philly's state House and Senate candidates, it's looking like people in the city are, across the board, pretty content with the incumbents. Philly's lone Republican legislator, longtime Rep. John Taylor, managed to fend off a strong challenge by Democrat John Dunbar, while Democratic Reps. Kevin Boyle, a freshman, and Ed Neilson, an uber-freshman having just been installed in a special election in April, both won over unusually (for lefty Philadelphia) strong Republican challengers.
CP caught up with Neilson outside a polling place in Northeast Philly. He said that in just a few months in office, he's managed to make a mark with his constituent services. His office has already seen 2,200 requests for assistance.
As if on cue, voter Teresa McDonough walked by on her way out of the polling place. "We had a streetlight, this is the second time it's been out. For months we were given the runaround. Then he got on it and got it fixed," she said, thanking Neilson for his help.
"It's a neighborhood vote," more than anything, said Neilson, whose brother Todd was also, as Todd put it, doing some "voluntary mandatory" campaigning nearby. Todd said it helped that the brothers grew up in the neighborhood and never left.
Of course, so did Neilson's opponent, Republican Dave Kralle, who has to be one of the hardest-working campaigners in Philadelphia. CP caught a ride with Kralle to a couple of polling places in the Northeast and observed a noble effort to remind voters that he too was a decent neighborhood guy (and a longtime aide to former Republican Representative, now Republican Councilman Denny O'Brien). Kralle hit every polling place in the district, all 30 of them, at least two times "to keep the [committeepeople] motivated. We're relying heavily on committeepeople because people trust them. They're from the neighborhood." Like Neilson, Kralle grew up here and was looking to give the neighborhood a voice.
Kralle was also hoping that, if elected, he might be able to keep the 169th in the Northeast; Republicans want to ship it off to York County as part of their redistricting proposals. It looks like he won't get that chance. But at least, tomorrow, he'll get a break from a campaign that knocked on just about every door in the district.
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