In Northeast Philly, a rare GOP seat could fall

It's hard for Republicans to win elected office at any level in Philadelphia, where Democrats outnumber GOP voters by more than five to one. So when Republicans have seats, especially in traditionally more conservative wards in the northeast sections of the city, the party tends to hold on to them dearly.

But one of those few GOP strongholds could very well fall this year, with a longtime Republican incumbent retiring and two young upstart politicians vying to replace him.

State Rep. George Kenney (R-Philadelphia) has held the 170th District state House seat since 1985, making him one of the longest-serving Republican officeholders in the city. But after narrowly beating Democrat Brendan Boyle in 2006, Kenney decided to retire after this year.

Now, Boyle is running again, this time against Republican Matt Taubenberger, who heads up Kenney's constituent services office. He is also the son of Al Taubenberger, last year's failed Republican mayoral candidate.

Despite Taubenberger's role in Kenney's office, Boyle has reason to see momentum on his side, with the entire state leaning gradually more Democratic. And in a district where he lost by just over 1,000 votes two years ago, he is certain to face an easier race without an incumbent in the picture.

"It's much easier running in an open seat than running against an incumbent," Boyle told PolitickerPA.com last week.

Taubenberger, meanwhile, says that spending his whole life in the district should help him overcome what he acknowledged to be anti-Republican this election cycle.

"When George said he was leaving, I thought, what a great opportunity to do more to help the people in my district," Taubenberger said. "When I'm out knocking on doors, when I'm in the office working to help people, it's to help people I've known all my life."

Early indicators paint a tough battle for Taubenberger. The district was never overwhelmingly Republican by registration to begin with, but Kenney was popular. An internal poll commissioned by the Boyle campaign in May found him leading Taubenberger 54 percent to 30 percent.

Taubenberger dismissed the poll's conclusions as biased.

"I'm not out there knocking on doors helping people to win a poll, I'm doing it to win an election," he said. "We're going to win in November; that's going to be the best poll.

"I meet more than 600 voters in a week," he added, deriding the poll's sample size.