Republicans will be happy with PA-05 results

PA-05 is about as solid a Republican district as you can get. George W. Bush beat John Kerry with 61% of the vote. With John Peterson retiring it was assumed that the winner of the Republican Primary election would be the next Congressman from the 5th district.

Then with the two front runners facing legal problems it appeared the Democrats may actually have a shot at pulling off an upset. First there was Matt Shaner with his driving drunk, hitting a tree, fleeing the scene then hiding from police and calling the DA (whom his family was a financial supporter of) to ask for advice on what he should do. Then over the last week, questions arose surrounding Derek Walker with his girlfriend filing a police report, and then mysteriously changing her mind at the last minute. Either candidate would have faced a real problem defending himself when the DCCC threw their millions to educate the voters about their indiscretions.

The race looked to be a two man race just two weeks ago between Shaner and Walker. According to one internal poll just ten days ago Shaner was at 32%, with Walker at 16% and Glenn Thompson trailing with only 7%. Shaner had dropped over $1.3 million of his own money into the race and had a solid lead, but then Walker, who dropped in over $800,000 of his own money started hitting Shaner with ads on his DUI. And while Walker may have seemed like a logical place for Shaner’s defectors to land, Walker developed his own legal problems when he was charged with two felonies at the last minute.

At the last minute many voters were left without a candidate they wanted to support and went looking for another candidate. Enter Glenn Thompson and John Peterson. Thompson had spent less than $20k and was a long shot. But Thomson was out knocking on doors and running around the district meeting voters. Then Thompson received the endorsement of popular retiring Congressman John Peterson. Peterson’s endorsement may have been too late in the game to change anything, except for the negative war going on between Shaner and Walker. Voters were looking for a candidate to land on and they appeared to have jumped from Shaner and landed on Thompson. Political endorsements don’t usually mean much, but this may have been the exception to the rule.

Now the NRCC and Republican party has a candidate they can work with. While Thompson hasn’t shown he can raise the money needed yet, the national troops will be coming to the rescue and the party will rally behind him and should be able to keep this a safe seat for the Republicans.

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