HARRISBURG (PA) — Pennsylvania Republicans won the state attorney general’s race and kept the other two statewide row offices Tuesday, while several legislative races were close and the partisan control of the state House hung in the balance.
York County District Attorney Dave Sunday, a Republican, beat former Auditor General Eugene DePasquale to become Pennsylvania’s top prosecutor.
Republicans had once seemed to have a lock on the job, but Democrats had won three straight elections before Sunday’s win.
Sunday, a Navy veteran, emphasized his prosecutorial experience in the campaign against Democrat DePasquale. The attorney general oversees hundreds of lawyers.
The job came open because Attorney General Michelle Henry did not seek election after being appointed to fill the last two years of now-Gov. Josh Shapiro’s unexpired term. Shapiro is a Democrat.
Sunday has promised to “enforce and defend the abortion laws in Pennsylvania,” arguing during a debate that there is “no scenario that exists” where he would prosecute a woman for having an abortion. Many of Sunday’s Republican supporters favor an abortion ban, and DePasquale had noted GOP state lawmakers tried to push through a constitutional amendment saying it does not guarantee any rights relating to abortion or public funding of abortions.
Sunday said that in the “most sad, tragic, terrible cases” he supports capital punishment.
Two incumbent Republicans were reelected to the other row offices, Treasurer Stacy Garrity of Athens in rural Bradford County and Auditor General Tim DeFoor of Harrisburg.
The one-seat state House majority that Democrats have had for the past two years will remain in place if neither party flips a single district, as is possible.
The state House had been under Republican control for more than a decade when redrawn district lines helped Democrats claim the narrowest of possible margins two years ago, giving them a 102-101 majority.
There also will not be much change in the state Senate.
Freshman Democratic incumbent Jimmy Dillon was facing a possible defeat in a northeastern Philadelphia district at the hands of Republican Joe Picozzi, who has worked as a congressional aide.
But if Picozzi wins, that will offset by a Democratic win in a GOP-held Senate seat. State Rep. Patty Kim of Dauphin County was elected to a vacancy created by the pending retirement of Sen. John DiSanto, a Dauphin County Republican.
The Senate went into the election with a 28-22 Republican majority.
In the state House, a few races in the Philadelphia region were competitive, with Bucks County Democratic Rep. Brian Munroe, a freshman, clinging to a lead of a few hundred votes.
In northeastern Philadelphia, where Democratic Rep. Kevin Boyle lost in the spring primary, the Democratic candidate was leading by more than 100 votes.
Two incumbent state representatives who are perpetual targets of the other side were both in decent position to win reelection — Delaware County Rep. Craig Williams, a Republican, and Democratic state Rep. Rob Matzie of Beaver County.
The voting results in Cambria County were complicated by a voting system malfunction, so the fate of another swing district held by a longtime incumbent, Democratic Rep. Frank Burns, was unclear.
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