HARRISBURG — Today, voters across Pennsylvania will decide which Democrats and Republicans win dozens of competitive state House and Senate primaries.
The stakes are high.
This could be a year in which control of at least one chamber flips. Democrats hold the state House by one vote, a slim margin that Republicans believe is vulnerable. Republicans have controlled the state Senate for decades, but Democrats say they see a narrow path to overtaking them this year.
Some of today’s winners will go on to run in competitive fall elections against the opposing party. In other races, overwhelmingly partisan districts mean the primary will almost certainly determine who holds the seat after November. In several cases, incumbent lawmakers are facing serious challenges.
That’s the case in the 166th state House District, which covers parts of Delaware and Montgomery Counties. Its incumbent representative, Greg Vitali, has held the seat since 1993, making him the longest continually serving member of the state House.
Vitali chairs his chamber’s committee on Environmental and Natural Resource Protection, and has for decades focused heavily on the issue.
He’s opposed by Judy Trombetta, a Haverford Township commissioner and former legislative staffer who is promising to bring “fresh energy and proven leadership” to the district, according to her campaign website. She told the Philadelphia Inquirer she thinks Vitali has “neglected” non-environmental issues, like transit funding.
Some voters who spoke to Spotlight PA at the polls in Havertown on Tuesday morning were moved by Trombetta’s promise of change. Manuel Spigler, who voted alongside his wife, Marci, said that Vitali has been in office for too long. He wants to see more active representation, pointing to the ongoing national fight over mid-cycle redistricting.
“We had the opportunity to meet with Judy Trombetta,” Marci Spigler told Spotlight PA. “We were impressed with her energy and her agenda.”
Other voters said they felt loyalty to the longtime incumbent. Judy Newsome, who said she is concerned about the price of gas and affordability broadly, said she liked that Vitali knocked on doors and made “sure we know what he’s about.”
“I know who he is, I didn’t have to research him,” she said. “[Trombetta], I didn’t know at all.
Gwen DiLauro said she came out specifically “to vote for Greg Vitali.”
DiLauro said Vitali and his staff have been a resource to her over the year, helping her fill out forms to obtain her REAL ID and claim a property tax rebate.
She didn’t vote for any of the races on the back of her ballot, which were all for Democratic committee positions.
“I don’t know anyone on the back. Why would I vote for them?” DiLauro said.
Inundated with ads
Whichever candidates end up with legislative seats after November will have a say as Harrisburg grapples with a long list of thorny issues.
For several years, lawmakers have tried to reach an agreement to regulate and tax skill games, an effort that has led to an influx of lobbying and spending from the monied industry as well as from gambling interests like sports betting companies.
Members are also debating data center regulation, public school funding, recreational marijuana legalization, and how to boost the economy through policies such as raising the minimum wage and cutting environmental regulations.
In the 48th state Senate District, which covers a triangular swath of the suburbs and exurbs between Harrisburg, Lancaster, and Reading, gaming money is having a significant impact.
The GOP primary will be the definitive race in this district — no Democrat is running in November. The incumbent Republican, Chris Gebhard, is facing horse breeder and professional cowboy Clovis Crane, who calls himself “THE Conservative Republican for District 48” on his campaign website.
Their primary is one of three in which opposing gaming and gambling interests are pumping in big money in hopes of swaying tax and regulatory policy. Skill games companies are trying to oust incumbents who have proposed taxing them more heavily than they want, including Gebhard, who introduced a bill the industry opposes. Sports betting companies are spending to support the incumbents.
Voters who spoke to Spotlight PA at the Lebanon Valley Expo Center after casting their ballots laughed when asked if they knew much about the Gebhard-Crane race. The heavy ad spending, they said, has had an impact — though not always how the spenders intended.
Rose Lantz said she has felt “inundated” by the mailers she has received daily in the past few weeks from both candidates. She’s supporting Gebhard, and cited campaign ads claiming Crane used to be a registered Democrat and criticizing him for his involvement in a car crash more than 20 years ago that left a woman paralyzed. Lantz also said she knew the Gebhard family personally.
But another voter, Curtis Olweiler, said all the attack ads against Crane made him sympathize with the challenger and consider the candidacy in a more meaningful way than he would have otherwise.
Despite the ads causing him to question Crane’s background, Olweiler said he wanted to take a risk on Crane because he didn’t see him “get down in the muck and mire” to jab at Gebhard. (There have been plenty of ads misleading voters about Gebhard’s record in the legislature, according to LNP | LancasterOnline.)
Olweiler said he, too, was fed up with the negativity in the campaign. He summed up his desire for the 48th District race to end by paraphrasing a Star Trek quote.
“Beam me up, Scotty,” Olweiler said. “There's no intelligent life on this planet.”