Rendell will deal with GOP majority

Rendellwill dealwith GOPmajority
Voters also elected their first woman lieutenant governor.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Democratic Gov.-elect Edward G. Rendell defeated one Republican foe in Tuesday's election, but soon he must negotiate with another -- a newly strengthened GOP majority in the General Assembly -- as he works to implement his ambitious agenda.
Although the former Philadelphia mayor comfortably outpolled state Attorney General Mike Fisher, Republican legislative campaign strategists celebrated a gain of four seats in the House of Representatives while maintaining their lopsided majority in the Senate.
Statewide, Rendell got 1,898,214 votes, or 53 percent, to Fisher's 1,584,566.
Lawrence, Mercer
In Lawrence County, Rendell squeaked by with 51.6 percent of the vote, getting 14,659 votes to Fisher's 3,042. Rendell lost Mercer County, where Fisher got 16,425 votes, or 52.3 percent of the vote, to Rendell's 14,159.
The other two gubernatorial candidates, Ken V. Krawchuk of the Libertarian Party and Michael Morrill of the Green Party, each got about 1 percent of the vote statewide. Krawchuk got 40,817 votes, and Morrill got 30,080.
In Lawrence County, election officials reported that Krawchuk and Morrill each got 245 votes. In Mercer County, Morrill got 444 votes, and Krawchuk got 343.
Political observers expressed mixed opinions about Rendell's prospects for making progress as the state's 45th governor, but they agreed that his natural charisma and penchant for deal-making would work to his advantage.
"It's going to be challenging for him," said Larry Ceisler, a political analyst and consultant whose clients include the Democratic caucus in the state House of Representatives.
Negotiations ahead
G. Terry Madonna, a Millersville University professor and pollster, said Rendell will have to negotiate with the GOP over "just about every item in his agenda," but that Rendell is a "consummate deal-maker" who will make the most out of such situations.
"No one I know expects gridlock," Madonna said, but the Republicans' superior organizational skills appear likely to keep them in power for the foreseeable future. "Rendell will have to deal with that reality," Madonna said.
Rendell, who campaigned on the need to shake up a state government that he said has stagnated under eight years of Republican leadership, is the first Philadelphian to be elected governor since 1914 -- a fact that underscores the historical tension between Pennsylvania's largest city and the rest of this mostly rural state.
Female lieutenant governor
Voters also elected the state's first woman lieutenant governor -- former state Treasurer Catherine Baker Knoll, whom Democrats picked as Rendell's running mate in the May primary. Fisher's running mate was state Sen. Jane Earll.
About 38 percent of the 9.4 million Pennsylvanians old enough to vote cast ballots Tuesday -- a slightly bigger turnout than political observers predicted, but slightly smaller than in 1994, the last gubernatorial election in which no incumbent was running.