PA. RACES Top to bottom, both parties win

The GOP chairman admired Democrats' get-out-the-vote effort.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- This week's election results gave both parties something to crow about: Democrats celebrated victories at the top of the ticket, while Republicans pointed to their gains among county governments as a political counterweight.
Gov. Ed Rendell said the Democrats' victories in three of the four statewide appellate court races -- the fourth remained too close to call Wednesday -- proved that the party is "an institution to be reckoned with" after losing 18 of its past 22 attempts to elect a candidate to a statewide office.
The state's voters elected Allegheny County Judge Max Baer to fill a vacant seat on the state Supreme Court and awarded seats on the superior court to Philadelphia Municipal Judge Seamus P. McCaffery and Northampton County Judge Jack A. Panella. Democrats also won two high-profile races in the state's two metropolitan hubs -- Philadelphia Mayor John Street won a second term, and Dan Onorato ousted the Republican incumbent in winning the post of Allegheny County chief executive.
"The statewide message is that the Democratic Party is back," the governor told reporters in Philadelphia on Wednesday.
Republicans said they won control of 11 county commissions, including those in the Democrat-dominated counties of Lackawanna and Fayette. The others were Adams, Bradford, Centre, Clarion, Clinton, Indiana, Lawrence. Northumberland and Pike. In addition to capturing the chief executive's post in Allegheny County, Democrats won control of commissions in Berks and Cambria counties.
"All in all, I think, it was a good night for Republicans who are outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh," state Republican Party Chairman Alan Novak said.
Open admiration
Novak openly expressed admiration for the Democrats' get-out-the-vote efforts in the two cities, which he said helped propel the party's judicial candidates as well.
"It's not every day you watch a tidal wave," the GOP chairman said. "They didn't just come out and vote for Mayor Street. They voted Democratic" down the ticket, he said.
At a Democratic State Committee meeting in September, Rendell exhorted his partisans to work to win all four appellate court races, saying it could help dissolve Republican opposition to his still-stalled plan to finance new early-childhood education initiatives with an increase in the income tax and other levies.
But he played down that objective Wednesday, saying only that Democrats would not have enjoyed the same electoral success if Pennsylvanians were truly disenchanted with his ideas.
"He let the Republicans off the hook a little," Democratic strategist Ken Snyder acknowledged.
Senate President Pro Tempore Robert C. Jubelirer, R-Blair, said Rendell was wise not to play the state-budget card in analyzing the election results, considering the GOP's gains in the counties.
"There's really nothing for him to say," Jubelirer said.