DelcoTimes editorial on Dem upswing

Phil Heron's editorial in today's Delco Times describes the Democratic surge (oops...maybe that's term reserved for GOP initiatives) in Delaware County, focusing on the race for the 3 open seats on County Council. John Innelli, David Landau and Ann O'Keefe are the Dems in this election.

Heron describes the long-running trend in Delco, moving from a completely GOP-dominated area to more balanced representation, saying, "Then something strange started happening. At least here in Delaware County. Democrats started winning elections. ... Now the Democrats have their eyes on the one prize that has eluded them: The Media courthouse."

The trend began from the top down in the 90s with Clinton winning in Delco, starting a long string of strong showings by Democratic Presidential candidates in the area. Of course, Joe Sestak's victory in 2006 set a new high water mark. And of course there are many Democratic local and state representatives with strong followings.

Heron says:

This very well could be a new day in Delco politics. Who would have thought that Democrats would be taken seriously, let alone considered a threat, in a race for county council?

Buckle your seat belts, voters. It’s going to be an interesting couple of months.

And we’ll all likely be better off for it.

It's true that the residents of Delaware County would be better off with 3 Democrats in there to bust up the Tamany Hall den of corruption that have cost the taxpayers of Delaware County millions of dollars in patronage jobs and crony contracts.

Put the Dems in and we get a shot a cleaning things up.

Keep that in mind when you pay that big County tax bill and get next to nothing in return!

Heron thinks this will be an interesting race. We hope the DelcoTimes provides good coverage of the election. But what would really be interesting would be if the DelcoTimes would do some investigative reporting on the issues. It's one thing to publish the accusations of corruption and the GOP rebuttals. It would be a much different (and interesting) story if the Times digs into these accusations.

Tips for the Delco Times: start with the County Prison, move to the contracts for various health care facilities, and see about the no-show jobs. And just for kicks and giggles, interview a few county employees who are directed to report for campaign duties.

That very well could be a new day in Delco political reporting!