Despite reassurances from Philadelphia Democratic chairman Bob Brady that he’d have the party machine out in force for Joe Sestak, it sounds like he might have had his foot on the brake. One of the local TV talking heads was talking about how no one knocked on her door in Center City, and that her friends who live downtown said the same thing: No literature, no GOTV.
It’s not hard for a party leader to pull off. Fifty fewer votes here, 100 fewer here — it’s a practice known as “cutting.”
Still, the party did turn out 300,000 Philadelphia votes for Sestak. I just have to wonder if Sestak could have won if Brady had pushed harder. Retribution for Sestak’s primary challenge? Hard to say. Brady’s all about kissing and making up after a primary, but I think Sestak really pissed people off.
And the result? All hail Pat Toomey.
Actually, Center City turned out about 60%. (And my neighborhood, just to the south, turned out nearly 2/3). I wandered through most of western Center City (8th ward) during the day, and there were GOTV doorknob hangers, and a fair number of party workers. If the whole city had turned out the way the 5th, 8th, and 30th wards did, Sestak would have won by 70-80,000 votes statewide.