Flaherty (Dem) wins Habay's (R) seat in special election

Divernan

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Wed Apr-12-06 05:58 AM
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Flaherty (Dem) wins Habay's (R) seat in special election

www.post-gazette.com
(third story down on front page)

Flaherty wins Habay's seat in special election
To fill unexpired term of convicted lawmaker through end of year
Wednesday, April 12, 2006

By Ed Blazina, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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Complete but unofficial results showed Mr. Flaherty defeated Republican Mike Dolan, 26, of O'Hara by a count of 5,545 to 5,437. It will be the first time in more than 40 years that the district, which includes Fox Chapel, Hampton and parts of Ross, Shaler and O'Hara, will be represented by a Democrat.
Mr. Flaherty will replace Jeff Habay of Shaler, who resigned after he was convicted of criminal charges for using his office staff to do campaign work when they were supposed to be working for the state. He also faces additional charges that he tried to frame a political opponent for mailing Mr. Habay a powdery white substance when police say Mr. Habay mailed it to himself.

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State Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, head of the House Democratic Campaign Committee, said winning a traditionally Republican seat gives the party great momentum heading into this year's elections, where incumbent Gov. Ed Rendell is leading the ticket. The win puts the breakdown in the House at 109 Republicans and 94 Democrats."This would have been one of the harder seats to win," Mr. Frankel said. "Incumbency means a great deal. a very seasoned, mature candidate."

Mr. Flaherty's grass roots coordinator, Marty Marks, said his candidate did well throughout the district, where Democrats hold a slight voter registration edge despite the district's history of voting Republican."We performed better than Democrats normally perform everywhere, throughout the district," he said.

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Good morning, DU! It was a great night to be a Dem in Pittsburgh last night, and particularly in my home district where FOR THE FIRST TIME IN OVER FORTY YEARS, we elected a Dem. to represent us in my state district! ! ! This was a special election to replace a DISGRACED, CONVICTED REPUBLICAN POLITICIAN ! ! ! My candidate's GOP opponent in this special race was a W embryo - a trust fund baby whose grandfather & father made their billions in the family business, Federated Investors, which the SEC has found guilty (in Nov. of 2005) of "ill-gotten gains" from ripping off their own mutual fund investors. Federated was ordered to pay back $72 million. So can everyone say, GOP campaign funded by white collar crime? Is that somehow better than being funded by a mob grandfather who made his millions by dealing drugs? Damn right it isn't! The 26 yr. old GOP candidate had been arrested 6 times and convicted 5 times of DUI. The only job this Bush clone has ever held is as "Vice President of Govt. Relations" (i.e., lobbyist) for one of his Dad's companies, which leases out 11 small corporate jets and has 17 full time employees! In terms of TV advertising and mailings, it's fair to say that the R outspent the D about 3 to 1. And the Democrat STILL won. I was working the polls from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and I can tell you more Rs voted than Ds. The Dem candidate got R votes, people! So join me in rejoicing. I can tell you, after my work on the Kerry campaign, it was damn sweet to WIN!