03/19/2014
Turnout:13.80 percent
Ron Miller (R): 5,920 (26.64 percent)
Linda Small (D): 5,704 (25.67 percent)
Write-In: 10,595 (47.68 percent)
Wagner apparent winner in special state Senate election
Scott Wagner embraces his sister Sue Wagner as he comes in to speak to supporters at Santander stadium on Tuesday, March 18, 2014. Jason Plotkin - Daily Record/Sunday News (Jason Plotkin)
Republican Scott Wagner survived attacks from leaders in his own party, who described him as a “millionaire trash man” in ads, to apparently win a write-in campaign to become the new state senator for the 28th District.
“We made history,” Wagner told a crowd of supporters at Santander Stadium in York Tuesday evening. “The people won today.”
STAT OF THE DAY:
Results
Tuesday's voting came a little more than two months after Mike Waugh's resignation from the state Senate kicked off a contentious, negative and expensive campaign.
It wasn't clear from Tuesday's unofficial results exactly how many of the write-in votes were for Wagner. But Democratic nominee Linda Small of New Freedom and Republican nominee Ron Miller, a state representative from Jacobus, both conceded to Wagner, the 58-year-old head of a recycling and waste collection company.
Ron Ruman, a spokesman for the Department of State, said officials there weren't aware of a write-in candidate winning a state legislative seat before.
Wagner will serve in the seat through November. He's also seeking to win a new four-year term at that time.
On Tuesday evening, Miller, 62, said he will be in Harrisburg today. He said it has been his honor to serve as state representative for the 93rd District and he will finish out his term, doing his best to serve the constituents.
Miller did not seek reelection to the House seat.
When asked about the contentious race, Miller said, “It's a type of campaign that I wish had never come to York County.
“It's just not York County,” he added. “It's not the way we do things.”
On Tuesday evening, Small congratulated Wagner on his win. She said she's looking forward to the general election for a new four-year term to the seat.
“We're going to continue to make the case to voters,” she said.
She is uncontested in the primary, and will face a Republican challenger in the fall.
With a special election, it's a very small group of voters, she said. It was very hard to get the message through when there were two candidates having a fight, she said.
“I tried to focus on issues, but it was just very difficult,” she said.
“So we're going to keep trying to get the focus on issues, because I think that's where we'll win,” she said.
Those issues include property taxes, education, and job creation.
Nikki Suchanic, director of York County's elections and voter registration department, said the official count begins Thursday.
The preliminary certification is scheduled for Monday, and the final certification is scheduled for March 31. Any formal objections to the results would have to take place before the final certification, she said.
Candidates and outside groups combined to spend several hundred thousand dollars. The race drew attention from politicians statewide.
Former Gov. Tom Ridge stopped in York County earlier this month to stump for Miller. Ridge lamented the fact that it had become a tough race.
Miller's campaign materials described him as a “conservative” and “regular guy — working for us.” They also highlighted his opposition to parts of the Affordable Care Act, his support for changing property tax laws and his involvement with community organizations, like the Jacobus Lions Club.
During the campaign, Small called for restoring state funding for education to cover around 50 percent of the cost, raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour and creating a Marcellus Shale drilling severance tax, which would be based on the amount of gas extracted from wells.
Two Democratic candidates for governor — Katie McGinty of Chester County and Jack Wagner of Allegheny County — stopped in York County Monday to rally support for Small, a 53-year-old retired master chief petty officer in the U.S. Navy. They said York County had a unique opportunity to send a Democrat to the Senate.
During the campaign, Wagner talked about bringing fiscal responsibility to state government and controlling property taxes. Wagner touted his business record as the founder and president of Penn Waste Inc.
Negative ads
Waugh announced in August that he wouldn't be seeking re-election.
But in January, Waugh left early to become the executive director of the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex and Expo Center. The governor named him to the position.
Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley and other GOP leaders decided to have a standalone special election March 18, instead of waiting until the May 20 primary. They said York County voters needed to be represented as the state budget and other issues are debated.
Wagner said the moves were part of a plot to make it harder for him to win the May 20 primary. He said GOP leaders wanted Miller to win the special election to make it harder for Wagner to defeat an incumbent Republican in the May 20 primary.
Wagner's campaign described Miller as the hand-picked candidate of “Philadelphia politicians and Harrisburg lobbyists.”
Wagner received plenty of criticism, too, including from the Pennsylvania Senate Republican Campaign Committee and the state GOP.
Republican leaders also went after Small. In one mailer, the state GOP said she had “extreme policies” and “radical values.” A TV ad from the York County Republican Committee said a vote for Wagner was really a vote for Small.
In an interview Tuesday evening, Wagner suggested everybody take a period of 48 or 72 hours to cool off.
“They just need to go back, and they need to think who they picked on,” Wagner said. “Listen, I've been running hard for ... basically six solid months, and I'm taking a couple days off.”
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