Elections in Pennsylvania
Federal government Presidential elections 1789 1792 1796 1800 1804 1808 1812 1816 1820 1824 1828 1832 1836 1840 1844 1848 1852 1856 1860 1864 1868 1872 1876 1880 1884 1888 1892 1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1916 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1940 1944 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 United States Senate elections Class One 1788 1791 1793 1794 1797 1802 1808 February 1814 1814 1820-21 1826 1831 1832-33 1840 1845 1851 1857 1861 1863 1869 1875 1881 1887 1893 1901 1905 1909 1911 1916 1922 1928 1934 1940 1946 1952 1958 1964 1970 1976 1982 1988 1991 1994 2000 2006 2012 2018 Class Three 1788 1795 1801 December 1801 1806 1812 1818 1824–25 1830 1834 1836 1843 1845 1849 1856 1861 1867 1873 1877 1879 1885 1891 1897 1903 1909 1914 1920 1922 1926 1930 1932 1938 1944 1950 1956 1962 1968 1974 1980 1986 1992 1998 2004 2010 2016 House of Representatives elections 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018
State government Gubernatorial elections 1790 1793 1796 1799 1802 1805 1808 1811 1814 1817 1820 1823 1826 1829 1832 1835 1838 1841 1844 1860 1898 1906 1910 1914 1918 1922 1926 1930 1934 1938 1942 1946 1950 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 Lieutenant gubernatorial elections 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 Attorney General elections 2000 2004 2008 · 2012 2016 Auditor General elections 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 State Treasurer elections 2000 2004 2008 2012 State Senate elections 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 State House Elections 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018
Elections by year State elections 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2014 2015 2016
Philadelphia Mayoral elections 1951 1955 1959 1963 1967 1971 1975 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 Other municipal elections 1953 1957 1961 1965 1969 1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2009 2013 2017
Pittsburgh Mayoral elections 1925 1929 1933 1937 1941 1945 1949 1953 1957 1959 1961 1965 1969 1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2007 2009 2013 2017
Lancaster Mayoral elections 2009
v t e

The 2006 United States House elections in Pennsylvania was an election for Pennsylvania's delegation to the United States House of Representatives, which occurred as part of the general election of the House of Representatives on November 7, 2006.^[1]

General election[edit]

1st Congressional district[edit]

2nd Congressional District[edit]

3rd Congressional district[edit]

4th Congressional district[edit]

5th Congressional district[edit]

6th Congressional district[edit]

In the Pennsylvania 6th congressional district election, incumbent Republican Jim Gerlach defeated Democratic opponent Lois Murphy by a 50.7%–49.3% margin to secure a third term. This was a rematch of the 2004 election, when Gerlach defeated Murphy by a similarly close margin.^[2] In the primary election, Gerlach was unopposed and Lois Murphy defeated developer Mike Leibowitz.^[3]

The race was one of the most competitive in the nation, with CQPolitics.comrating the race as highly competitive with "No Clear Favorite." The Cook Political Report rated the race "Republican Toss Up"^[4] and Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball rated this as one of the top fifty most competitive House races in the nation, and was the first one he predicted a turnover in.^[5] The candidates participated in two debates in October. The first, sponsored by the AARP focused on Social Security, healthcare, Iraq, and taxes.^[6][7][8] The second debate, airing on WPVI, focused on Iraq.^[9] Murphy outspent Gerlach by a margin of $4,097,663 to $3,492,402.^[10]

7th Congressional district[edit]

In the Pennsylvania 7th congressional district election, long-time incumbent Republican Curt Weldon was defeated by retired Navy 3-star admiral Joe Sestak.

Prior to the primary election, Iraq war veteran Bryan Lentz agreed to drop his bid for the seat held by Weldon, instead running for a Pennsylvania state legislature seat, a move brokered by Governor Ed Rendell. Lentz had raised about $125,000 for his congressional campaign. Haverford Democrat Paul Scoles, who ran poorly funded race against Weldon in 2004, also backed out in early February, throwing his support behind Sestak.^[11]

Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district, covering the suburbs west of Philadelphia, was one of the districts where John Kerry outpolled Bush in the 2004 election, which nonetheless elected a Republican to the House. As such, it became the target of Democratic strategists; in 2006 the Democrats fielded a much stronger and vastly better-funded challenger.^[12] On October 13, the media reported that Weldon and his daughter were being investigated by the FBI^[13][14] for their involvement with two Russian energy companies and a Serbian company connected with Slobodan Milosevic. The investigation focuses on the lobbying firm Solutions North America owned and run by daughter Karen Weldon and local Republican operative Charlie Sexton, which was hired for $1 million, and whether Weldon was involved in obtaining the contracts or was lobbied by his daughter's firm. Three days later, FBI agents raided the home of Weldon's daughter, Karen, as well as five other locations of Weldon associates in Pennsylvania and Florida as part of the investigation.^[15][16] On October 17, 2006, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Weldon "acknowledged yesterday that he was under investigation."[1]

On October 13, 2006, CQPolitics changed their rating on the race, from "Leans Republican" to the highly competitive "No Clear Favorite."^[17] This was the second time CQPolitics changed its rating in the match-up; in July, it reclassified the race from "Republican Favored" to the more competitive "Leans Republican." They subsequently noted, however, that this change was made the day before the media reported that the FBI was investigating Weldon and his daughter. Shortly after the raid, CQPolitics.com changed their rating on this race for a third time, this time from "No Clear Favorite" to "Leans Democratic".^[18] On October 6, 2006, the non-partisan Cook Political Report re-rated the race from "Lean Republican" to the more competitive "Toss Up."^[4]Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball, in late June, rated as one of the top thirty most competitive House races in the nation. Sabato has said that "Weldon has deep roots in this district, but his persistence on the issue of finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has struck more than several observers as unusual."^[19]

8th Congressional district[edit]

9th Congressional district[edit]

10th Congressional district[edit]

The 2006 Pennsylvania 10th congressional district election was held on November 7 to elect a representative from the Pennsylvania's 10th congressional district. Republican four-term incumbent Don Sherwood was defeated by Democrat Chris Carney, a former Defense Department consultant and navy lieutenant commander.

CQPolitics noted that "[a]t the outset of the 2006 midterm campaign cycle, it would have been difficult to identify a more politically 'safe' member than Pennsylvania Rep. Don Sherwood. A four-term Republican from the strongly conservative 10th District in northeastern Pennsylvania, Sherwood had run unchallenged by Democrats in 2002 and 2004."^[20] But, he "enters the general election campaign in a weakened position mostly because of his extramarital relationship with a young woman, to which he publicly admitted last year. Sherwood, though, adamantly denied the woman’s charges that he also physically abused her. A lawsuit brought by the woman against Sherwood was later settled."^[21]

On May 15, 2006, Sherwood survived a "surprisingly strong challenge" in the Republican primary from Kathy Scott, a political newcomer.^[22] Sherwood received 56% of the vote. CQPolitics reported that his "mediocre showing" could be attributed to the admitted affair.^[23] Scott did not file a report with the FEC, which indicates that she spent less than $5,000 in her campaign.^[24] His small margin of victory came despite the fact that, prior to the primary, Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum endorsed Sherwood and recorded an automated telephone call on Sherwood’s behalf,^[24] as did President George W. Bush.^[25]

Sherwood's continuing problems resulting from the extramarital affair and Carney's nationally famous ads about it (in which actual residents of the district accuse Sherwood of having "no family values"), as well as polls that showed him 7 to 9 points behind, compelled Sherwood to respond with a television ad in which he directly apologized to voters for the affair, denied the allegations of physical abuse, and promised to continue what he said was his effective representation of the district if the voters were to forgive and re-elect him. However, the initial 2005 news about Sherwood admitting to an affair and being accused of choking the woman as well as the well-recognized Carney ads, which were described by the Associated Press as "hard-hitting", stuck with Sherwood's name throughout the campaign. Fallout for Sherwood continued, including charges that he voted against an increase in the minimum wage while hiking his own congressional income, a claim which the Congressman denounced as "bullshit", and for voting for the Central American Free Trade Agreement, which Carney said "sent Pennsylvanian jobs overseas." Sherwood fought back by labeling Carney a "liar" for the minimum wage charges and subsequently accused Carney of being a "liberal" for supposedly supporting tax increases. Carney shot back, accusing Sherwood of supporting tax cuts for the wealthy, while depriving the middle-class. Carol Sherwood, the Congressman's wife, wrote a letter to registered Republicans in the 10th District in which she lambasted Carney as someone who "gets some pleasure out of hurting our family" and stated that "I am certainly not condoning the mistake Don made, but I am not going to dwell on either." Simultaneously, President Bush made a visit to the area in October to Keystone College in La Plume Township, Pennsylvania to endorse Sherwood's run, a move which many believe might have hurt Sherwood when given Bush's declining popularity both nationwide and in the district. Bush supported Sherwood as "the right man to represent this district", to which the President drew uncertain applause from the audience, which included several empty tables. Coincidentally, Bush had deemed the week that he flew to Pennsylvania to help Sherwood as "National Character Counts Week", which propelled Carney to blast Bush as a hypocrite, stating he could not comprehend how President Bush could both endorse moral values and campaign for the affair-laden Sherwood in the same week. Simultaneously, Sherwood's campaign took a boost from a local newspaper, Times Leader, which ran a front-page headline in late October in which it accused Carney of "misrepresenting" quotes that were included in a Times Leader editorial page about Sherwood's extramarital affair. Meanwhile, Carney took pages from the Republican playbook by using the same tactics the GOP uses against Democrats to attack Sherwood, accusing the Congressman of having a "pre-9/11 mentality" on port security and of supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants, referring to President Bush's guest worker program for illegal immigration. Despite endorsements from Vice President Cheney, President Bush, and U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, Sherwood's campaign was surprisingly beaten in the financial spending wars by the Carney campaign. In the closing days of the campaign, last-minute news about new developments in a 2005 $500,000 deal with Sherwood's former mistress and accuser helped boost Carney, who had consistently played the trump card of "honor", "integrity", and "family values" in his campaign. Many voters also resonated with Carney's vague yet inspiring vow "to make Pennsylvania proud", a slogan that became very familiar to the 10th District, as well as his impressive record as a senior terrorism advisor in the Pentagon and his Navy service.^[20]

11th Congressional district[edit]

12th Congressional district[edit]

13th Congressional district[edit]

14th Congressional district[edit]

15th Congressional district[edit]

16th Congressional district[edit]

17th Congressional district[edit]

18th Congressional district[edit]

19th Congressional district[edit]

References[edit]

See also[edit]

• United States congressional delegations from Pennsylvania


• 108th United States Congress