But there is a deeper story of long-term significance: Sen. Specter’s decision is another nail in the office of the more moderate Republican philosophy associated with former New York governor Nelson Rockefeller. In the last dozen years, Democrats have won sweeping victories in the Northeast, with the region’s Republican Party now on life-support.
After the1992 elections, Republicans in New England and New York collectively held 20 of 54 U.S. House seats and held at least one House or Senate seat in every state. The intervening 16 years have been devastating for Republicans in the region, especially in 2006 and 2008. New England’s last Republican House member, Chris Shays of Connecticut, was defeated in 2008, and Republicans now hold only three of 29 U.S. House seats in New York and no U.S. Senate or House seats in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont.
The shift has affected down ballot races as well, in both New England and broader swathes of the Northeast. In 2006 Democrats took control of both chambers of the New Hampshire legislature, and in 2008 took control of the New York senate for the first time in four decades, gained monopoly control in Delaware and greatly expanded their margins in state legislatures throughout the region.
Sen. Specter’s move could be a signal to a number of moderate Republicans in his state to abandon their party. It’s too early to tell, but quite possibly Pennsylvania’s days as a potential swing state could be over for at least a generation, and Democratic reach into the state could rise at all levels. Republicans throughout the Northeast have to be wondering whether their party’s tent is big enough for them — and for majorities in their state.
