Pennsylvania on Fire

Jillian Bandes | November 02, 2010 11:30 PM

Pat Toomey has won the Pennsylvania Senate race, after a dizzying series of returns that had him down, then up, then up some more. It was hard to predict that the race would have been this close; pre-election polls had Toomey up by a precious few points, and high turnout seems to have benefitted Democrats as much as Republicans. It's also hard to draw any kind of conclusions from a margin this close. True, Republicans routed Democrats in other key Congressional races in the state, but the fact that the Senate seat was so close seems to only reinforce the message that Pennsylvania is purple.

Elsewhere, Lou Barletta blew away Paul Kanjorski out of the water in the 11th. Tom Marino took down Chris Carney in the 10th. A no-name conservative -- Keith Rothfus -- is 1 point away from unseating Jason Altimire in the 4th. That margin is incredible. Rothfus' name ID was basically the same as mine in that district less than a month ago, but his speaking skills are incredible, and his message is solid.