Mar 3, 2022 3 min read

The 2022 election in Pennsylvania will be unlike any other the commonwealth has had in more than 60 years, according to Jon Delano.

The veteran KDKA-TV political analyst explained in a Wednesday morning online discussion sponsored by the Washington County Chamber of Commerce that this will be the first time since 1958 that Pennsylvania voters will be ushering a new governor and a U.S. senator into office at the same time. In 1958, a term-limited George Leader, a Democrat, was replaced in the governor’s office by fellow Democrat David L. Lawrence, and retiring U.S. Sen. Edward Martin, a Republican and Washington County native, was replaced by fellow Republican Hugh Scott. This year, Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey is retiring after two terms, and Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf is term-limited.

This year is bound to be “a most extraordinary political year for the United States, but particularly for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Delano said from his home office.

Delano surveyed the field of candidates for the U.S. Senate seat, with the Republican side notable so far for the bare-knuckled brawl being carried out on in television commercials by businessman David McCormick and television personality Mehmet Oz. The ubiquitous ads for the two candidates “are making the television stations a heck of a lot of money,” Delano remarked.

The Democratic side is dominated by two Allegheny County candidates, with Lt. Gov. John Fetterman sparring with U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, who is giving up his seat in the 17th Congressional District to pursue the Senate seat. So far, Delano said, Fetterman has an edge in fundraising over Lamb and leads him in polls, but no matter who ultimately prevails in the May 17 primary, money will not be an issue for Democrats in the fall.

“Whoever the Democrats nominate is going to get plenty of money,” Delano explained, pointing to the fact that observers on both sides of the aisle believe the Pennsylvania Senate seat could be pivotal in giving one party or another control of the chamber. The critical question for many Democrats is which candidate will have the best chance of winning in November – the more conventional and moderate Lamb, or Fetterman, who leans further to the left but might be able to draw in more blue-collar voters.

So far, Lamb has not put any ads up on television, and “in my view, every day Lamb is not on TV is a good day for Fetterman,” Delano said.

Delano also discussed the newly drawn congressional and state legislative boundaries, along with the governor’s race. Democrats have cleared the field for Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s attorney general, while the Republican side has more than 10 candidates, ranging from state Sen. Jake Corman to Lou Barletta, the former congressman and Hazelton mayor who ran an unsuccessful campaign to unseat U.S. Sen. Bob Casey in 2018. Given the size of the field, the winning GOP candidate might need to get only about 20% of the vote to be victorious, Delano said.

“There’s no clear front-runner yet,” he noted.

He did say that Republicans might well have the upper hand in 2022, given the national political environment, but that Pennsylvanians would likely judge the Senate and gubernatorial candidates based on their personal attributes.

“We’re going to be hearing a lot about these individuals,” Delano said.