18th PA House District -- Bensalem & Lower Southampton in lower Bucks County -- is now majority Democrat for the first time in 25 years

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 07/14/2006
Bensalem, PA
Contact 215-208-5264
electmartin@yahoo.com
www.martin.bensalemdemocrats.com

18th House District PA CleanSweep Democratic candidate Harris Martin, along with 18th Assembly District Democratic Committee Chair Karen Downer, Bensalem Democratic Organization Chair Mary Jeffery, and Lower Southampton Democratic Committee Chair Jim Barrett announced today that as of the end of last week, the 18th House District has a majority Democratic registration for the first time in 25 years.

The 18th House district is in southwestern Bucks County on the Delaware River along the border with Northeast Philadelphia. It consists of all of Bensalem Township (population 58,500 – the largest second class township in the state) and two adjacent precincts in southwestern Lower Southampton Township.

Anyone who says that Bensalem Township and the 18th House District are Republican strongholds and always have been just does not know current conditions or local history.

Over the last 60 years, voter registration in Bensalem and the 18th District has swung from Republican (1940s), to Democrat (1950s), to Republican (1960s to 1971), to Democrat (1971 to 1981), back to Republican (1981 to 2006) and now back to Democrat. Abraham Lincoln lost Bensalem to his Democratic opponents in 1860 and 1864. The Democratic Party has been a force here since at least the 1820s.

Voter registration in the 18th House District is now:

• 17,045 Democrats
• 17,026 Republicans
• 5,007 No party, independent, and other (NIO)
• 39,078 Total

While the Lower Southampton Township part of the district is still majority Republican, the Democrats have been making rapid gains in the Bensalem Township portion of the district.

When House candidate Harris Martin was elected Chair of the Bensalem Democratic Organization in late 2001, the Republicans were ahead by 2,347 registrations in Bensalem. Shortly before he resigned the Chair position to run for State Representative, Bensalem went majority Democrat in the first week of January of this year. As of the end of last week, the Democrats were ahead by 180 registrations in Bensalem.

In 2005, Democrat Bryan Allen was elected to the Bensalem Township Council (Optional Plan B mayor/council form of governance) and four Democrats were elected to the Bensalem Township School District School Board -- Jim Bodnar, Rose Jacobs, Carol T Jones, and Carol McGuire. Bensalem is going Democrat again.

To hold and improve on these voter registration and electoral gains, local Democrats and Democrats at all levels must consistently deliver good, clean, and open government. Democrats in Bensalem and the 18th House District are committed to efficient, clean, and open government, with competence replacing cronyism and nepotism.

Candidate Harris Martin is committed to clean and open government reforms and competence over cronyism at the state level. Martin supports the bipartisan 55 House members Platform for Reform, the nonpartisan Reform Coalition Roadmap to Reform, and the reform goals of nonpartisan PA CleanSweep.

Martin challenges his incumbent Republican opponent Gene DiGirolamo, the nephew of Bensalem Mayor Joe DiGirolamo and a crony of Republican House Speaker John Perzel and Bucks County Republican Boss Harry Fawkes, to make the same commitment to clean and open government reforms and competence over cronyism.

DiGirolamo has not supported the Platform for Reform or the Roadmap to Reform. In twelve years in the State House, DiGirolamo has done little or nothing to advance government integrity or legislative reform. He even voted in favor of Ghost Voting.