Holt Before You Complain I Am Once Again Turning My Chari

RIVERSIDE – Republican Sen. Diane Allen swept into the Election Twenty-four hours afterward-party at the finely appointed dining and social complex called the Cafe Madison here nearly ix o'clock last dark, an hour after the polls closed.

She was about to shoot down her latest challenger and was in good spirits among the entrada elite enjoying their spirits from the bar across the spacious room, gas fireplace blazing backside a glass console in the background.

The 63-twelvemonth-former veteran was on her fashion to once again soundly beating an opponent. This fourth dimension around it was Democrat Gail Cook, the youthful 70-yr-old mayor of the tiny hardscrabble Delaware River town of Beverly City, who lost by v,500 votes.

But what Allen didn't sweep into the room or into office with her were her two vii^thursday legislative district ticket mates, businessman Chris Halgas, whose family owns the tony Madison, or Mountain Laurel Mayor Jim Keenan. Both lost their races to incumbent Democrat Herb Conoway and incoming freshman Troy Singleton by at least 2,400 votes.

Allen's short-trimmed coattails are by now a familiar refrain merely i that remains a mystery to many.

The ambitious erstwhile Philadelphia Tv network news anchor outset rode her South Jersey-broad fame into role a twelvemonth later on leaving idiot box, winning an Assembly seat in 1995 in a district where the Democrats enjoyed a 2-to-ane advantage in voter registration.

The former expert rifle marksman from her collegiate days at Bucknell University set her sights on the Senate seat she now holds after just a single term in the lower business firm. The mere spectre of Allen entering the race chased the hapless Democrat who'd had the misfortune of holding the seat at the time, Jack Casey, who went running for the exit without continuing for re-ballot.

A fellow by the name of Robert Broderick gave it a shot, but became the start in a long line of Democratic hopefuls to have those hopes shot through past Allen, a political Annie Oakley, who won handily as she collected 30,875 votes to Broderick's 25,501.

Only the Assembly candidates who ran with her then, as at present, didn't brand the cut with district voters. Republican Ken Faulkner was just 67 votes shy of victory in that race and came much closer than whatever of her running mates e'er would either then or in any of the three elections since, including yesterday's.

So Allen finds herself at the end of each Ballot Day tempering her own victory speeches in consideration of the brokenhearted emotions of teammates wearied and spent after giving their all.

At Buffet Madison final night, she pronounced herself "heartbroken" as she stood betwixt her running mates to merits victory for herself, but and then assist concede the Assembly races for them in front end of the 100 or so District 7 GOP supporters who turned out for what they'd hoped would've been a clean sweep for their candidates.

The Republicans felt they had a real shot this fourth dimension, also, with the retirement of seven-term Assemblyman Jack Conners and the selection equally his replacement the longtime Democratic operative Troy Singleton, one-time chief of staff to sometime Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts.

On pinnacle of that, they had a new legislative district map to work with that was adopted this leap, dropping one big Autonomous town, Pennsauken, while picking upwards solidly Republican Moorestown, where Allen grew up with her famously Quaker roots, and Republican-leaning Mount Laurel.

Still, the district only moved from a margin of thirty percent Democrat and 15 pct Republican to 38 percent Democratic and 21 percent Republican.

Merely why is it that Allen – who fought a bout with natural language cancer this term and seems to have conquered information technology – can win and so handily and not at least give a hand up to a running mate once in awhile.

Why, I asked her final night just before she delivered her victory speech, does she appear not to have any coattails?

"You know with this big donkey yous'd retrieve I would," she joked, before hurriedly adding amidst the laughter, "don't print that."

Settling into the question more than seriously, she recalled that she did bring along her Assembly running mate, Carmine DeSopo, back in the 1995 race.

"Simply one time in the Senate, I've never been able to bring anyone in with me," she added. Merely she's at a loss to explicate why.

Is information technology the reservoir of living room fame that shines simply on her, thanks to the television exposure she received at those ii different Philadelphia network TV stations? After all, she was on nightly during the pre-cyberspace and social media heyday of the tardily '70s, '80s and then the early '90s, stints that came later on serving as a news anchor at the now defunct country public television network, NJN, before moving on to Philadelphia Idiot box.

She allows that that "plays a function" in her ain tallies versus those of her running mates.

Just she goes on to credit her office'south constituent services piece of work.

"I have the almost spectacular staff," she says. "We've closed over 10,000 constituent cases that accept come through our function since I've been in the Senate."

"People come upwards to me on the street," she says, and not because she's a former news anchor recognizable to everyday people. Rather, she says, they're constituents who want to thank her for her office's assistance in this matter or that one.

And so while Allen will now forge ahead on a fourth term in the state Senate, she'll do so over again without any party teammates in the Associates down the hall.

"I'thou thankful people saw fit to send me back," Allen told last night's post-Ballot oversupply.

Only the old sharpshooter and the Republican party keep missing the marking each time they effort to send another immature gun to Trenton along with her.

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Source: https://observer.com/2011/11/sen-allens-aim-is-off-again-when-it-comes-to-her-coattails/

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