Pennsylvania 2012 Election Results

Pennsylvania held its general election on November 6, 2012, deciding 228 legislative seats and 3 statewide offices. No chamber changed party control.

Highlights

• Democrats picked up three open Republican Senate seats, trimming the GOP majority to 27-23, but Republicans held the House and kept full control of state government under Gov. Tom Corbett (R).
• Unlike most states, Pennsylvania voted on its old district lines: in January the state Supreme Court rejected the new legislative plan and ordered the 2012 elections held on the 2001 maps.
• Democrats swept all 3 statewide offices on the ballot. In the open attorney general's race, Kathleen Kane (D) beat Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed (R) by about 15 points to become the first woman and first Democrat elected to the office. She had pledged to review Corbett's handling of the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse case, which Corbett took to a grand jury in 2009 while running for governor. Eugene DePasquale (D) kept the open auditor general's office for Democrats, beating John Maher (R) by about 3 points, and Treasurer Rob McCord (D) won a second term over Diana Irey Vaughan (R) by about 9 points.
• In all, 5 legislative seats changed party, four of them toward Democrats:
  • Rob Teplitz (D) beat John McNally (R) by about 3 points for the Harrisburg-area Senate District 15, left open by Jeff Piccola (R).
  • Rep. Matt Smith (D) beat D. Raja (R) by about 5 points in Senate District 37, formerly held by John Pippy (R).
  • Sean Wiley (D) beat Janet Anderson (R) by about 20 points for Jane Earll's (R) open Erie-area Senate District 49.
  • Mark Painter (D) unseated Rep. Tom Quigley (R) by about 210 votes in a rematch of their 2010 race in House District 146, the only incumbent to lose in November.
  Republicans' lone pickup was the open House District 74, where Thomas Sankey (R) won by about 22 points. In another rematch, Rep. Rick Saccone (R), who had unseated Dave Levdansky (D) in 2010, held on for the win once absentee and provisional ballots were counted, winning House District 39 by about 110 votes.

Legislature

• House (203 seats): 91 D, 112 R before the election, 93 D, 110 R after; control stayed with Republicans.
• Senate (50 seats): 20 D, 30 R before the election, 23 D, 27 R after; control stayed with Republicans.

Statewide races

Legislative races