This Week in Statehouse Action: On and Off Wisconsin edition

or, Special Elections + New Maps = Good News For Dems, Which Feels Weird

Sooooooooooooo remember how I wrote on Tuesday about that Pennsylvania special election?

You know, the one in Bucks County’s HD-140?

Well, to pretty much no one’s surprise, Democrat Jim Prokopiak won it.

But in a seat that went for Biden 55%-44% in 2020, it’s the margin of Prokopiak’s win over Republican Candace Cabanas that’s actually newsworthy.

• He smoked her 67%-32%.

And all the usual caveats apply – low turnout (just over 23%), single election, etc. etc. – but both Prokopiak’s and New York Democrat Tom Suozzi’s wins (the latter won the NY-03 special 54%-46%) are more data points in the continuing trend of Democratic overperformance in special elections.

• Suozzi’s win just about matched Biden’s 8-point margin in that district in 2020, but obviously he improved quite a lot over Democrats’ 2022 performance (Santos won, after all), and the status quo looks pretty good in a district many believe is trending towards Republicans.

Anyway, yay, Democrats’ majority in the Pennsylvania House is safe…