Thanks to
@Ciclavex for his help with this.
Laboratories of Democracy, Part XIII: Pennsylvania
Virtue, Liberty and Independence
From the time of William Penn's landing in the late 17th century, Pennsylvania has stood as the keystone of the American colonies, and later of the United States. Its government was organized in a manner highly democratic for its time, with full religious liberties (provided you acknowledged the existence of one God) and a directly-elected legislature that held broad sway over the colonial governor. Its position in the middle of the country, between industrial New York and New England in the north and the agrarian states of the South, would make it a crucially important state during the Revolution and the succeeding years. It was at Philadelphia that the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence, and that the 1787 convention framed the United States Constitution. It was in Philadelphia that the Bank and Mint of the United States spurred on the economic growth of the young nation, and it was in Pennsylvania that the Army repelled the furthest advance north of Robert E. Lee's army at the Battle of Gettysburg, sealing the fate of the secessionist Confederacy. Famous Pennsylvanians such as Benjamin Franklin, Thaddeus Stevens, Andrew Mellon and Milton Hershey have all made their mark on their state and their country.
Today, Pennsylvania continues to be torn between north and south, and as such, it's a crucial swing state in federal elections - only in part because it remains the sixth most populous state in the Union. On the state level, however, matters are slightly different -
Labor has been in at least partial control of the General Assembly (holding majorities in the state House, Senate or both) since 1932, although the governor's office has rotated between them and the vague coalition on the right that opposes them (most recently in the form of Arlen Specter (
Republican), who governed the state from 1995 to 1999). Despite Labor's theoretical dominance, the party has often been harmed by infighting between its different regional branches, with Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Wyoming Valley and Lehigh Valley Laborites often unable to agree on legislation and sometimes even refusing to back each other's candidates for statewide office, handing elections to the right in the second round.
Opposing Labor, the
GOP is traditionally dominant on the right in Pennsylvania - its "Main Street values" of fiscal responsibility and small-c conservatism on social issues resonating well with the electorate in the suburban southeast of the state, as well as the ring of suburbs around Pittsburgh, in particular - but it's never attained the same degree of dominance as its sister parties in New England and much of the Midwest. This is because rural Pennsylvania, traditionally conservative and more aligned with the Appalachian region to its south than the rest of the Northeast, has traditionally voted for the
Democratic Party. The Pennsylvania Democrats tend to be to the right of the national party, and although it has been known to compromise with Labor on legislation, it nearly always supports GOP candidates for statewide office after the elimination of its own candidates (and vice versa). As in so many other places, however, the
Liberty Party is experiencing a surge in support from rural conservatives, and this threatens to push the Democrats out of relevance.
The system is rounded out by the
Green Party, which is one of the oldest branches of that party, having first secured election to the House in 1982 on the heels of the Three Mile Island incident, as well as the
Soldiers of Christ, who hold three seats in and around Philadelphia that have been theirs since the 1960s.
The Pennsylvania General Assembly resembles most other bicameral state legislatures in that its lower house, the House of Representatives, is elected proportionally by the counties (except in counties with just one seat, where FPTP is practiced), while the state Senate is elected from single-member districts assigned to counties by an arcane population formula set out in the state constitution, which guarantees very rough equality between districts. The 2014 elections, in addition to narrowly confirming Labor nominee Robert Casey, Jr., a leader of the party right who had served as state treasurer for the previous term, as Governor, saw largely predictable legislative results. Labor failed to regain its majority in the House, but did successfully defend its state Senate majority by the narrowest of margins, all while the Democrats continued to be pushed out by Liberty, which claimed third place in the House elections for the first time, although failing to break through in the Senate to quite the same extent.
View attachment 359055
Senate
Labor: 26
Republican: 13
Democratic: 7
Liberty: 4
House
Labor: 73
Republican: 51
Liberty: 32
Democratic: 24
Green: 17
Soldiers of Christ: 3
Laboratories of Democracy
Texas
Washington
Massachussetts
New Hampshire
Georgia
Louisiana
Minnesota
South Carolina
Nebraska
Virginia
Utah
Rhode Island