After the Nov. 8 election, the dust has settled, and we can report that the Republicans have picked up three seats in the state Senate and three in the state House of Representatives.

This gives the GOP a supermajority in the Senate and a bigger majority in the House, meaning that a Gov. Tom Wolf veto is getting closer to becoming meaningless.It also means that Wolf's determination to get more money for education in the 2017-18 budget, to say nothing of the rest of his legislative agenda, will be a long shot at best.It was a shocking turn of events that gave the Republicans the largest legislative majority in modern state history. You would have to go back some 80 years to see anything that approximates the Republican dominance. On top of that, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump won the state, as did Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey. The only comfort the Democrats can take from the Nov. 8 results is winning the three statewide offices - attorney general, treasurer and auditor general - in retaining the U.S. Representative seat held by Matt Cartwright, whose district includes parts of Carbon, Schuylkill, Monroe and Northampton counties, and picking up one U.S. House of Representatives seat to narrow the Republican edge to 13-5.In the Senate, the Republicans have a 34-16 spread, while in the House they now lead 122-81. A supermajority requires a two-thirds vote, which the Republicans now have in the Senate. They have 60 percent of the seats in the House; they would need to win 11 more to claim a supermajority.Throughout the election season, Republicans feared down ballot candidates would suffer from what appeared was going to be a significant Trump defeat. Democrats were giddy, figuring they would take the up-for-grabs Senate seat held by Toomey and had hoped to crack the stranglehold the Republicans had on the statehouse to make the Democrats more competitive for the next two years.Nowhere was the power of the incumbency more on display than in Pennsylvania:• 86 percent of the incumbents had no primary opposition.• 49 percent of incumbents had no opposition whatsoever, including state Reps. Jerry Knowles, R-Schuylkill-Carbon; Gary Day, R-Lehigh-Berks, whose district includes northwestern Lehigh County, and Jack Rader Jr., whose district includes parts of Monroe County, and state Sen. Dave Argall, R-Schuylkill-Berks.Every incumbent won re-election in the state Senate, and all except one won re-election in the state House. Democrat Maureen Madden defeated incumbent Republican David Parker in the 115th House District, which includes parts of Monroe County.Even before Nov. 8, Republicans held sizable leads in both chambers, frustrating Wolf's efforts in his freshman year in 2015 when his budgetary plans went down in flames. Nine months after the budget-passage deadline, Wolf, under pressure from his own party, had to throw in the towel to break the deadlock. The process went better during this year's budget session, but, again, Wolf came away with slim pickings, especially when compared to his ambitious plans to put the state on a much firmer financial footing and properly fund education.It is almost a foregone conclusion that Wolf will be back next year with another broad-based tax increase proposal to try to bridge the deficit chasm, and it is almost as certain that the Republican-controlled legislature will fight him as vigorously as it did the past two years, except now they have six more warriors with whom to do battle.Wolf tried to put a brave face on the election results, saying that he didn't see that it means much, especially since he has been battling a lopsided Republican legislative margin since he took office in 2015.The Republican successes should also enhance the chances of a GOP contender to take on Wolf should he decide to seek re-election next year. There are several who are said to be quite interested in running, including millionaire businessman Scott Wagner of York County, also Wolf's home county. Pennsylvania is one of 20 states that have a divided government - Democratic governor and Republican-dominated legislature. New Jersey is another, except it has just the opposite configuration - Republican governor and Democratic-leaning legislature.Don't look for the Republican domination of the Pennsylvania legislature to end anytime soon, because GOP strategists pulled off an amazing coup in reconfiguring the legislative districts after the 2010 census that created almost impenetrable Republican safe seats. (The Democrats were thrown a few inconsequential bones in the form of safe seats, too.) If the GOP can wrestle control of the governor's office from the Democrats two years from now, the rout and shutout will be complete.By Bruce Frassinelli |

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