Aside from the shocking statewide Democratic gains from last week’s General Election, there were some interesting results in our five-county Times News area that deserve some closer attention.

The rematch between incumbent Democrat Susan Wild and Republican challenger Lisa Scheller was just as tight as the pollsters predicted, with Wild coming out on top to win a third two-year term.

With the 7th Congressional District reapportioned after the 2020 decennial census, many observers believed that Scheller would have a real crack at taking down Wild, who was seen as vulnerable because of the district’s recomposition to include all of Carbon County and several municipalities in the West End of Monroe County, both with bright-red Republican majorities.

While Scheller performed extremely well in both of these areas, she could not compensate for Wild’s success in Lehigh and Northampton counties where she polled better than two years ago when she beat Scheller by about 14,000. This year the margin of victory was considerably smaller at about 4,700 votes out of about 295,000 cast.

Carbon gave Scheller a 7,700-vote edge, 16,812-9,128, while the sliver of Monroe in the district also favored her by better than 2-to-1, 3,526-1,736, but it was a completely different story in Lehigh where Wild prevailed 72,795-61,987 and in Northampton where she won by about 3,400 votes, 65,929-62,550.

Two years ago when they first met, Scheller took Northampton County by 548 votes, while Wild won handily in Lehigh County and in a larger chunk of Monroe, which was then in the 7th District. Carbon was part of Dan Meuser’s 9th District before the reapportionment.

Following the controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, Democrats registered nearly 2,000 more voters, which was quite a startling reversal for Republicans, who until then were outpacing Democrats in voter registration.

Another rematch occurred in the 8th Congressional District where incumbent Matt Cartwright defeated Jim Bognet just as he had two years ago. This district also was reconfigured with the remainder of Monroe County that is not in the 7th District being in the 8th District. Along with most of Monroe, the district includes parts of Lackawanna and Luzerne and several other northeastern Pennsylvania counties.

Cartwright did exceptionally well in Lackawanna, his home county, where he defeated Bognet by nearly 16,000 votes. He also did well in Monroe, carrying this part of the district by 4,700 votes. Bognet edged Cartwright in the part of Luzerne County in the district by about 2,500 votes. Bognet lives in Luzerne.

Republicans were salivating over the possibility that they could capture both the 7th and 8th district seats, and nonpartisan voting services were calling both races a toss-up. It was yet another disappointment for Pennsylvanian Republicans who also lost the governor and U.S. Senate races. There is also concern that Democrats might re-take control of the state House of Representatives, something that has eluded them for more than a decade.

The local Congressional district where there was no drama or uncertainty was the 9th where incumbent Dan Meuser cruised to victory over a token opposition Democrat, Amanda Waldman. Meuser had nearly 70% of the vote to Waldman’s 30%,

Meuser’s election-denying posture did not hurt him one bit in this deep red district that includes Schuylkill County, where Meuser prevailed overwhelmingly, 38,812-16,225. In Luzerne, Meuser’s home county where part of the district is in the 9th, he also cruised by a nearly 3-to-1 margin, 12,711-4,911.

The sprawling 9th District extends from the New York state border on the north to near Harrisburg on the south and from the Williamsport area on the west to near Reading on the southeast.

Because Pennsylvania’s population after the 2020 decennial census did not grow enough to retain 18 seats in the congressional delegation, the number dropped by one to 17. After last Tuesday’s General Election, the Democrats will have a 9-8 lead, whereas before reapportionment, it was a 9-9 split.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com