Although the Carbon-Schuylkill area is contiguous to the Lehigh Valley, and many of its residents go there to shop or for entertainment, its politics are light years apart.

While the former tilts far right, the Lehigh Valley leans more moderate with a liberal bent.

In Carbon’s case, it wasn’t always like that. In fact, it wasn’t that many years ago that Carbon was a predictable Democratic stronghold. At one time, all of its row offices were controlled by Democrats. Until Democrat Keith McCall’s retirement from the state House of Representatives in 2011, Democrats controlled the 122nd District, which included all of Carbon County. For the first time since then, Democrats have won back control of the state House.

Republicans have made significant inroads in Carbon, and state Rep. Doyle Heffley, who has occupied the seat since McCall’s retirement, has had just token opposition every time he has run, including on Nov. 8. Heffley will begin his sixth two-year term in January, and unless something earth-shattering occurs, he can probably occupy the position for as long as he wants it.

Schuylkill has been a Republican bellwether county for as long as anyone can remember. Occasionally, a Democrat will crack the deep-red county but not very often.

When Republican Jerry Knowles announced his retirement at the end of the current term in the state House, it might have appeared to the casual observer that the 134th District seat might be up for grabs, but political insiders knew that this is Republican territory, even after the 2020 reapportionment, and the voters proved it when they gave newcomer Jamie Barton of East Brunswick Township a 10,000-vote margin over Democrat Tina Burns of Tamaqua. The district also includes parts of Berks County.

In the other lopsided Schuylkill race, incumbent Republican Tim Twardzik romped over Democrat Kathy Laughlin Benyak by 2½ to 1 - 17,051 to 7,849 - for the 123rd District seat. Twardzik won the open seat vacated by Democrat Neal Goodman, who saw the handwriting on the wall after the 2020 reapportionment, and decided to retire.

Meanwhile, in the Lehigh Valley, Democrats were racking up notable gains with one glaring exception. Republican Jarrett Coleman, age 33 as of last Saturday, who had won a Parkland School Board seat last December on an anti-masking platform, came out of nowhere to defeat Republican incumbent Pat Browne in the GOP state Senate primary in the 16th District of parts of Lehigh and Bucks counties. This was an upset of monumental proportions that confounded the political experts.

Browne has been a state senator for 17 years, a legislator for 28, and chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. He is the highest ranking local legislator in the 253-member General Assembly. Sen. David Argall, R-Schuylkill, is chair of the State Government Committee, which has less power and reach.

Although Coleman, an airline pilot, defeated Brown by just 24 votes, it was enough to put him on course to do battle with the Democrats’ nominee, Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley. Coleman easily prevailed, defeating Pinsley by nearly 12,000 votes.

Coleman is one of three new Lehigh Valley winners heading to Harrisburg. The other two are Democrats: Nick Miller, 27, a member of the Allentown School Board, who defeated Republican Dean Browning, a former Lehigh County commissioner, by nearly 6,000 votes in the newly created 14th senatorial District, and Joshua Siegel, 28, an Allentown City Council member, bested Republican Robert Smith, former long-serving Allentown School Board member, by about 3,000 votes in the 22nd House District.

With the average age of the three winners at 29, an obvious youth movement prevailed, no doubt confirming that the younger set were out in force in this year’s midterms. In fact, Miller is the youngest state senator to serve in the upper House in 135 years, and Coleman will be the second youngest among the 50 senators who will serve in January.

Before we go overboard in proclaiming a youthful tsunami, remember that long-time incumbents also won re-election. Foremost among them is Sen. Lisa Boscola, 60, D-Northampton and Lehigh, who cruised to a seventh four-year term in the 18th District. She encountered token opposition from newcomer Republican John Merhottein, an electronic data interchange lead, and won by more than 13,000 votes.

Republican Rep. Rosemary Brown, 51, won the 40th senatorial district seat being vacated by Republican Mario Scavello, who chose not to seek re-election. She beat Stroud Township Supervisor Jennifer Shukaitis, the Democrat, by about 10,000 votes. The district includes parts of Monroe and Northampton counties.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com