Democrats have been tripping over themselves in making self-congratulatory proclamations about election successes after Nov. 7’s general election, but in Pennsylvania, for the most part, it’s been a mixed bag.

Most of the giddiness centers on the Democrats’ wins in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races, but they have also pointed to other successes in statewide and municipal races around the country. Their big selling point is heavy voter turnout.

The New Jersey governor’s race was a given, especially because of incumbent Republican Chris Christie’s low approval rating. On the other hand, the Virginia win is something the Democrats can hang their hats on.

Here in Pennsylvania, aside from statewide judicial races, where Democrats have always fared well, there were no real acid tests. They won’t come until next year when the state’s 18 congressional seats and a U.S. Senate seat (Bob Casey is the incumbent) will be on the ballot, along with all 203 state House of Representatives and 25 of the 50 state Senate seats.

In addition to these important contests will be the crown jewel: the gubernatorial race in which incumbent Democrat Tom Wolf is seen as vulnerable, and several high-powered Republicans are hoping to make him a one-term governor, just as Wolf had done with his Republican predecessor, Tom Corbett, whom Wolf defeated in 2014.

Incumbent state Supreme Court Justice Sallie Mundy, a Republican, retained her seat by defeating former Pittsburgh Steelers football player Dwayne Woodruff, a Democrat.

On the State Superior Court, three Democrats won seats while two Republicans are neck-and-neck for the fourth seat.

In voting for two seats on the Commonwealth Court, the winners were a Democrat and a Republican.

Locally, Democrat Michael A. O’Pake defeated incumbent Republican Christine A. Holman by more than 2,500 votes to take control of the Schuylkill County District Attorney’s office. Some viewed the result as an upset, but most courthouse insiders predicted that Holman was vulnerable and pointed to her win by fewer than 100 votes four years ago when she defeated Democrat Karen Byrnes-Noon.

Byrnes-Noon, first assistant DA under James Goodman, was appointed to the DA vacancy after Goodman won a seat on the county court of common pleas.

Aside from the DA’s contest, the heavily Republican county was true to its profile, giving the statewide GOP judicial candidates wide margins in Schuylkill.

In Carbon, there was just one contested countywide race, and in it the office was flipped to the GOP. Republican Jean Papay defeated Democrat Deborah Gigliotti to take control of the Register of Wills and Clerk of Orphans’ Court row office. Papay defeated Gigliotti, the first assistant in the office, by almost 800 votes.

Papay will take over in January for incumbent Democrat Judy Moon, who chose not to run for re-election after more than 20 years in the position.

Democrats did well in both Lehigh Valley counties. Northampton County Executive John Brown, a Republican, was ousted after just one four-year term by Lamont McClure, who won by about 3,200 votes.

Both party leaders in Northampton pointed to a much higher voter turnout than is normal in an off-off-year election and attributed the higher turnout to Democrats expressing their displeasure with Donald Trump’s winning the presidency last year.

Although Northampton has about 22,000 more Democratic registered voters than the Republicans, Trump carried the county in 2016 with 50 percent of the vote to Hillary Clinton’s 46.2 percent.

On Northampton County Council, three of four Republican incumbents fell in the Democratic comeback. Just Peg Ferraro was able to capture one of the five seats up for election to prevent a Democratic sweep.

In Lehigh County, Democrats retained control of the executive’s office as Phillips Armstrong defeated Republican Lehigh County Commissioner Brad Osborne. Armstrong will succeed Tom Muller, who did not seek re-election.

Republicans, who dominate the board, won two of the three county commissioners races in Lehigh. The other six seats were not contested this year.

In Monroe County, the Democrat standard-bearer Thomas Yanac won the coroner’s office by ousting incumbent Republican Bob Allen by a 60-40 percent vote, while Republicans won the county treasurer’s office with Theresa Johnson defeating Democrat Jennifer Shukaitis by 185 votes.

The one area where Democrat wins were seen as an in-your-face to the Trump election was the Philadelphia suburban counties in southeastern Pennsylvania. Democratic chairs in Bucks, Montgomery and Delaware counties were euphoric after the party’s successes in these former Republican strongholds.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com