PA 6 is now open.

[Brittain33]

With the exception of Cao I think IL-10 is the most Dem leaning district held by a Repub giving Obama 61%.

Obama's totals in Illinois overstate the Dem lean of the district. But this still may beat out all but a few others on Kerry numbers...

[Brittain33]

So why couldn't they in good years like 2006 and 2008?

The Democrats ran a third-tier candidate in 2008 and he nearly defeated Gerlach on Presidential coattails/anti-Republicanism alone.

No, Phil, elections in PA-6 won't go 58%-41% forever... but the difference between 2008 and future years isn't "Democrats win, or Democrats lose," it's that the margin of the D advantage will reduce along with the national margin. Maybe there will be a Republican suburban comeback in the northeast suburbs in federal races, but we haven't seen any green shoots for it yet.

[Brittain33]

Would it be accurate to say that Dinniman's senate district is significantly more Republican than the 6th as a whole?

I'm asking only so I can reconcile in my head what I read about Dinniman's win and his positioning, and whether a PA-6 candidate would have to match it; I'm not trying to make any statement about the overall D/R lean of PA-6.