In mid-March of this election year, candidates across the state are completing the task of gathering signatures on their nominating petitions and filing the proper papers to get placed on the ballot.
This election will again change the landscape in Harrisburg considerably because nearly 20 incumbent state legislators have already announced that they will retire or seek higher office.
Following on the heels of massive turnovers in the 2006 and 2008 elections, the change in 2010 will come as several long-term incumbents are replaced.
The implications for physicians may well be significant. Although most of those who are departing were “physician-friendly” on at least one of our recurring issues (including tort reform, scope of practice, and others), many of them also supported the Mcare raid.
In the state House of Representatives, Rep. Frank Oliver (D-Philadelphia) is retiring. He was first elected in 1973. House Speaker Keith McCall (D-Carbon) intends to retire. He was elected in 1982. Rep. Bob Belfanti (D-Northumberland), elected in 1980, will retire as well.
Some long-serving House Republicans are also leaving, including Reps. Merle Phillips (Northumberland), Russ Fairchild (Union) and Sam Rohrer (Berks). All are leaders or committee chairs, denoting their seniority.
In the Senate, Minority Leader Robert Mellow (D-Lackawanna) is retiring from the seat he has held since 1970. Sen. Raphael Musto (D-Luzerne) also is leaving. His political career began in 1971, and he has served in the Pennsylvania House, the US Congress, and the state Senate. Sen. J. Barry Stout (D-Washington) will leave the seat he first won in 1977.
The state Senate seats will likely be partisan battlegrounds in the primary. All three appear to be contested, even though legislators now serving as representatives will run in each of the three districts. If the partisan primary battles are especially divisive, then the Senate Republicans will determine if their candidate is worth a significant investment of resources to make the seat competitive in the fall.
Since 2006, there has been at least 45 percent turnover in the 253 state legislative seats (50 Senate and 203 House seats). Projections that more incumbents may lose their seats in 2010 will only make that number larger.