The Next Special Election to Watch: Pennsylvania 18

The congressional seat in the 18th District of Pennsylvania has been vacant since Republican incumbent Tim Murphy was outed for ordering his mistress to have an abortion.

The special election to replace him is coming up on March 13, and it could be a doozy like the Alabama senate race was a doozy. Why? Because a Democratic insurgency might actually win.

The district is largely rural and economically distressed and was gerrymandered for a Republican. It's so Republican that in 2016 the Democrats didn't even field a candidate. They didn't field a candidate in 2014 either. In 2012 a Democrat got 36% of the vote against secret abortion-admirer Murphy.

Conor Lamb
Photo Jeff Swensen, WashPost

In a nominating convention back in November, the Democrats of the 18th CD picked Conor Lamb, a 33-year-old Marine veteran and assistant U.S. attorney, to run in the special election. The Republicans picked a conservative state representative, 59-year-old Rick Saccone, who has boasted that he “was Trump before Trump was Trump.”

Ooo, juicy! It's almost like a mirror image of the Alabama Doug Jones-Roy Moore contest.

According to the indispensable David Weigel, this special election will be "a test that neither party expected: a fight in the sort of rural, conservative district that national Democrats gave up on years ago. Local Democrats, who in 2016 watched their party hunt for votes in more liberal suburbs, want in on the 'resistance' ahead of 2018."

Weigel is also reporting that big Republican PAC money is beginning to pour in for Saccone, but Democrats will be mounting an energetic ground game, where they can win even against big bucks buying TV ads.

This Dude Opposes Abortion, Except for His Mistress

Rep. Tim Murphy

Tim Murphy, Republican of the 18th District of Pennsylvania, bragged on Facebook about how pro-life he is, especially with respect to the Republican bill now advancing to outlaw abortion after 20 weeks.

That Facebook post provoked his mistress ex-mistress to text him about hypocrisy, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette got hold of the text:

The mistress wrote, “And you have zero issue posting your pro-life stance all over the place when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options.”

Murphy's reply, via smart phone:

"I get what you say about my March for life messages. I've never written them. Staff does them. I read them and winced. I told staff don't write any more. I will."

That's remarkable, the acknowledgement of his own calculated political mimicry: "I read them and winced."

This dude's not alone. How many Republican congress members have faked an enthusiasm for the most extreme right-to-life positions in order to fit in well with their base? Virginia Foxx, for one.