>> the election results are in. what do they tell us about where we are right now and where we're going? let's get the inside story. ♪ good morning, and welcome to "inside story." i'm tamala edwards. and we have a special news maker, my old friend terry madonna, the keeper of all polls... >> we try. >> ...and the man who knows how to look at them. >> [ chuckles ] >> and incredible night on election night if you look at things locally, particularly in the collar counties. like, let's just go through the list. some of this is stunning. in bucks, they took four row offices -- sheriff, controller, prothonotary -- i'm not even sure i know what that is -- recorder of deeds. in delco, two city council seats. that was the first time it had happened since 1970, the first time they gained more than one seat. sheriff -- first time since fdr was in office. controller, register of wills. chester county, which has been

reliably republican going back almost to george washington. >> [ laughs ] >> treasurer, controller, coroner, clerk of courts. >> i know. >> i mean, we're talking 1799 they've held power. >> yeah. >> how do you look at this? did you see it coming, or did you find some things surprising in exit polling? >> all right, well, let's start with this. first of all, the four collar counties have been trending republican for almost two decades. very slowly at first. it began in montgomery county. >> trending republican or trending democrat? >> i'm sorry, trending democratic. in the municipalities close to philadelphia. and if you look at statewide elections and presidential elections, three of the four, sometimes four of the four have gone with the democratic candidates. so basically what happened, the reaction to trump, to president trump, the controversies accelerated a trend that has been underway in this state for two decades at least. it accelerated it why? because the democratic turnout went up. the republican turnout was, you

know, down somewhat, but here's the bigger point. the trump base is still firm. if you go out into the southwestern part of our state and even up to places like erie county, the republicans did quite well. >> right. >> so we've got to be careful how we assess that, but there's -- >> okay, so let's break it down. let's talk about that. politico this week did a story that was much discussed about johnstown. >> yeah. >> and they had a line in there, it's not about whether or not the goal post moved. there are no goal posts. they're with the president no matter what. >> oh, sure. >> meanwhile, in these collar counties, they're seeing some shifting among highly educated, middle class, upper class republican voters. but then the question, if i'm a republican operative, as i say, for next year and in three years, how do i talk to both of these parts of the base that i need? >> that's a huge challenge. i mean, basically what's going on is we have this extreme partisanship. as someone who's done polling for 26 years now, the middle has

shrunk completely. the party's voters are basically at polar opposite ends of the scale with republicans being much further to the right, democrats being much further to the left. the democrats have a similar kind of split, and it's also generational. you know, who's gonna head the party? hillary clinton or bernie sanders? you get the point. the wings of the party. for the republicans, that's the big challenge. you hit the nail on the head. the voters down here in the philly suburbs, the republican voters tend to be more moderate, they tend to be more culturally liberal, which is a huge issue, they tend to be, you know, in favor of things like immigration. they're on healthcare, they're not as vehemently opposed to the affordable care act. you go out into the western part of our state -- how about the rust belt notion here? >> it's different. but he got them last year. how did the republicans get them back by midterms? >> they have not lost a large portion of that working class

vote. what's going on -- what's going on is that the democrats are much more exhilarated. now, make no mistake about it, in the 'burbs, the republican voters have been shifting over time, and that shift was accelerated. that's what you saw on tuesday. accelerated, but in an interesting way because they turned out more, and many of those voters are disaffected. they're voting democratic in some cases even though they retain their republican registration. >> what's the message to the democrats nationally? we saw a lot of democrats do well. usually the national party gives notes down. this time, it felt as though a lot of candidates here locally did their own thing. they weren't listening to the national party, and they won. what should the democrats be learning from our local democratic winners? >> well, i think what -- remember that even in municipal elections, trump, though he wasn't on the ballot, was a factor. let's understand that. trump came up in a whole variety of ways. in the appeals courts election, they were more direct.

and in some local elections, there were signs up that democrats put up, anti-trump signs, so basically what the democrats are gonna do is simple. they don't have a coherent message. no one ever accused the democrats of being on the same page about their views. the fact of the matter is that the democrats don't have a united message. basically they're running on the anti-trump theme. and as long as trump's job performance, it's 38% positive. i'll put it another way. after 10 months of a presidency, it's the lowest job performance of any president since scientific polling began. i won't go back before that. >> well, very quickly, so trump is an issue. was there any other issue, any other reason people were pulling a lever for democrats we should know about? >> well, i think in general, here's what's odd. we've got a pretty healthy economy right now. record stock market, consumer confidence, the highest since 2000. we have more people working than ever, more people who dropped

out of the workforce coming back and working. and guess what? the president's job performance is 38% positive. i mean, essentially it's mostly driven by the controversial nature of the trump presidency. and looking forward, we've got the big midterm election coming up. it is not unusual for the president's party -- >> to have a tough time in midterms. >> oh, you kidding me? if you go back to the civil war, the average loss is 32 seats. clinton, bush, and obama first terms, a disaster in the midterm for their parties. and we'll have to see. all bets are off on the future. >> all right, we'll see what indeed the future holds. always good to have you here with us. we'll take a short break and come back to our "inside story" panel. >> 6abc's "inside story" is presented by temple university.

♪ >> welcome back to "inside story." i'm tamala edwards. let's introduce you now to the panel. we'll start with attorney jim eisenhower. good morning. >> good morning, tamala. >> gop state chairman val digiorgio. >> good morning. >> good morning. first time here of mine with david dix, governmental relations exec. glad to have you here. >> good to be here. >> and ad executive brian tierney. >> good to be here. >> so, of course the question becomes, what is going on? the democrats nationally want to say, "oh, we're trending." was yesterday just about yesterday when you look right here in the collar counties and

philadelphia and across the area, or was it about something bigger? >> i think it was something bigger, and i think it was pent-up frustration of a year of donald trump. and i've had friends who are politically active, people really read about politics, know a lot, and have said to me, "i've been depressed every single day since trump got elected. i can't even watch television. i just can't take it." and i really think it's all that pent-up frustration came out on tuesday. >> you know, val, you're head of the state party. chester county is your home. a shocker there -- 212 years of holding on. these things switched over. how are you looking at it, and how are you sort of explaining or thinking about the trending? >> well, i think terry was right. terry madonna was right when he said that, you know, the age of trump sort of accelerated a trend that was happening in the philly suburbs. i mean, conversely, it's also accelerated a trend that was happening in the rest of the state, where we saw 65% to 75%

vote for our republicans across the state. we won the supreme court race, sallie mundy, and two other races. but, you know, at the national level, there's not a lot of news here. look, virginia's a purple state, which has gone for the party out of power i think every year since 1950. new jersey is a solidly blue state, so not a lot of news there that we would have lost those seats. but what happened in the collar counties was very interesting. i will say that. >> and, brian, i would imagine republicans all across the board, you kept seeing them saying, "we are worried. we are worried. we're worried, especially at midterms for our congressional elections." if you were advising them, you're trying to hold on to these republicans in the collar counties. as val points out, you've got republicans in the middle of the state going in a different direction. how do you message to both sides? >> well, when you look at -- actually, a lot of the republican candidates got the same or slightly higher vote than before, was the surge on the other side. and where the surge came from is higher educated, more affluent women.

so you have to figure out how to -- and ed gillespie tried to do that in the virginia gubernatorial race where he, you know, didn't want to appear with trump but also try to have some of those messaging. i think the key is to look at that particular group. higher educated women, particularly in this area, and try to figure what the message is that's gonna appeal to them. and i think it's a message that, frankly, is ingrained in the pat meehans of the world and folks like that. that's who they are. >> you also can't say stupid things. a new jersey freeholder apparently said on the women's march last year, he just hoped they'd be home in time to cook dinner. he was defeated by a woman who ran against him, who participated in that march. you can't do stupid things. >> well, let's talk about that, david, because that woman's name is ashley bennett, and she was part of something else we saw. more minorities, more diversity on the democratic side. balvir singh, freeholder in new jersey, sheila oliver in new jersey, as well. but what was interesting is, you know, the democrats get slammed for identity politics. they didn't really talk about the identity politics. they stuck to the issues.

is that a message in general what we see democrats doing here? do something different. don't do what democrats have already done. >> i think you have to give credit where credit is due, particularly in the collar counties. democrats out-organized republicans. you have an uphill battle, kind of splicing between the trump loyalists and those collar county republicans who tend to kind of not align so much with president trump's rhetoric. at the same time, yes, diversity was important this cycle. you saw folks particularly in new jersey from different backgrounds retire office. i like to highlight the mayor in hoboken, who was also a sikh. and, you know, you don't think of hoboken -- you know, it's the home of frank sinatra. it's not the place where you think a sikh gets elected mayor, but this year it was, so i hope that's a trend that continues. >> but here's another thing. now they're in power. now they have a year to screw it up, and they haven't been used to governing. like, is there a danger there? rather than creating a wave, they might do some things in the next year that kind of blot the democrats. >> that's really interesting. in the chester county courthouse, where we've governed now since forever, republican

party, four democrats who took over who had no message about the county -- and i've heard through the grapevine that they're now contacting the row office and saying, "what do you guys do in these offices?" i mean, that's secondhand from one of the people in the office, but that's what they were told. so now they have to govern. and in a county like chester county, which is one of the top counties in the nation, to throw out the incumbents for no reason other than you're not happy what's happening in washington just seems foolhardy to me. so we're gonna see. are they gonna continue the path of low taxes and beautiful, open spaces and good schools, or are they gonna try to bring progressive policies into a center-right county? >> also aside from just the work that they're doing as row officers, these changes in the collar counties will have dramatic effects in leadership throughout philadelphia. when you think about the appointments of boards and regional boards and commissions and authorities, that all changes with who's in leadership in those county offices. >> and that experience issue -- excuse me -- that you pointed out, it comes back to philadelphia, as well, with larry krasner... >> yes. >> ...ready to take office as

district attorney in january, never having been a prosecutor, having sued the office many, many times, and having a very aggressive attitude about the police department. it's gonna be interesting to see how he actually manages this large bureaucracy. >> you know what, i want to get into krasner more deeply in a second. i actually want to go back to something, looking at a statewide race. scott wagner, bob casey, and even at the congressional elections, we saw this week when wagner first came out, he was like, "i'm trump light." this week he said, "well, we have our own styles. we'll tell our own stories." could be dangerous. gillespie in virginia, trump came out and said, "he didn't hug me closely enough." how does scott wagner walk this line that he doesn't get gillespied, he's not too -- he wasn't trump enough or he was too much trump, and then he loses. what to do? >> i think one of the things you find, two years ago we thought it was going one way. two years today, now we find it. and two years from now, it'll be in a lot different spot. i think that the trump phenomenon is gonna get you a really strong 36% of the vote.

so the question is, how do you get in elections, the key is 50% plus 1. and i don't think the heavy trump message is gonna get it. so i don't think wagner -- i think scott wagner and company took it to drop this past weekend. >> is bobby casey a little bit more -- >> i think casey's in a better spot. i wouldn't be surprised over the next week if you see some others who are more moderate republicans jumping into the gubernatorial race, as well. >> let's talk about some of these congressional republicans. your district, it's easier for people to know you. they've got a record they can run on. but some of what you hear them saying, ryan costello saying, "i'm gonna have to talk a lot more and tell my story." is that what it's all about for them to hold on to these seats? >> that's the delicate balance that they're under, you know. president trump has a very active presence both in social media and the media more broadly. people hear from him every single day, and it's gonna be important for those localized congressmen to kind of bifurcate their message from the president's national message. >> i think they've got to remind people of what's -- at least as a republican running for reelection -- what's on the other side, too, as well, okay? you're upset about this. look at me, though, as

pat meehan. and by the way, do you really want more taxes, more government regulation? all those sorts of things is what you're gonna get. >> there's nothing new. i mean, it's important for a member of congress to let people know who he or she is. in my younger days, i worked for bob edgar, who was a very liberal congressman from what was then a very conservative delaware county, and yet he got reelected six times. a lot of that was because he was a good guy. they liked him. >> but can issues win out in this time? like, if the turnout yesterday was driven as a reactionary thing, is it actually possible to go back to the issues? >> well, we should go back to the issues instead of making this this hypercharged political environment. you know, my facebook feed is probably a lot different from your facebook feeds. and we're all living in totally different -- >> isolated. >> yes. isolated worlds. we've got to get back to a place where we can find that middle. ryan costello and pat meehan, they're those guys. they have stood up to the speaker of the house when they didn't think it was in their best interest. they stood up to the president when they didn't think it was in the best interest of their district. and they'll vote with those

folks, and they'll be rewarded for that in the end. >> and that's fine for those folks as long as they don't hatch contested primaries, and that's the problem folks are getting in. you have a contested primary, you have to filter to the right in order to get your base out, and then you have to pivot so far back in order to win a general election. >> frank lobiondo kind of surprised people this week saying -- 'cause the last time he ran, he really did it with gusto, saying, "you know what? i'm out of this." and getting out, he said, "there is no longer middle ground to honestly debate issues and put forward solutions. today a vocal and obstinate minority within both parties hijacked good legislation in pursuit of no legislation." is that where we kind of live? when you look at tax reform, which increasingly looks like it's not gonna happen, the differences between the senate and the house bill, what happens in these races when people like this, who you know keep getting out, is it going to go to somebody extreme, an extreme liberal, an extreme conservative, and what does that mean? >> i think people do -- first of all, i do think you're in there 12 years, 20 years, et cetera, you get tired of it. and it's getting less and less fun. partly you're at a certain point in your life and you're seeing

certain things, and you are seeing the hyper partisanship. and it's a shame, because these are the voices that we really need. the tip o'neill and ronald reagan getting together over a glass of beer and trying to find a common ground. this past week, the former speaker, boehner, he maybe had a glass of wine 'cause he really spoke rather freely. >> he let it go. >> yeah. but he was talking about how disaffected. i know another u.s. senator who is moderate to conservative, he said to me, "when you get elected to the u.s. senate" -- i won't mention his name -- "your first six months, you're like, 'i can't believe i'm here.' the next five and a half years, you're thinking, 'i can't believe he's here, he's here, and she's here. i can't believe these people are here.'" >> let's turn and go back to what you were talking about with krasner. 69% of the vote, 20% turnout up from the usual 12% to 13% turnout. so, he's got a wave going behind him. let's talk about the things that he's talked about doing -- getting rid of civil forfeiture, getting rid of the death penalty, reducing cash bail, lessening mass incarceration, more equality to law enforcement.

are these things that he can get this city -- regardless of whether or not you voted for him -- are those things that he can get most people eventually to come around on, or will they be divisive issues? >> i think on the policy side of it, the irony is most of his opponents in the democratic primary supported many of those things. so i think on the policy side, his positions are acceptable. the question is, having led a career or chosen a career where he was constantly against the district attorney's office and accusing them of various inequities and injustices, whether you can come in and lead it. that really, i think, is the question. it's a question of character and personality. >> i think by temperament he's gonna have a hard time, don't you think? i mean, he just doesn't seem to have the temperament, let alone the policies. i mean, when you look at the d.a.'s office now, if i was there, i'd be thinking, "i got to find a new job." here's a guy who has attacked my office hysterically for years. and let's not forget this -- why did he win? he won because in the city of philadelphia, once you win the primary, you get elected.

>> right. >> and he got elected in the primary 'cause it was low turnout and george soros gave him a bunch of money. george soros, who isn't from philadelphia, et cetera, is an ideologue himself, picks him out, throws a bunch of money at it, he wins in a crowded primary with low interest, and now he's elected in. >> wait. now he's there. now he's there, and he's got to move forward. everybody's waiting for the moment a cop gets shot. everybody's waiting for the moment -- >> i predict one term. i predict one term. >> so what does he do to lay the groundwork now so that when that moment happens, he works it out to a better effect? >> he's already done some of that. now, when you talk about the primary, he build the coalition never seen before in the city of philadelphia between black lives matter, millennials, and anybody else who joined that coalition. that was not seen before. we never had that -- >> small turnout, though. >> small turnout, yes, but that coalition had not been seen before. folks like 1199c as a union coming out and being 100% behind them was different. >> but that's not how you govern, though. >> and the goals that he set are aspirational goals that the city should be behind. so i'd rather give him the benefit of the doubt. >> but what would you have him

do to be prepared for that flashpoint moment? >> i think he's already been prepared for that. he's asked for their resignations to start. >> but, david, he has to have a staff. you have to have competent attorneys who know what they're doing who can prosecute cases, and that's why i think there's gonna be a disconnect. >> there's a level of emotional intelligence to lead an organization... >> i agree with that. >> ...that i don't quite see him. i don't know the man, but i just don't see that level of emotional intelligence to be able to run -- >> we angelize to maybe an analogy that it's like an atheist running the congregation. that's what you have. now you have defense attorneys on both sides. >> he's tried the whole -- he's tried to move the d.a.'s office up to its highest standards, and i think he'll continue to try to do that in a critical way. >> what happens when he inevitably makes the people who are with him unhappy? they're not gonna get everything they want, either. what happens in that case? when he's got them demonstrating and everybody else demonstrating. >> call george soros. >> leaders have to lead. i think he has the right platforms in terms of how he wants to change the d.a.'s office. now if he can build the coalition to the point of the

primary while he's in office, he could be successful. i think that's the contention point. >> something surprising this week, john mcnesby when asked about him, who campaigned really hard against him, said, "you know what? i'm not drawing any lines in the sand. he's now the guy. let's work with him." some other groups said the same thing. were you surprised that that's kind of the tone they took rather than, "we are ready to go toe to toe?" >> i give mcnesby a lot of credit for that, and not something i would have predicted. but i do give him a lot of credit for extending that olive branch. i think congressman brady had something to do with that. i think the congressman had been trying to kind of make some peace there between those groups because, after all, at the end of the day, the d.a.'s office has to function properly. it has to protect the citizens of philadelphia, has to prosecute criminals, and put those who are guilty in jail. >> it's a responsible thing to do... >> brian -- go ahead. >> ...in a stance in stark contrast the way democrats have treated this president, president trump, where they said, "we're not gonna work with you. we don't respect you." so mcnesby gets a lot of credit for coming out and saying, "despite the fact we don't agree on much, we're gonna work with you." >> "how do we do it?" >> very quickly, you said something interesting. "i don't know him, but this is

the image that i have of him." i think that's the case for a lot of people. "this is what you do." how would you advise him to change the image the people have of him? >> you know what? if i was him, i would look for those initial moments where you're gonna have the cameras on you, and i think about who did it so well was ed rendell when he became mayor, the first day of scrubbing the floors in the bathrooms at city hall. and that was all over the media, that he was gonna be hands on, "and that's what i'm gonna do to fix this city." i think he has to find those moments really quickly, too, on, where if somebody says, "gee, i didn't expect that. maybe my perception was wrong. maybe he's more of a moderate kind of guy," and i think that's gonna be -- >> but he will be buoyed going in by a mandate. i mean, he won a very contested primary and then won convincingly on tuesday. >> we got to take a break. we'll come back to our inside stories. >> what democrat doesn't win? ♪

>> 6abc's "inside story" is presented by temple university. ♪ >> welcome back. inside stories of the week. jim. >> tamala, results from election this week, long-term effects. one of the people on the hot seat will be congressman pat meehan in that swing district out in delaware county. has already got a couple of opponents and a new one, larry holmes -- not the boxer -- a lawyer just elected haverford township supervisor. >> all right. val. >> well, it's a sad day for pennsylvania with the passing of fred anton, a great leader of the pennsylvania manufacturers association. although he was a conservative republican, he was someone who could reach across party lines. he did that as evidenced by the great event he used to have at pennsylvania society where leaders of both parties would come and discuss issues of all things. >> issues! my gosh. >> we're gonna miss fred. >> david. >> well, it seems like every other year we dub it the year of the woman, but i think 2017 was truly the year of the woman. every female judge who ran won regardless of party, and you had real leadership show up in terms

of like rebecca rhynhart, who won the controller's race. >> all right. brian. >> and particularly the highest vote getter in that race of the year of the women is a woman named christine fizzano cannon, a judge from delaware county who won statewide. she had the highest vote. even though in the city of philadelphia, believe it or not, they got her name wrong on the ballot. stuff happens. like, they left it off. it was christine fizzano. anyway, she won anyway. >> thanks, guys. it's been a great panel. it's been great to have you with us. we'll see you right back here next week for "inside story." i'm nydia han with alycia vitarelli, gray hall's off today. coming up next on "action news" a pennsylvania state trooper, was shot on the job less than a week ago and today dozens of people, came together to show their support , as he recovers in the hospital. and search is on for gunman who shot and killed a man outside of a tavern in dell wear county. plus decision by trump administration could change what you see on the menu when you go out to eat, that is

next here, those stories and accu weather forecast and more next on "action news".

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