Who Would Succeed Ed Rendell In The Governors Mansion In Pennsylvania?
If Republicans anywhere should feel confident about taking over the governor’s office from a Democrat in November, it’s in Pennsylvania, at least if you believe in some remarkable electoral history. Like clockwork, the governorship here has switched between Democrats and Republicans every eight years since 1954. The “8-year cycle,” as it is known from political science classes to the Capitol press room, has spanned 14 gubernatorial elections. It prevailed even in the days when Pennsylvania governors were limited to a single four-year term, rather than two four-year terms, as they are today. Two political analysts recently calculated the odds of the cycle simply being a fluke at longer than 5,000 to 1. Perhaps most alarming for Democrats, who have held the governorship for the last eight years under former Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell, the streak has almost always favored the party that’s not in power in Washington. Only in 1982, when Republican Dick Thornburgh was elected to a second
