Delco Times - Sestak Cruises to Second Term

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Freshman U.S. Rep. Joseph Sestak, D-7, of Edgmont, easily captured a second term Tuesday, according to unofficial returns, as Democrats came out in droves for a highly-anticipated presidential general election."I'm doing well," said Sestak after defeating his Republican challenger, Craig Williams, 43, of Concord, by approximately 50,000 votes in Delaware County with most of the returns in.

Sestak repeated the mantra Tuesday night that he had given himself in 2006 after toppling longtime Republican Congressman Curt Weldon.

"I am going to do my job, and I believe that if I do my job, that in a sense is how you win a campaign," he said. "And that is what we did."

Local Republicans had a hard time finding a candidate willing to take on the former Three Star Vice Admiral in an election year that seemed highly unfavorable to the GOP. High-profile names like U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan and Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood were floated, but in the end it was Williams — a Marine reservist and Assistant U.S. Attorney under Meehan — who took the job.

Party leaders thought they had struck gold with Williams, who came with an impressive pedigree of civic service when he announced his campaign in January.

Williams fought hard with limited resources and practically zero name recognition to get his message out, raising a respectable $600,000-plus in just 10 months.

He even took the stage at a rally for Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and vice presidential candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whom he had met previously through his brother.

It was still no match for Sestak's $3.1 million war chest and high-visibility campaign, stumping alongside big-name Democrats like Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.

Sestak, 56, also had a rating as one of — if not the — most productive freshmen in Congress and a strong track record of constituent service.

"We ran this campaign in a way that would say, ‘Wait a minute, if I'm just working hard, doing my job as a Representative, a Congressman, that in a sense is the campaign,'" said Sestak.

He said he was honored to be rehired by his district and vowed to continue to work on national security from the perspective that it begins at home. To that end, he said he would continue to focus on the "pillars" he built his first campaign on, including financial security, affordable healthcare, education, and forming an energy policy that moves toward energy independence through alternatives.

He also stressed the need to end the War in Iraq "in deliberate, safe way," and win the war in Afghanistan.

"At the end of the day, we can come together on our way forward," said Sestak, stressing no one man or party had been given a mandate Tuesday. "It's not about I win, you lose," he said. "It's about, how can we come together?"

Williams, meanwhile, said he was very proud of his campaign staff and the tremendous outpouring of support, considering he was a political unknown just 10 months hence.

But he made it clear he's not about to simply go quietly into that good night. There will be a sequel, and according to Williams: "We're gonna win it in 2010."

"Politics ebbs and flows," he explained Tuesday. "And now what we're going to have is a very liberal White House and very liberal Congress, and I think we'll see the (country) start to flow in a very new direction come 2010."

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