Too close to call but Dem Lamb claims win in Pennsylvania
By BILL BARROW, MARC LEVY and STEVE PEOPLES, Associated Press
MT. LEBANON, Pa. (AP) — A razor’s edge separated Democrat Conor Lamb and Republican Rick Saccone early Wednesday in their closely watched special election in Pennsylvania, where a surprisingly strong bid by first-time candidate Lamb severely tested Donald Trump’s sway in a GOP stronghold.
Lamb claimed victory before exuberant supporters after midnight, though many absentee ballots were still to be counted in the contest that has drawn national attention as a bellwether for the midterm elections in November when the Republican Party’s House and Senate majorities are at risk.
Lamb, a Marine veteran, told his crowd that voters had directed him to “do your job” in Washington. “Mission accepted,” he declared. Earlier, Saccone told his own supporters, “It’s not over yet, we’re going to fight all the way, all the way to the end, we’ll never give up.”
Regardless of the outcome — and a recount was possible — Lamb’s showing in a district Trump won by 20 points in the presidential race was sure to stoke anxiety among Republicans nationwide and renewed enthusiasm among Democrats.
After midnight with all precincts reporting, unofficial results had Lamb leading Republican state Rep. Saccone by fewer than 600 votes. More than 1,000 absentee ballots were still being tabulated as the count carried into Wednesday.
In a race this close, either candidate’s supporters can ask for a recount. However there are stiff requirements, including requiring three voters in the same precinct who can attest that error or fraud was committed.
The stakes in the high-profile special election were more political than practical.
The ultimate winner will face re-election in just eight months, and the congressional district as currently shaped will likely vanish next year thanks to a court-ordered redrawing of the state’s district maps. Yet President Trump and his chief allies invested tremendous time and resources in keeping the seat in Republican hands, mindful the contest could be used to measure Trump’s lasting appeal among white, working-class voters and Democrats’ anti-Trump fervor.
The White House scrambled to rally voters behind Saccone, who cast himself as the president’s “wingman,” but he struggled at times to connect with the blue-collar coalition that fueled Trump’s victory little more than a year ago.
Lamb, a 33-year old former federal prosecutor, asserted his independence from the Democratic Party, courted labor backing and focused on local issues. He studiously downplayed his opposition to the Republican president in the district where Trump’s support has slipped by not plummeted.
“This didn’t have much to do with President Trump,” Lamb said Tuesday after casting his vote in suburban Pittsburgh.
The president has campaigned in the district twice and sent several tweets on Saccone’s behalf. Other recent visitors include the vice president, the president’s eldest son, the president’s daughter and the president’s chief counselor. Outside groups aligned with Republicans poured more than $10 million of dollars into the contest.
For Democrats, a win would reverberate nationwide, while even a narrow loss would be viewed as a sign of increased Democratic enthusiasm just as the midterm season begins.
Lamb’s excited supporters included his middle school football and basketball coach, Joe DelSardo, who recalled him as “a leader from the beginning.”
The former coach described the district as having “a lot of suit-and-tie people and people who dig in the dirt.” Lamb, he said, “can talk to all of them, and that’s why he can win.”
Registered Republican Brett Gelb said he voted for Saccone, largely because the Republican candidate promised to support the president.
“Saccone backs a lot of President Trump’s plans for the country,” said Gelb, a 48-year-old fire technician who lives in Mt. Lebanon. He added, “I do think Trump is doing a good job. I think he needs backup.”
Democrats must flip 24 GOP-held seats this fall to seize control of the House, and months ago few had counted on the district to be in play. The seat has been in Republican hands for the past 15 years.
It was open now only because longtime Republican congressman Tim Murphy, who espoused strong anti-abortion views, resigned last fall amid revelations of an extramarital affair in which he urged his mistress to get an abortion.
With polls showing a tight race for months, Saccone tried to persuade the GOP-leaning electorate that their choice was about “making America great again,” as the president repeatedly says.
Saccone, a 60-year-old Air Force veteran turned state lawmaker and college instructor, enjoyed enthusiastic backing from the social conservatives who’ve anchored his state career. He’s been perhaps at his most animated when emphasizing his opposition to abortion rights.
Yet Saccone struggled to raise money and stir the same passions that helped Trump on his way to the White House. The consistent fundraising deficit left him with limited resources to air the message he delivered one-on-one: His four decades of experience in the private sector, international business and now the Legislature should make voters’ choice a no-brainer.
Lamb, meanwhile, excited core Democrats and aimed for independents and moderate Republicans.
“We worked really hard for it,” Lamb said after voting.
National Republican groups filled airwaves and social media with depictions of the first-time candidate as little more than a lemming for Nancy Pelosi — the Democratic House leader that Republicans love to hate.
Lamb answered the criticism by saying he wouldn’t support Pelosi as floor leader, much less as speaker if the Democrats should retake control of the House. He also said he opposes major new gun restrictions — though he backs expanded background checks — and declared himself personally opposed to abortion, despite his support for its legality.
Besides bruising the president, a Lamb defeat also could shake Republican self-assurance that their new tax law can shield them from other political woes.
Lamb embraced Democratic orthodoxy on the new GOP tax law, hammering it as a giveaway to corporations at the future expense of Social Security, Medicare and the nation’s fiscal security. And he embraces unions, highlighting Saccone’s anti-labor record at the statehouse, which was a notable deviation from the retiring Murphy’s status as a union-friendly Republican.
The AFL-CIO counts 87,000 voters from union households — around a fifth of the electorate.
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Peoples reported from New York.
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Follow Barrow and Levy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BillBarowAP and https://twitter.com/timelywriter .

House votes to trim Legislature, but bill’s fate is unclear
By MARK SCOLFORO, Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A proposal to cut about a quarter of state lawmakers from the Pennsylvania General Assembly is moving ahead, but it’s still not certain that the constitutional amendment will make it onto the November ballot.
The House voted 109 to 80 on Tuesday for a bill that would cut the House from 203 to 151 members and the Senate from 50 to 38.
Supporters predict it will make the Legislature work more efficiently and could produce some cost savings.
Opponents warn it will dilute the voices of constituents and give more power to leaders when new district lines are drawn after the 2020 census.
Procedural rules mean that the proposal to cut the Senate would have to be eliminated in order for the bill to go before voters later this year.

Florida prosecutors seeking death penalty in school shooting
By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press
MIAMI (AP) — Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty for the former student charged with killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last month even though attorneys for Nikolas Cruz indicated he would plead guilty if his life was spared.
Cruz, 19, is scheduled for formal arraignment Wednesday on a 34-count indictment, including 17 first-degree murder charges. The office of Broward County State Attorney Michael Satz filed the formal notice of its intentions Tuesday, though the action does not necessarily mean a plea deal will not be reached.
The only other penalty option for Cruz, if convicted, is life in prison with no possibility of parole.
Ira Jaffe, whose son and daughter survived the shooting, said he respects the wishes of the 17 families whose children were killed and that time is better spent finding solutions to the problem of mass school shootings.
“Live forever in jail or die – I don’t care,” Jaffe said in an email. “Cruz will rot in hell no matter when it is that he arrives there.”
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jamie Guttenberg died in the shooting, was angry the state decided to pursue the death penalty, noting how tortuously long capital punishment cases last.
“My reaction is as a parent of a deceased student, I expected that the state would have pulled the parents together to ask what we wanted and they didn’t,” he said.
“This guy’s is willing to plea and spend the rest of his life in the general population. Let him do that and let them do what they want with him,” Guttenberg added. “Why not take the plea and let the guy rot in hell?”
Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, whose office is representing Cruz, has said there were so many warning signs that Cruz was mentally unstable and potentially violent, and that the death penalty might be going too far.
In an email Tuesday, Finkelstein said Cruz is “immediately ready” to plead guilty in return for 34 consecutive life sentences.
“If not allowed to do that tomorrow (at the hearing), out of respect for the victims’ families we will stand mute to the charges at the arraignment. We are not saying he is not guilty but we can’t plead guilty while death is still on the table,” Finkelstein said.
If Cruz does not enter a plea, a not guilty plea will likely be entered on his behalf by Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer to keep the legal process moving along, his attorneys have said.
In other developments, a student who is credited with saving the lives of 20 students by attempting to close and lock a classroom door during the attack was improving at a hospital. Anthony Borges, 15, was shot five times. Weeks after being shot, he fell critically ill of an intestinal infection. After surgeries, his condition was upgraded to fair.
Meanwhile, Florida voters may get a chance to decide whether or not they want to approve new gun control restrictions.
While Gov. Rick Scott just signed a new school safety and gun bill into law, the state’s Constitution Revision Commission may vote to place gun restrictions on this year’s ballot. The commission, a special panel that meets every 20 years, has the power to ask voters to approve changes to the state’s constitution.
Tony Montalto, whose daughter was one of the 17 killed at Stoneman Douglas, asked commissioners at a public hearing Tuesday to put the proposals before voters. He said they need to act because the National Rifle Association has filed a lawsuit against the new law approved by the Legislature.
“You can help defeat this challenge,” Montalto told commissioners.
Shortly before the commission hearing in St. Petersburg, students from Tampa Bay area schools spoke passionately in favor of additional gun regulations, as did the father of a student who attends Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
“Our kids are not asking to do away with the 2nd Amendment. They’re not asking to take away people’s guns or their ability to hunt,” said John Willis. “What they’re saying is, that these weapons of mass destruction that do nothing but tear human beings apart in an unbelievable way, do not belong in civilian hands.”
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Follow Curt Anderson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Miamicurt
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Associated Press writers Gary Fineout in Tallahassee, Jason Dearen in Gainesville and Tamara Lush in St. Petersburg contributed to this story.

UPDATE: The Beaver County District Attorney has released new details in the investigation of Dion and Malisa Stevens – a pair of Aliquippa parents – who waterboarded their 12-year-old daughter. Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Sandy Giordano has the latest information from the D-A’s office. Click on ‘play’ to hear Sandy’s report…

St. George Serbian Orthodox Church held its Lenten vespers over the weekend. Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Sandy Giordano was there. Click on ‘play’ to hear Sandy’s report…