Blair County Commissioner John Eichelberger defeated incumbent State Senator and President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer for the Republican nomination for the 30th District seat.
\nThe Republican race featured Eichelberger, Jubelirer and Huntingdon County businessman C. Arnold McClure.
\nEichelberger received 45 percent of the vote in the district, according to information from the Associated Press. Jubelirer garnered 36 percent with McClure receiving 20 percent.
\nAn Associated Press story reported Eichelberger said last year\u2019s legislative pay raise provided voters with a window on \u201cthe real story in Harrisburg.\u201d
\n\u201cIn my mind it was just indicative of how business is done there and once you understand that, then you can look at … all the things that these guys do on an every day basis that they really shouldn\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\’t be doing,\u201d Eichelberger said.
\nThis morning, Eichelberger told The Daily Herald the outcome was part of a \u201creform movement.\u201d
\nEichelberger said, \u201cThat was my message that connected with people. They understand that we need this change in Harrisburg and we\u2019ve lost control of government and we need to get it back.\u201d
\nHe also cited \u201cnegativity\u201d by Senator Jubelirer that created \u201ca double whammy\u201d for the incumbent\u2019s campaign.
\nThe AP reported Jubelirer, who was first elected to the Senate in 1974, said the pay raise was a catalyst in his loss. But he also blamed voter frustration over issues such as the Iraq war, gas prices and immigration.
\n\u201cIt\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\’s everything,\u201d he said. \u201cThey took it out on incumbents.\u201d
\n\u201cI only hope that as we move forward that the change that people have clearly spoken out tonight is a positive change,\u201d Jubelirer said.
\nMcClure told The Daily Herald this morning, he was \u201cglad\u201d about the results.
\nHe said, \u201cI got into the race because of the arrogance and the elitism in Harrisburg and this morning it is gone. I feel pretty good about that.\u201d
\nHe said the results were about what he expected. He called the campaign \u201ca great experience\u201d and said he was \u201ctreated wonderfully\u201d everywhere he went.
\nIn Blair County, Eichelberger received 9,732 votes, Jubelirer garnered 6,733 while McClure had 3,127 ballots cast in his favor. In Huntingdon County, McClure was the leading vote getter with 2,638 votes. Eichelberger had 2,107 votes with Jubelirer receiving 1,972 votes.
\nLocally, Eichelberger had the most votes in Tyrone, Antis Township, Bellwood and Warriors Mark while Jubelirer carried Snyder Township.
\nEichelberger will face off against Democratic nominee Greg Morris in November. Eichelberger said he had \u201ca good relationship\u201d with Morris. He said he planned \u201ca positive campaign\u201d and expected to talk about the issues.
\nThe 30th State Senate District encompasses Blair, Huntingdon, Bedford, Fulton and a small portion of Mifflin County.
\nIn other local races, Mike Fleck gained the Republican nomination for the 81st District seat in the State House. He defeated three challengers in the race. The Democratic nomination went to Roy E. Thomas. He ran unopposed. Fleck and Thomas will square off in November for the seat being vacated by retiring State Representative Larry Sather. The 81st District includes Huntingdon County and portions of Blair County.
\nIn the 80th District, State Rep. Jerry Stern was unopposed. Congressman Bill Shuster won the Republican nomination in the Ninth Congressional District.
\nEditor\u2019s note: The Associated Press contributed to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Blair County Commissioner John Eichelberger defeated incumbent State Senator and President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer for the Republican nomination for the 30th District seat. The Republican race featured Eichelberger, Jubelirer and Huntingdon County businessman C. Arnold McClure. Eichelberger received 45 percent of the vote in the district, according to information from the Associated Press. Jubelirer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}