Patrick Murphy, the Democrat candidate for the Attorney General, greets supporters on election day, Tuesday, April 24, 2012, Philadelphia, Pa. (Maria Pouchnikova)
The general election matchups are set following last week’s primary.
In the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, voters overwhelmingly rejected party-backed Steve Welch.
Tom Smith, a former coal company owner from Armstrong County, easily won the primary, thanks in large part to countless television commercials.
Smith won close to 40 percent. Former state Rep. Sam Rohrer was a distant second with 22 percent, followed closely by Welch, who was hand-picked by Gov. Tom Corbett. David Christian was fourth, followed by Marc Scaringi.
In the general election, Smith will face Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr., who topped Joseph Vodvarka with 81 percent of the vote.
In another hot statewide primary, former Lackawanna County Assistant District Attorney Kathleen Kane defeated former congressman Patrick Murphy with 52.8 percent of the vote.
Murphy, who grew up in Parkwood and now lives in Bucks County, piled up a margin of more than 67,000 in Philadelphia, Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware, Chester and Lehigh counties.
However, Kane, who had the endorsement of former President Bill Clinton, won all other 61 counties and prevailed overall by about 40,000 votes.
In the fall, Kane will face Republican David Freed, the district attorney in Cumberland County.
There were four names on the Republican presidential ballot. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who is headed to the nomination, won 58 percent of the vote. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who dropped out of the race two weeks before the primary to avoid a likely loss in his home state, took 18 percent, followed by Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich.
President Barack Obama was unopposed on the Democratic ticket.
In the race for auditor general, John Maher took 66 percent of the vote to beat Frank Pinto for the Republican nod. He’ll face Democrat Eugene DePasquale. Maher and DePasquale are both simultaneously running unopposed for re-election to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
Veteran state Reps. Mark Cohen and Dwight Evans faced Democratic primary challenges.
Cohen took 63 percent of the vote against Numa St. Louis in the 202nd district. St. Louis won the one division in Olney in the 42nd Ward, but lost overall by almost 1,500 votes.
Evans won 82 percent against Lamont W. Thomas in the 203rd district.
No Republicans filed in either district, so Cohen and Evans are guaranteed two-year terms.
U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz was nominated for another two-year term in the 13th Congressional District. Nathan Kleinman, of the Occupy movement, tried to mount a write-in bid, but it appeared to have little impact. There were just 26 write-in votes on the Democratic side in Philadelphia, and it is not clear yet how many of them were for Kleinman. Montgomery County election officials have not finished counting write-in votes.
The Republican candidate is Joe Rooney, an airline pilot. ••
