Thursday reax

Lots of reaction stories today, as you might expect:

The road ahead is murky (O'Toole); promises of bipartisanship in DC, but Jason Altmire expects at least a solid year of bickering (Malloy); Western Pa has a hold on leadership in Harrisburg, but the hour is late and the agenda is long (Roddy/Barnes); musing on the immediate future of Dan Onorato, with looks into Allegheny County election returns (McNulty).

Turnout down a couple points in Pa (AP/Patriot-News); expect Republicans to investigate matters such as Black Panthers voter intimidation and the WH job offer to Sestak (Fox); and the Toomey camp was sweating just a little bit Tuesday night, before seeing some major gains (Inquirer/Tom Fitzgerald).

From Fitzgerald's story:

Toomey split Philadelphia's four suburban counties with Sestak, a second-term congressman from Delaware County, a better performance than recent statewide GOP candidates managed. He won higher vote margins in Republican strongholds than usual for a midterm election, and he carried several Western Pennsylvania counties, including Beaver, Washington, and Fayette, dominated by conservative Democrats.

For instance, Toomey reaped a 54,000-vote margin in Lancaster County, after planning for a robust but more normal 40,000. The Republican also outperformed projections in Lycoming and Mifflin Counties..

Toomey carried Chester County by 8 percentage points and Bucks by 7 percentage points, while Sestak carried Delaware 56 percent to 44 percent and Montgomery 54 percent to 46 percent.

Toomey carried independents by 55 percent to 44 percent. They had been crucial to Democratic victories in 2006 and 2008.