Can Dems win this special election without being on the ballot?

Published March 20, 2017 8:13pm ET



If Democrats are really riled up by the Trump administration, they have a chance to show it tomorrow in an obscure special election in Philadelphia.

The 197th state House district opened up earlier this year when Democratic Rep. Leslie Acosta resigned. She had secretly pleaded guilty to a federal embezzlement charge last March, and that didn’t stop her from concealing the conviction and running for re-election, but it did cause her colleagues basically to tell her she wasn’t welcome in Harrisburg. Her Democratic predecessor in the 197th had likewise resigned after being convicted in connection with a ghost employment scheme.

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