Did the Republicans really blow it in Pennsylvania?

I recognize the election for the House seat in Pennsylvania's District 18 hasn't been certified, but I've been sifting through the vote data produced thus far:

Source: New York Times

It seems rather obvious to me that the real person who cost Rick Saccone votes was Libertarian Drew Miller. Here is another example of how people waste their votes and open the door for an opposing party. Had the Miller votes gone to Saccone, he would have won hands down. Instead, they have put a Democrat in the driver's seat.

The other thing I'm having a problem with is how the press claims Donald Trump won District 18 handily in 2016. To quote the New York Times, "In 2016, Mr. Trump won the district by double digits, but the race between Conor Lamb, a moderate Democrat, and Rick Saccone, a Republican, had become unexpectedly competitive."

I would like to know where they got their data to make this claim. I've searched the Internet high and low looking for such data, including Pennsylvania's Board of Elections and a variety of media sources, none of which report results based on District, only by counties. District 18 consists of the following counties:

Source: Politico

The problem here, unfortunately, is only a portion of Allegheny County is in District 18, not the whole county, thereby muddying the waters as to who actually won the district.

In other words, I am skeptical of the media when they claim Mr. Trump won by double digits. Prove it. According to the County records, Mrs. Clinton won the area handily, and if we compare the data to yesterday's votes, the Republicans actually made a good showing.

So why would the main stream media, make such a claim? Could it be they are suggesting the Democrats have a ground-swell of support coming in November, or a "Blue Tide rising"? That would imply there is collusion between the Democrats and the news media. "Collusion" - whoops, there is that word again. Oh my.

Keep the Faith!

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Tim Bryce is a writer and the Managing Director of M&JB Investment Company (M&JB) of Palm Harbor, Florida and has over 40 years of experience in the management consulting field. He can be reached at timb001@phmainstreet.com

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