AP
Closing the gap
Democrats in Pennsylvania still have a registration edge of 700,000 over Republicans, with 4.2 million Democrats, compared to 3.5 million Republicans. However, the GOP has been making gains, while Democrats have seen small losses.
Over the last four years, Republicans added 205,000 registered voters, while Democrats saw their total registration slip by 10,000.
Nowhere has this trend been more pronounced than Westmoreland County. As recently as 25 years ago, Democrats there boasted a 2-1 registration edge, but Republicans took the lead in registered voters in 2019. Deb Erdley
TribLIVE s Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.
Following the news of Richard Thornburgh s death at age 88 on December 31, almost everyone who had met the former two-term governor of Pennsylvania, and U.S. attorney general had a story about him..
‘His life was full’: Former Pa. Gov. Dick Thornburgh’s son, John, reflects on his father
Updated Jan 01, 2021;
Facebook Share
Former Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburgh leaves behind a long legacy of accomplishments – serving as the state’s 41st governor, a delegate to the 1967 constitutional convention, U.S. attorney general and as under-secretary-general of the United Nations, among others.
“There was nothing on his to-do list that he didn’t check off,” said his oldest son, John Thornburgh. “So his life was full.”
John, who is the oldest of the former governor’s sons, reflected on some memorable moments in the life of his father who died Thursday at a Pittsburgh area retirement community of natural causes. He was 88.
Share this article
Share this article
PITTSBURGH, Dec. 31, 2020 /PRNewswire/ Former Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburgh, who made integrity and efficiency the hallmarks of his public service as a governor, U.S. attorney general and under-secretary-general of the United Nations, died peacefully of natural causes today in Pittsburgh, PA. He was 88. The governor s public career spanned 25 years, and he retired earlier in 2020 as counsel to the international law firm of K&L Gates LLP.
His wife, Ginny Judson Thornburgh, said that he had endured declining health to the end with characteristic determination, grace and humor.
Former U.S. Attorney General and Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornburgh
Richard Thornburgh, Former Governor and Attorney General, Dies at 88
He steered Pennsylvania through the Three Mile Island nuclear plant meltdown and led the Justice Department under Reagan and the first President Bush.
Richard Thornburgh at the State Capitol in Harrisburg in December 1978, when he was the governor-elect of Pennsylvania. He was the only Republican to serve two successive terms as the state’s governor (1979 to 1987).Credit.Paul Vathis/Associated Press
Dec. 31, 2020
Dick Thornburgh, a two-term Republican governor of Pennsylvania who coped with America’s worst nuclear power meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 and later served as United States attorney general under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, died on Thursday at a retirement home in Oakmont, Pa., outside Pittsburgh. He was 88.