Sixty years ago, Dem upset GOP incumbent for York County congressional seat
The left-of-center Gazette and Daily was no fan of GOP Congressman Chester Gross, who was voted out of office in 1948. In fact, Gross had defeated the newspaper’s owner, Democrat J.W. Gitt, for the congressional seat four years earlier. So, for Gitt, Gross’s loss would have meant rough justice. Background posts: In York County and beyond, presidential races have produced rages through the ages, York cartoonist’s work helps celebrate peace activism and Newspaper’s founding date hard to pin down.
On Election Day, 2008, a large voter registration lead would make Republican incumbent Todd Platts the favorite over Dem Phil Avillo for the 19th district seat in the U.S. House. Indeed, early results show Platts is leading .
Sixty years ago, the race went the other way.
Democrat challenger James F. “Jimmy” Lind ousted GOP incumbent Chester Gross by an unofficial tally of 54,152 to 46,727.
J.W. Gitt’s Gazette and Daily let the satisfaction of Gross’s loss seep into its news coverage. Four years earlier, Gross had beat Gitt for the congressional seat.
Here were some excerpts from the story detailing Lind’s win:
– “Returns show Gross’ fellow Republicans deserting him in a steady stream as the split their tickets.”
– The ‘inoffensive clerk’ from the Court house slapped down the incumbent Republican with a majority of 7,425.” That “inoffensive clerk” label must be a reference to a campaign comment about courthouse official Lind.
-The pattern here followed the national trend faithfully enough to make it more than a personal victory for Lind. Yorkers … presumably went to the polls determined to register their disapproval of the 80th Congress. Defeated candidate Gross represented that Congress well.”
Personal victory?
Perhaps for J.W. Gitt.
But perhaps rough justice had its say in the end.
A letter to Jimmy Lind found its way into Gitt’s FBI file. The FBI started checking in on Gitt after Lind received that letter in 1950.
– In York County, as the saying goes, all politics is local: Read more at this blog’s politics category.
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