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COMMONWEALTH 
A Journal of Pennsylvania Politics and Policy

 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF J. Wesley Leckrone, Widener University

 MANAGING EDITOR Michelle J. Atherton, Temple University

 ASSOCIATE EDITORS Christopher Borick, Muhlenberg College
  Paula A. Duda Holoviak, Kutztown University
  Joseph P. McLaughlin, Jr., Temple University

 EDITORIAL ADVISORY 

 BOARD Bruce Caswell, Rowan University
  Beverly A. Cigler, Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg
  Richardson Dilworth, Drexel University
  John J. Kennedy, West Chester University
  John Kincaid, Lafayette College
  Joseph Marbach, Georgian Court University
  David Y. Miller, University of Pittsburgh
  Megan Mullin, Duke University
  Richard A. Stafford, Carnegie Mellon University

 COPY EDITOR Meredith Phillips

 EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Jack Heavner, Widener University

 FOUNDING EDITOR

 EMERITUS  Donald G. Tannenbaum, Gettysburg College

 EDITORS EMERITUS Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes University
  Gerard J. Fitzpatrick, Ursinus College

       

Published by Temple University Press on behalf of  
The Pennsylvania Political Science Association



The Pennsylvania Political Science 
Association

Founded in 1939, the Pennsylvania Political Science Association (PPSA) 
is the nation’s oldest state political science association. Its mission has 
always been to promote scholarship, research, and the exchange of 

ideas within the Pennsylvania community of political scientists. PPSA draws 
its membership principally from the political science and public administra-
tion faculties of Pennsylvania’s public and private colleges and universities 
but also includes government professionals and faculty members from sur-
rounding states.

PPSA’s annual conference includes dozens of panelists covering a wide vari-
ety of subjects. While university faculty compose the vast majority of partici-
pants, legislators, legislative staff, executive officials, and undergraduates also 
have participated. For more information on the activities of PPSA and member-
ship rates, please visit the Association’s website at http://www.papolisci.org/.

http://www.papolisci.org/


THE PENNSYLVANIA POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION

OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

2019–2020

PRESIDENT 
A. Lanethea Mathews-   Schultz
Muhlenberg College 

FIRST VICE PRESIDENT 
Michael Greenberg
Shippensburg University 

SECOND VICE PRESIDENT
Heather Frederick
Slippery Rock University

    

 TREASURER
Steven B. Lem 
Kutztown University 

 SECRETARY
Paula A. Duda Holoviak
Kutztown University

 
 

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

2017–2020 2018–2021 2019–2022

Michelle J. Atherton 
Temple University 

John Kennedy 
West Chester University 

Justin DePlato 
Robert Morris University 

Sarah Niebler 
Dickinson College 

Jennie Sweet-Cushman
Chatham College

Joshua Weikert
Immaculata University

EX OFFICIO MEMBERS

IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT 
Steven Peterson 
Pennsylvania State 
University, Harrisburg 

PAST PRESIDENTS
Christopher Borick 
Muhlenberg College 

Stanley Berard
Lock Haven University

Brooke Harlowe
Lock Haven University

 

EDITORIAL STAFF OF COMMONWEALTH:  

A Journal of Pennsylvania Politics and Policy

 EDITOR-   IN-   CHIEF
J. Wesley Leckrone
Widener University

 
 

FOUNDING EDITOR EMERITUS 
Donald G. Tannenbaum 
Gettysburg College 

EDITORS EMERITUS
Thomas J. Baldino 
Wilkes University 

Gerard J. Fitzpatrick
Ursinus College



Pennsylvania Policy Forum

C OMMONWEALTH collaborates with the Pennsylvania Policy Forum 
to plan special issues and attract high- quality content to the journal. 
The Forum is a consortium of faculty members and academic and 

policy institute leaders from Pennsylvania colleges and universities who share 
an interest in generating ideas, analyses, and symposiums that might prove 
useful to citizens, elected officials, and civic leaders in addressing major issues 
confronting the Commonwealth and its local governments. As educators who 
have helped train students for careers in public policy, members also share an 
interest in helping to improve the skills, knowledge, and tools of leaders in the 
public and civic sectors.

Members of the Forum have expertise in public policy analysis as well 
as a wide range of substantive issues, including but not limited to education, 
transportation and public infrastructure, economic development, agriculture, 
energy, elections, water policy and the environment, health care, social policy, 
urban development, emergency management, information technology, public 
finance, and constitutional law. Members also share an interest in improving 
both the policy process itself and the institutional structures through which 
issues and problems are addressed.

Forum members have contributed to public policy debates in Pennsyl-
vania, and a number have also served in state and local government and in 
nonprofit and civic organizations that engage in policy development and 
implementation. Some members of the Forum are associated with other 
academic and public policy–related organizations, but the Forum itself is 
independent of these relationships and has no formal connections to any gov-
ernment entity. Members obviously benefit from the intellectual resources 
and environments of their universities, but unless otherwise indicated, they 
do not act on behalf of their institutions when they sponsor Forum projects. 
The premise of the Forum is that through the consortium, members can 
jointly develop and sponsor nonpartisan research, symposiums, and educa-
tion and training programs of value to elected officials, civic leaders, and the 
public and thereby enhance their ability to contribute to more intelligent and 
informed policymaking.



PENNSYLVANIA POLICY FORUM MEMBERSHIP (2020)

Theodore R. Alter, Pennsylvania State University
Michelle J. Atherton, Temple University
Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes University
Vincent Cannizzaro, York College of Pennsylvania
Beverly A. Cigler, Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg
Richardson Dilworth, Drexel University
Michael R. Dimino, Sr., Widener University Commonwealth Law School
(Chair) Paula A. Duda Holoviak, Kutztown University
Mark Alan Hughes, University of Pennsylvania
John J. Kennedy, West Chester University
John Kincaid, Lafayette College
Robin Lauermann, Messiah College
J. Wesley Leckrone, Widener University
(Vice Chair) Joseph P. McLaughlin, Jr., Temple University
David Y. Miller, University of Pittsburgh
Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph’s University
Joseph Sabino Mistick, Duquesne University School of Law
Richard A. Stafford, Carnegie Mellon University
Craig Wheeland, Villanova University



Contents
Volume 21, Number 1 | 2021 | ISSN 2469-7 672

EDITOR’S NOTE

■ Introduction to the Special Issue on Women in Pennsylvania 
Politics | Jennie Sweet-Cushman, Special Issue Editor

ARTICLES

■ What Do Pennsylvania Voters Think about Gender and 
Women’s Representation?: What We Learned from 2016  
and 2018 Exit Polls | Sarah Niebler and A. Lanethea Mathews-Schultz

■ Gendered Pathways to Power: Identifying the Role  
of County Party Chairs in the Candidate Recruitment  
Process of Pennsylvania’s Local Elective Offices | Dana Brown

■ Wave or Trend: Female Candidates in Pennsylvania Elections 
in the Trump Era | Joshua J. Weikert

■ Solving Pennsylvania’s Budget Woes: Increased Female 
Representation | Benjamin Melusky


