Pennsylvania Senate
In 1990, Schwartz was elected to the Pennsylvania State Senate, representing a district in Northwest and Northeast Philadelphia. In what was considered an extremely bitter campaign, Schwartz was able to unseat incumbent Republican Joe Rocks. Perhaps the most notable example of the tenor the campaign took on was the assertion from the Schwartz campaign that Rocks had an alcohol problem and engaged in promiscuous behavior. The comments had apparently been prepared as a joke by a staffer, released accidentally, and Schwartz apologized, but the campaign became increasingly acrimonious from that point forward.
Schwartz was re-elected in 1994, 1998, and 2002. The district was extended into Montgomery County in the legislative reapportionment of 1991 and Schwartz moved in early 2004 to Jenkintown in Montgomery County, where she still lives. In 2000, she ran in the Democratic primary for the United States Senate seat of freshman Republican Rick Santorum. She finished second behind Pittsburgh-area Congressman Ron Klink but won Montgomery County and Philadelphia with impressive numbers.
In a 2002 PoliticsPA feature story designating politicians with yearbook superlatives, she was named the "Best Dressed," to which she responded "I appreciate the honor...it must be the scarves."
Read more about this topic: Allyson Schwartz
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