Dean Defeats Mattiacci

It was a lively scene at Abington Commissioner Madeleine Dean’s house after the polls closed last night.

She called it a “cast party.”

Area Democrats gathered to celebrate her victory over Republican Nick Mattiacci in the special election for the unexpired term of former State Representative, now Montgomery County Commissioner, Josh Shapiro. .

The term is up for election in November; both Dean and Mattiacci will likely throw their respective hats into the ring for the rematch. 

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Dean, the newly-minted commissioner of Ward 7, is coming off her second political victory in five months; that means she only had about 90 days to throw together a campaign for the 153rd State Legislative district.

“What happened was, by dumb luck, and some planning, we put together a team of unbelievable people who really helped me figure out how to do this,” Dean said.

She said that she got some help from her predecessor Shapiro, whom she called “incredibly helpful” and a “generous leader.”

As for her Abington Commissioner seat, Dean said she “enjoys being a commissioner” and said she hopes to balance her two roles. To help do that, she said she is going on a leave of absence from teaching at La Salle University.

Dean has said in the past that if she does decide to step away from her role as Abington Commissioner, she would likely do so after November.

But her thoughts on the topic last night?

“That’s a bridge too far,” Dean said. “Tonight is tonight, and I just want to enjoy this.”

Abington Commissioner John Spiegelman was one of the several area Democrats who attended the victory party.

“I could say something nice about Madeleine Dean for hours on end,” Spiegelman said. “Full disclosure: she’s a very close friend of mine, someone I respect tremendously. She has incredible intelligence, life, business and legal experience … Honestly I cannot think of anyone better to follow Josh Shapiro as our State Rep. than Madeleine Dean.”

Both Spiegelman and Dean then said yesterday was, “A good day.”