Sea change washed Hart, Santorum into office, then out again

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06313/736866-177.stm

They began their careers at the same moment 16 years ago, young Republicans cast nonchalantly into races usually reserved for men and women twice their ages, assigned to fill ballot spots in a region where finding a candidate for the GOP ticket was itself often considered the victory.

Melissa Hart and Rick Santorum threw off the stereotype of dutiful ballot place holder in November of 1990, upending the careers of Democratic incumbents whose political tenure and registration edges seemed forbidding to everyone but two unknowns who hadn't heard they were supposed to lose.

Mr. Santorum, whose claim to fame in those days was being legal counsel to the Young Republicans of Allegheny County, and Ms. Hart, a 28-year-old real estate lawyer and foot soldier in a youthful GOP, won their races. He ousted six-term incumbent congressman Doug Walgren, in a contest the congressman had never expected to be so rough. She hovered on the margins of the 40th State Senatorial District, knocking on doors, sending a cadre of Young Republicans into the streets of staunchly Democratic towns in the Allegheny Valley. By election night, she had stunned incumbent state Sen. John Regoli, whose home base in overwhelmingly Democratic Westmoreland County was supposed to guarantee an electoral cruise.

In the ensuing years, Mr. Santorum rose to become the third-ranking Republican in the United States Senate. Ms. Hart became a key player in the Republican delegation in the U.S. House after taking over a vacant seat in the newly configured 4th Congressional District.

Tuesday night, the run ended. The two-member Class of 1990 was thrown out of a school whose rules they helped change.