But when Landau - whose 1988 congressional run ended in a landslide loss to Weldon - tried to push into the courthouse this year, the Delaware County GOP stopped him in his tracks.
They're kinda good at doing that to Democrats.
The all-Republican county council will remain that way - as it has for the past 27 years - after the three Republican candidates silenced Landau's rhetoric about the evils of one-party government with a sweep at the polls.
Haverford Commissioner Andy Lewis, Middletown Councilwoman Christine Fizzano Cannon and Springfield Commissioner Tom McGarrigle will join incumbent Republicans Linda Cartisano and Jack Whelan on the five-member board.
Despite all the talk of the Democrats' momentum this year, the Republican GOP trio handily defeated Landau, the Nether Providence Democratic leader, as well as his running mates Ann O'Keefe and John Innelli.
With 94 percent of precincts reporting, it was a blowout. Landau, the top Democratic vote-getter fell 13,400 votes short of Lewis, the third-place finisher.
Republicans appeared to be holding onto power late last night throughout the Philadelphia suburbs.
In the Chester County commissioners' race, with 57 percent of precincts reporting at 11:30 p.m., Republicans Carol Aichele and Terence Farrell were leading the Democrats.
Republicans Jim Matthews and Bruce Castor were out front by slimmer margins in Montgomery County, with 49 percent of precincts reporting, as were Bucks County Republicans Charles Martin and Jim Cawley, with 80 percent of Bucks' precincts reporting.
"Our positive message really resonated with voters," Fizzano Cannon said from Springfield Country Club, where Delco Republicans were celebrating. "They really did their homework and voted for qualifications and experience at the end of the day."
The Delaware County Council oversees a $305 million general-fund budget, another $260 million in state and federal grants and 3,100 full-time county workers.
They're powerful positions - too powerful, Landau argued, for one party to hold them all.
Voters didn't think so.
The Republicans were able to win in Delaware County with the help of solid fundraising - their main campaign fund brought in $670,000 between Jan. 1 and Oct. 22 - and by relying on their bread-and-butter message: low taxes.
The GOP candidates argued against the creation of a county health department, which the Democrats have long favored, saying it would cost millions of dollars and trigger a double-digit tax hike.
But with a competitive race for the first time in decades, Republicans adopted some of the issues Democrats have proposed in previous years - improving access to government records, moving the weekly council meetings around the county and agreeing to at least study the feasibility of a health department.
Fizzano Cannon said the Republican council plans to double the amount of annual revitalization funding it provides to municipalities and preserve as much open space as possible in the county.
The Delco Democrats have been shrinking the Republicans' voter-registration advantage in recent years and continued to do so leading up to yesterday's election, gaining on the GOP by 4,543 voters since the May primary. It had no effect in the end.
Turnout was light to moderate across Delaware County, according to Election Bureau Solicitor Frank Catania. *
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