Republicans snatch back senate leadership in Pennsylvania.

Republicans recaptured control of the Pennsylvania Senate March 15 after a federal judge stripped a Democratic senator of his office because of rampant voter fraud in his election campaign.

The extraordinary order and the subsequent GOP takeover were the latest developments in what has become one of the most bitter partisan battles ever in this highly partisan state.

Democratic Senator William Stinson was removed from office Feb. 18 by U.S. District Judge Clarence Newcomer. Newcomer ruled Stinson's campaign had committed "massive absentee ballot fraud, deception, intimidation, harassment and forgery." Newcomer is holding further hearings to determine if the fraud is sufficient to change the outcome of the election and seat the Republican candidate Bruce Marks. In the meantime, Stinson is out.

Control of the Senate hinged upon Stinson's November 1993 special election.

It should have been a cakewalk for Democrats, who enjoyed a commanding 64-34 voter-registration advantage in the Philadelphia-based Senate district.

But Marks, a youthful Republican attorney, ran a surprisingly effective campaign. It quickly became apparent that Stinson - widely perceived as a party functionary put in the race to do the bidding of Democratic power brokers - was in trouble.

On election night, the ballots were tallied, and Marks had won by 562 votes out of nearly 40,000 cast. But then the absentee ballots came in - 1,800 of them in all. And Stinson won a staggering 80 percent of those ballots. That made the difference. Stinson was certified the winner by 463 votes.

It was a devastating blow for Republicans. The GOP had controlled the 50-seat chamber since 1981. But in late 1992, a Republican senator, angered by his treatment in reapportionment, switched his registration, producing a 25-25 split. Lieutenant Governor Mark S. Singel, a Democrat and the Senate president, used his tie-breaking authority to give Democrats the majority they so long had coveted.

The Democrats booted Republicans from their offices and moved themselves in-but only after asking state police to sweep the offices for Republican listening devices.

When Stinson's Democratic predecessor died last May, Democrats adjourned the Senate five months until a special election could be held, deciding they would rather be inactive than function under a Republican majority.

Stinson's victory in that special election kept them at 25-25, enabling Democrats to retain their fingernail hold on the majority.

But...