There was surprisingly little uproar when Charlie Dent, R-Lehigh and Northampton, announced that he was leaving his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives 223 days early.

This means that the nearly 700,000 constituents in his district will have no representation until the winner of a special election is declared on Nov. 6.

Gov. Tom Wolf had several options, but he chose the least costly one over holding a special election during the summer. The theory was that residents in the 15th District could rely on their U.S. Sens. Republican Pat Toomey, who lives in the Lehigh Valley, and Robert Casey to help with constituent services.

Dent has generally won praise as one of Congress’ moderate voices and a voice of reason. This makes it all the more disturbing that he would not stick around until the end of his term.

He was co-chair of the Tuesday Group, a caucus of moderates within the GOP, and, as such, he has called out colleagues whom he viewed as blocking many common-sense congressional proposals.

In his final address to his fellow House members last week, Dent lamented the “disruptive political influences and increased polarization” that has led to a gridlocked Congress that cannot perform even the most basic and fundamental tasks. Dent appeared frequently on network and cable TV during the past 16 months as one of the few House members willing to disagree openly with President Donald Trump on some issues, including health care. Trump’s base lashed out at Dent and threatened that his re-election could be in jeopardy.

Dent insisted that these threats were not the heart of why he did not seek re-election. He said that there were several factors that went into his decision, including pressure from his family to leave. He admitted that they wanted him to leave even earlier. Dent said that he never planned to stay in the House for more than five or six two-year terms. He was a little more than 16 months into his seventh term when he quit.

Dent said there is plenty of blame to go around for the actions of both congressional Republicans and Democrats. “Too many Republicans expect blind, unquestioning loyalty and obedience to President Donald Trump, no matter how absurd or disruptive the comment or behavior. On the other side, far too many Democrats offer unflinching resistance and opposition to President Donald Trump, even if they agree with him on a given policy or position,” Dent said.

He warned of the invasion of the “three-headed monster — isolationism, protectionism and nativism.” He said that these are not the qualities of a great nation.

Although he is leaving Congress, Dent said he is not withdrawing from the political arena. “I hope to provide an even larger voice in favor of responsible governance and hope to foster a strong center-right movement that embraces traditional conservative virtues of order, discipline, stability, measured statements and incremental change — not the incendiary rhetoric, chaos and dysfunction that we have, unfortunately, grown accustomed to in recent years,” Dent told his colleagues.

He said that all of us must stand up and defend our way of life and our institutions. “In Congress, we need to re-establish a strong, bipartisan governing center that will help restore order and stability to Washington and that will also help alleviate a lot of concerns throughout the country,” Dent insisted.

In acknowledging that he is somewhat of a “different” Republican, Dent paid tribute to the residents of the 15th Congressional District. “I don’t know how many constituents would allow their member of Congress the amount of latitude they have given me to be somewhat of an independent voice here and say what I felt needed to be said,” Dent admitted.

The 15th District has been reconfigured into the 7th District as a result of the statewide reapportionment plan approved by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court earlier this year. The new district includes all of Lehigh and Northampton counties and the southern part of Monroe County.

With Dent out of the picture, it was a wide-open race with six Democrats and two Republicans vying for their parties’ nominations to fill the incumbent-less seat.

Former Allentown city solicitor Democrat Susan Wild and Republican Lehigh County Commissioner Marty Nothstein emerged as winners in the new 7th Congressional District primaries on Tuesday. It is most logical that both will become their parties’ nominees in the 15th District special election, which will run concurrently with the general election on Nov. 6. To make it official, however, party leaders must meet and pick nominees.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com