Maybe I’m getting hard of hearing.

But I could swear I heard several times during the recent political campaign from longtime Upper Darby state Rep. Mario Civera say that if elected to County Council he had no intention of holding onto his seat in the Legislature.

Apparently that’s no longer the case. At least for awhile. And maybe longer.

That will likely come as news to the people Civera represents in the 164th District. It also will come as news to those who voted in the County Council race, where Civera breezed to an easy win along with his Republican running mate, incumbent Jack Whelan.

But Civera seemed to start hedging his bets as soon as the last votes were counted.

At first he indicated a desire to make sure the marathon state budget process, which while agreed on in principle has yet to actually be completed, was finished. He also indicated he had some concerns about the legislation needed to enact one of the crucial parts of the budget, an expansion of gambling in the state’s slots parlor to add table games.

Now the timetable is being revised again, and not just by a little bit.

Civera now is indicating that he could stay on through next year’s budget.

You heard it right. The one that by law must be in place by July 1, 2010. But which almost assuredly will not. After all, this year’s budget battle lasted more than 100 days.

To his credit, he has indicated he will not accept both salaries. He’ll take the check from the state, where he makes $105,000 a year. The council seat pays considerably less.

He would not be the first to hold both a county council seat and a post in the state legislature. He could, however, kick off a precedent of such moves across the state.

There is, not surprisingly, another very strong political undercurrent to all this. Should Civera give up his House seat – as he pledged he would do shortly after the election – a special election would be held to fill the remainder of his term

That special election likely would be held the same day as next spring’s primary, in order to save money. That would be a boon for Democrats, not so good for Republicans. The reason is that there likely will be a big turnout by Democrats, who that day will be selecting between Arlen Specter and Joe Sestak for the U.S. Senate, and a gaggle of candidates to seek Sestak’s 7th District Congressional seat.

It’s understandable that the GOP would not necessarily want the 164th House seat contested that day.

But Civera knew that when he decided to run for County Council. And if he thought next year’s budget battle was going to be a repeat of this year’s debacle and was going to command his presence in Harrisburg, he should have withdrawn from the county race.

I actually asked him at one point last summer, almost jokingly, if he would be uncomfortable campaigning in the fall if the state budget was still not in place. I also asked him if he would ever consider getting out of the race. He made it clear he would not, that he had made up his mind to leave the state House.

Now he needs to make good on his word.