A handful of incumbents bounced at municipal level; county slates set
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
Tuesday’s Primary election largely set up this November’s election slate — although in a handful of municipal races, incumbent supervisor candidates were knocked off their party’s ballot.
Turnout for the election was very light: just 10.45% of voters registered as Republican or Democrat turned out to the polls, according to figures released by Chester County Voter Services. Democratic turnout was particularly dismal, with just 9.79% of registered Democrats turning out, Tuesday.
In terms of the county-wide judicial and row-office races, both parties managed to hold serve and held off some aggressive write-in campaigns.
In the high-profile race for Court of Common Pleas, Republicans Jeff Sommer (34.51%) and Pat Carmody (42.99%) won the GOP nod, but Democrat Julia Malloy-Good garnered some 15.28% of the Republican vote. In the same race on the Democratic side, Democrats Malloy-Good (44.99%) and Tony Verwey (29.48%) won their party nomination, but Carmody posted strong numbers (17.24%) finishing third. In judicial and school board races, candidates can file for both party nominations.
The row office races were more cut and dried: Republicans Norm MacQueen (Controller), Ann Duke (Treasurer), Robin Marcello (Clerk of Courts) and Gordon Eck (Coroner) all got more than 99% of the vote in their primaries. Democrats Nina Haslip (Treasurer), Carmen Boyd (Controller), Tisha Brown (Clerk of Courts) and Howard Jones (Coroner) all got at least 98% of their respective party vote. The two slates will face off in November.
A hotly contested District Justice Race — in District 15-2-03 — will likely carry over to November as a race to watch. Incumbent William Kraut won the GOP nod, but was unable to hold off Chris Pielli for the Democratic nod, as both outdistanced third place finisher P.J. Redmond. Combining the two votes in the cross-filed race, Kraut got just 31 votes more than Pielli.
Elsewhere, there were only a handful of contested races, although a number of school board primaries will set up November election races.
In The Kennett Consolidated School District, Region A (Kennett Square) Republican incumbent Doug Stirling won easily in his primary, with no Democrat on the ballot. In Region B (New Garden), Kendra LaCosta held off incumbent Joe Meola for both the Democratic and Republican nominations, all but assuring her victory in November. In Region C (Kennett Township/East Marlborough), incumbent Heather Schaen won both party nominations as well.
In municipal races, there were a handful of contested races.
In Kennett Township, Republican Jim Przwitowski won 310 votes and the GOP nomination for supervisor, while Democrat Richard Leff garnered 385 votes to win his party’s nomination. The two will square off in November.
In Kennett Square, Republicans Danilo Maffei and Geoffrey Bosley won two of four nominations for Borough Council. Some 86 additional votes were cast. No Democrat appeared on the ballot, but 120 write-in votes were cast. Republican Matt Fetick won nomination for another term as mayor. No Democrat was on the ballot.
In New Garden, Republican Richard Ayotte won his party nomination for supervisor (with 46-write-in votes cast toward a second slot), while Democrats Richard Zimny and Mike Donovan won the GOP nod.
