Lafer Drops Reelection Bid for State College Borough Council

Incumbent Theresa Lafer, one of five State College Borough Council nominees who emerged from the May primary, has decided to halt her run for reelection, she confirmed Tuesday.

She filed this month the paperwork necessary to exclude her name from the Nov. 8 general-election ballot, Lafer told StateCollege.com.

Her decision likely means that four names will appear on the ballot for four available Borough Council seats. (Technically, the local Republican Party may appoint another candidate to fill the ballot position that Lafer has vacated. Such an appointment appears unlikely, however.)

The four Borough Council nominees expected to appear on the Nov. 8 ballot are incumbents Peter Morris and Jim Rosenberger and challengers Cathy Dauler and Sarah Klinetob. Dauler is a former council president.

Asked to explain her move to bow out, Lafer said that, ‘for one thing, I thought that running would be very divisive.

‘It would have taken an enormous amount of time and energy, and for no really good reason,’ she said. ‘There is no reason why any one of the five can’t do this job and do it well.’

All five candidates who won party nominations have strongly similar goals for the community, Lafer said.

Each of the five is a registered Democrat. With just four of the seven council seats in play this year, though, only four candidates were able to capture official Democratic nominations in the May 17 primary.

Dauler, Klinetob, Morris and Rosenberger won those nominations in the heavily Democratic borough.

No Republican candidates for the Borough Council appeared on the GOP’s May primary ballot. Still, Dauler, Lafer, Morris and Rosenberger won Republican nominations via write-in votes.

But while Dauler, Morris and Rosenberger will appear on the Nov. 8 ballot as both Democratic and Republican nominees, Lafer would have appeared only as a Republican nominee.

Given that circumstance, Lafer said, people who are politically ‘in the know’ felt there was little to no chance she could have won reelection.

She reiterated her own belief that the race leading up to Nov. 8 would have been too divisive. She can better put her energy to other uses, she said.

‘I will still be a member of the (State College Community) Land Trust,’ she said. ‘I will still be working with the local neighborhood association (in the Highlands neighborhood), of which I am a member. …

‘I am sure that I will continue working in any number of civic roles — whatever place they might be able to use me,’ Lafer added. ‘No, I am not disappearing from the world.’

Elected in 2007, Lafer is completing one term on the Borough Council. Council members work for the borough on an unpaid, part-time basis and serve four-year terms.

Asked to reflect on her most significant accomplishments as an elected official, Lafer noted her emphasis on the expansion of affordable housing and on economic planning.

Most recently on those fronts, she was part of a council majority that voted this week to implement an inclusionary-housing ordinance. It’s meant to foster more middle-class and lower-middle-class homes in the borough.

Earlier coverage

• With Write-ins, Lafer Clinches Republican Nod for State College Borough Council (June 8, 2011)

• State College Council Passes Inclusionary-Housing Measure (Aug. 16, 2011)