Centre County voters took to the ballot box for Tuesday’s primary elections, taking a major step toward the general elections in November.
The primaries inspired low voter turnout, with only about 15% of Centre County’s roughly 83,000 voters casting ballots according to the county elections office.
However, political races will heat up now that the candidate’s names are set for the general election – which could drive more people to the polls in November.
The race for State College Borough Council has shrunk some, with David Stone receiving the fewest votes in the Democratic primary.
Incumbent Cathy Dauler and newcomers Janet Engeman, Jesse Barlow and David Brown will appear on the November ballot. Ron Madrid will join them as the sole republican in the race for the open seat.
“I was very pleased to find out that I was not voted out,” Engeman says. “But I was also disappointed to find out that my compatriort with whom I’d been running in tandem, David Stone, did not make it through…Now we have to buckle down and look to the fall.”
The State College Area School Board has five open seats and five open candidates: current board members Amber Concepcion and Laurel Zydney, and newcomers Dan Duffy, Gretchen Brandt and Amy Bader.
Harris Township has two open supervisor positions; one is a six-year term, the other is a four-year term. Current board members Bruce Lord and Dennis Hameister are seeking a seat, as are newcomers Christopher Gamble and Frank Harden.
In College Township, current township supervisors Richard Francke and Carla Stilson are both seeking reelection.
In Ferguson Township, current supervisors Drew Clemson and Richard Mascolo are seeking reelection. They will be joined on the November ballot by newcomers Peter Buckland, Laura Dininni and Colleen Unroe, who ran write-in campaigns for the primaries.
The Future of Centre County
Although primary turnout was low, the upcoming elections could shift the landscape of Centre County during a time of conflict and legal turmoil.
Each of the four candidates for Centre County County Commissioner will appear on the ballot, but only three will hold office. Incumbents Steve Dershem (R), Chris Exarchos (R), Michael Pipe (D) and newcomer Mark Higgins (D) will appear on the ballot.
The county government has found itself wrapped up in lawsuits from two judges and the district attorney. All three are suing the county for releasing some of their work phone records to defense attorneys in response to Right to Know requests.
Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller describes the situation as the county illegally releasing records, which in turn has complicated several criminal cases. Defense attorneys used those records in unsuccessful attempts to recuse her office, and Parks Miller says the county “owes an apology” to the victims in those cases.
Commissioners Exarchos and Dershem have appeared as witnesses at hearings in the lawsuits against the county. They paint a different picture: they say the county obtained expert legal advice on the fairly new Right to Know law, enacted in 2008. They say they allowed public access to records they thought they were obligated to provide.
Commissioner Pipe has not been subpoenaed in Parks Miller’s lawsuit against the county – “by the grace of God,” he remarked at a commissioner’s meeting this month.
The county is preparing to appeal a judge’s ruling that the county didn’t have the authority to release the judges’ and the DA’s records. Parks Miller’s attorney Bruce Castor questions that decision to appeal, and says he now expects the litigation to last well past election time.
How the outcome of the November election will impact the lawsuits or the future of Centre County remains to be seen.
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