Renovo at 150 – Candidate Lundfelt
by Lou Bernard
Frank Lundfelt passed away in 1961. He was a lifelong Renovo citizen, born on November 5, 1885 to Axel and Ida Jefferson Lundfelt. He worked as a car repairman for the Pennsylvania Railroad, retiring in 1952 after fifty years with the company.
If you stroll on down to the Ross Library, you can see all this in his obituary, which ran on September 16, 1961. All of this is included.
You will, however, notice a suspicious lack of any mention of a political career.
There’s a reason for this.
The local primaries in Renovo were held in mid-September of 1927. Lundfelt lived in the Middle Ward of Renovo, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds—The section that lies in the middle of town. Lundfelt was a Republican, and wound up winning the office of Inspector of Elections with thirty-four votes. He beat out Herman Neeley, also a Republican, who came in with twenty-three votes.
Hey, no problem, you’re thinking. Good for Lundfelt. I’m sure he made a wonderful Inspector of Elections.
Not so fast. There was a small problem.
Neeley had been running unopposed.
Give it a minute and you’ll get it.
Lundfelt won for Inspector of Elections, though he wasn’t actually running for Inspector of Elections. Or anything at all. I am not making this up. Lundfelt wasn’t interested in running for office; he hadn’t announced his candidacy anything at all. The election might have been on Jupiter for all he cared.
Details were sparse; nobody ever quite figured out what had happened. Maybe Neeley wasn’t quite as popular as Lundfelt, who wasn’t even in the race. Maybe thirty-four voters came to the conclusion that Lundfelt was better suited to the office, even though he wasn’t a candidate of any kind. Maybe the newspapers reported it wrong. Maybe the people counting the votes were bad at both math, and names. (Especially ironic considering the office under discussion.)
The newspapers reported on all of this, almost casually, as if it happened all the time. Yawn. It was a slow news month, apparently—The next biggest story was a local man whose pet goat ate his new umbrella. I’m not making that up, either.
There is very little indication as to how Neeley felt about all this, losing to a guy who wasn’t even running. There’s actually not much detail about how Lundfelt reacted, either—It seems he just shrugged and went on with his life. The newspapers simply ran the numbers.
And then the next day, they ran the numbers again, crediting Democrat Monica Koehler with getting forty-four votes, and apologizing for omitting her the day before. And mentioning that, no, Lundfelt hadn’t actually been a candidate.
“Frank Lundfelt, Republican, was credited with receiving 34 votes for inspector of elections, which was an error,” the article read. “He was not running for this office.”
I mean, how awesome is that? The guy doesn’t even run, and he wins the primaries! Hey, everyone, I’m not running for President! Vote for me!
Neeley passed away in 1987, and his obituary does list a strong political career—He went on to serve several terms as a councilman in Renovo, and was a member of the Renovo Hospital Board. So Herman Neeley wound up with a happy ending and a satisfying life.
And Frank Lundfelt? He passed away on April 15, 1961. His obituary ran the next day. After the election, he’d simply gone back to working on the railroads, which was basically all he’d ever really wanted in the first place.
