Down River – Nov. 7, 2013
By John Lipez
And the Winners Are:
In retrospect, there were not a lot of surprises in Tuesday’s election.
Discussions with people who follow these things led Down River to believe that Zach Hanna would come out on top for county coroner and Michelle Kunes on top for treasurer.
And both won handily, particularly Kunes, an obviously worthy heir-apparent to her predecessor Pat Edwards.
The Hanna-Eric Brungard election day scrum got a little testy on the Brungard side, a fairly hard-hitting ad in the county seat daily last Saturday, a full-pager taking to task the incumbent county coroner, the gruff but somewhat loveable Donald G. “Woozy” Walker.
Brungard hit on the fact that both Walker and coroner-elect Hanna are funeral directors, terming that position a conflict of interest with coroner office responsibilities.
A majority of voters obviously felt otherwise and Hanna kept his message about qualifications, proper training and certification on track to the end.
Newly elected judge Mike Salisbury ended months of speculation about his replacement as district attorney upon his assuming the county bench come the first of the new year.
He took to the WBPZ/92.1WSQV airways to announce that current county assistant DA Karen Kuebler will be manning the post of interim district attorney for the next two years.
To be the lead DA, Salisbury said, she by law must move to the county of her employment. Previously an assistant DA in Centre County, she within the last six weeks moved into Clinton County, Salisbury said, now residing on Water Street in Lock Haven.
Down River had been pestering Salisbury for months to see what direction he would go with the appointment. There had been considerable hearsay over the summer that Salisbury, a Republican who has acknowledged support from both Republicans and Democrats, would name a local Republican lawyer to serve as acting DA, giving that person a “heads-up” and two years of office name recognition towards an elective run for the post in the 2015 election.
But Salisbury held Down River at bay from speculating on the hearsay and said the mechanism he would follow would be fair to all concerned. And the plan he came up is just that, eminently fair, given he has received a vow from Kuebler she will not be a candidate in 2015.
Basically she has moved to Clinton County for the next two years and will receive $175,000 or so a year for her troubles; what she does after that is her move but it will not include running for a full term as district attorney.
And the ever-gracious Salisbury got points from Down River when he did an on-air shout-out for The Record’s new online presence you all will be seeing and hearing a lot more about in the very near future.
Other Election Stuff:
County voters did better on Tuesday than in the spring, the turnout jumping from under 15 percent to better than 31 percent. But that’s still not good enough.
But nobody can blame the staff at The Record’s Farwell corporate headquarters for not being part of our democratic process.
Let’s proudly reprint these results:
South Renovo borough council, three elected: the Record’s own Lynn Gavlock with 59 votes; the Record’s own Tracy Embick with 54 votes (and Jim Palmer, Jr. with 30 votes and “write-in” with 18 votes).
And in Chapman Township, the Record’s “Em” dusted the opposition. Inspector of Election results saw Emily English with 138 votes to 53 for Sandra Bomba.
Seriously, we do need more people to volunteer for public service. Yes, it’s often a thankless job, but it is part of who we are as a people and fewer and fewer of us seem inclined to want to get involved.
Meanwhile the results came barreling into the Garden Building, Lock Haven’s first ward first in at 8:24 p.m., just 24 minutes after the polls closed.
My one regret was not greeting the girls from West Keating Township. The rapid fire pace of the results prevented my going into the third floor lobby to welcome the girls from West Keating who get to the Garden Building by way of Clearfield or Punxsutawney or someplace. They’re always the last in but the important thing is they make the trip.
So once the official canvas is completed and the winners are sworn in on the first Tuesday of January (other than school board members who get sworn in at their December meeting), we’ll all turn our attention to next year’s election.
The big questions out there include: will Republican Gov. Tom Corbett go for another term, despite low approval ratings and some reported clandestine GOP efforts trying to get him to withdraw; and will a viable winner emerge from the Democratic primary for governor, where the field was at eight or nine at last count?
And what about three-term Congressman Glenn “G-T” Thompson? Will the Howard Township Republican pay a political price as a result of Congress’s historically low approval rating?
Can the Democrats find a viable opponent to challenge him? Could his last name be Paterno? Or could there be another Democrat from closer to home preparing to make a run?
Stay tuned; some answers coming soon.
