Down River

By John Lipez

It’s Petition Season, Almost:
Former Phillies manager Charlie Manuel had a great phrase he often used on his radio interviews with club broadcaster Chris Wheeler. As the weather finally warmed over the Phillies ballpark, Charlie intoned in his Appalachian drawl, “It’s hittin’ season, Wheels.” Telling Wheels and all that batted balls would soon be flying more frequently into the stands at Citizens Bank Park.

So while Phillies fans will soon be looking forward to Schwarb Bombs sailing into the upper deck at CBP, back here it’s just about petition time in Clinton County. More specifically, prospective candidates in the May 16 primary may soon circulate their petitions, seeking enough registered voter signatures to get their name on this “off-year” election ballot.

The petition circulation window is a relatively small one, from Tuesday, Feb. 14 (yes, Valentine’s Day, by some happenstance) through Tuesday, March 7. That’s three weeks for candidates to pigeon-hole their family, friends and neighbors to accumulate enough signatures to be on that May ballot.

And this spring that ballot will be teeming with a ton of local races. How many, you ask? According to county commissioner board chairman Miles Kessinger at Monday’s commissioners work session, there are about 110 contests to be decided, from the county level to the Keating Township level, both East and West. These range from all three county commissioner slots to district attorney to sheriff, register and recorder, prothonotary, all three auditors and all three district judge slots and many, many more on the local level.

There has been a relatively steady stream of candidate announcements to this point. The one with relatively few so far is county commissioner. We know that incumbent Republican Jeff Snyder and incumbent Democrat Angela Harding are seeking re-election and county board chairman Miles Kessinger is not.

What is perhaps surprising to date is that small, announced commissioner race field. Beyond Harding and Snyder, the only other announced candidate is Doug Byerly, a Republican and Lock Haven City Council member. So far, that’s it. Each of the county’s two major parties in May get to select their two nominees for a November runoff; top three November vote-getters will take office next January for four-year terms.

Will the commissioner field hold at three? All but guaranteeing those several a free ride in the November final? Could there be an independent candidate’s challenge to emerge in the summer? The Down River moles have been working overtime to ferret out any additional candidates, but so far, crickets. Let’s check on March 7 to see if anyone else has jumped in for the primary; odds and past history say more will, but these are unusual times in the world of politics.

The most lucrative races on the ballot involve the court system, where the pay scale is set by the state, not Miles, Jeff or Angela.

The aforementioned district judge races will be on every county precinct ballot in the spring, both parties, as candidates may cross-file. These are for the Lock Haven area, Mill Hall area and Renovo area. The pay for each is $106,254. (As a point of comparison, the county commissioners who will begin their terms in 2024 will make $66,414 next year).

Here’s where we stand so far: Lock Haven area incumbent Keith Kibler has announced re-election plans. No word so far from Renovo incumbent Frank Mills where another western Clinton County resident is expected to announce a bid. And three candidates so far have announced for Mill Hall, where longtime incumbent John Maggs is stepping down.

It should be noted that those elected as district judges must, if not a member of the bar, complete a state-directed training program. The next of those training sessions is scheduled for May 31 through June 30. It will be interesting to learn who among the new candidates this spring have taken and passed that schooling/exam and for those who have not, when they plan to do so. That’s certainly a legitimate question to ask these office-seekers.

There you go. Lots of races on the ballot; lots of opportunities. It’s time for politics at the grassroots level. Be a candidate or be a registered voter but please do you part to keep our democracy chugging along.