Down River

By John Lipez

The Municipal Election Approaches:
Clinton County’s municipal primary is just a couple weeks away and so far, not a lot happening, so it would seem. Sometimes these local level races here and elsewhere can turn in to hair pulls; but not here, not yet.
The county headliner will be the May nominating process for Clinton County Commissioner and the county’s election process for that office hasn’t changed since, well, at least a century or so ago.

This means only the two major parties here, Republicans and Democrats, get to nominate two party members each in the primary and those four successful candidates get to come back in November. At that time all county voters will be allowed to pick the three commissioners who will, come the first of the new year, sit in the several old Piper family executive offices on the third floor of the now-county-owned Piper Building.

This spring is unusual in that the in the Democratic Party, only one party member, incumbent commissioner Angela Harding, filed nominating papers to be on the primary ballot, all but guaranteed a walk-over into November’s final round. But wait, there’s more:

It wasn’t all that long ago that word began to circulate that one of the four GOP candidates, Lock Haven City Council member Doug Byerly, was soliciting Democratic voters to write-in his name on the Democratic ballot in May. Several Democrats confirmed his overture to Down River, as did the candidate himself when asked about those overtures this week.

Byerly is already on the spring ballot twice, seeking re-election to city council while going after one of the two GOP commissioner nominations. To be successful in garnering one of the Democratic nominations for commissioner he would have to secure more than the law-required 100 votes and finish first or second in the Democratic primary.

If Byerly should be successful in his quest, it would set up the possibility of three Republican commissioners being elected in November in the county where Republicans hold an almost two-to-one registration edge. (The most recent count showed 12,131 Republicans and 6,656 Democrats).

County Democrat officialdom, aware of the Byerly effort, has countered with a plan to have a second Democrat seek to get sufficient primary votes to join Harding on the November ballot; a party move to ward off a county board of all Republicans.

Democratic Party Chairman Bill Mincer has circulated word to the party faithful that Beech Creek resident/party regular Joan Heller is running a write-in campaign to secure the party’s second nomination. As for the Byerly foray into the Democratic field, Mincer posted, “I know this is true because he asked me to write him on the ballot in May.” Mincer said he told Byerly no and “I hope that everyone will join me in voting for Ang and writing-in Joan Heller” on the May Democratic ballot. So there’s that to keep an eye on.

And here’s another primary election sidebar: A newly formed organization calling itself Patriots for Clinton County has announced a “Town Hall” for May 2 at the Red Eye Center in Flemington.

The organization was established by Michele Whitney, who just happens to be the only candidate for commissioner who will be part of the town hall event, according to a flier posted on social media. Yes, that’s the same Michele Whitney who, among other things, was an unsuccessful candidate for commissioner four years ago and started the Clinton County Watchdog group (from which Down River was tossed from viewing a few years ago, virtually immediately after signing in). Mike Remick, a Whitney compatriot with the Watchdog group and a candidate for Pine Creek Township supervisor, will serve as event emcee.

The event announcement said 11 Republican candidates are scheduled to participate. Four of them are seeking election to the Keystone Central School Board, one of whom saw his name misspelled on the flier; none of them are incumbents. In fact, none of the 11 candidates to participate are incumbents.

Just a couple weeks out…it looks like this primary could be at the very least an entertaining one. As a reminder, if you want to be a player May 16 you have until May 1 to register, but for this round you can only votes if you sign up as a Republican or Democrat.