Down River

By John Lipez

Then and Now:
It’s a week and a half after our municipal primary election and time for the Down River post-election analysis relative to what county voters thought on May 16.

In retrospect, what happened in the primary’s headline event, the GOP race for county commissioner, wasn’t all that different from the spring Republican primary of 2019; just substitute the names Jim Russo and Doug Byerly for Miles Kessinger and Mitch Christensen.

Here’s what happened four years ago, top to bottom, Jeff Snyder, 2,203; Miles Kessinger,1,703; Michele Whitney, 1,627; Mitch Christensen, 800. And May 2023: Jim Russo, 2,332; Jeff Snyder, 2214; Michele Whitney, 1,671; Doug Byerly, l ,272.

So what does it all mean? First off, Michele Whitney, in retrospect, might have chosen to answer the questions as submitted by The Record, an effort by the latter to better inform prospective voters on candidate views. The Clinton County Watchdog honcho elected not to and her May 16 performance lagged well behind what she had done four years earlier; with the top two candidates earning nominations for the fall final, Whitney in third place fell one slot short of placing both times, but whereas she trailed the second place finisher by 76 votes in 2019, she was 543 votes behind this time around.

It’s on to November for newcomer Russo and veteran commissioner Snyder, where they are all but locks for a plush office in the county’s Piper Building, to be joined there by incumbent Democratic commissioner Angela Harding who was the only candidate on the Democratic ballot which also, by ancient state law, is set up to nominate two candidates per party for November.

The interesting sidebar that emerged from the Democratic primary was how party officialdom successfully maneuvered to get a party member to earn the second nomination for commissioner. By doing so, the party thwarted any Republican effort to get a GOP-er on the Democratic ballot through a write-in effort, setting up the possibility of three Republican commissioners and no Democrats.

Lock Haven city council member Byerly had made overtures to some Democrats to write-in his name, but party officials responded by getting a commitment from party regular Joan Heller to allow her name to be written in, to secure the second nomination. It worked out well as she received some 440 write-ins, per the unofficial results, and no one else even approached 100 votes.

By all accounts Heller has no interest in earning an office in the Piper Building in January of next year and a glance at the decided GOP registration edge tells us that would be a herculean task. What it all means is, as noted above, Russo, Snyder and Harding can relax come election night in November (even though none will be allowed in the Piper Building that day/night; see last week’s Down River for an explanation) because as of early January they’ll be in the Clinton County Courthouse to be sworn in as commissioners.

Did you know the Russo candidacy almost didn’t come about? There was a faction of GOP business types (read, not card-carrying Watchdog members/Whitney fans) who were concerned about a possible Whitney ascension to the second party nomination. One of these business types was ready to announce just before the petition submission deadline but changed his mind at the eleventh hour and the recently retired Russo stepped in and ended up on top of the Republican pecking order.

Just as a final note or two on last week’s election:

Unless current county board chairman Kessinger hits a growth spurt between now and the end of the year, he’ll leave county government as the shortest commissioner in the county’s modern era. Kessinger and Russo were at last week’s Fallon Alley social in Lock Haven and the still keen Down River eye determined that Russo is a tad taller than the soon to be retired Kessinger…

And the election was a rough one for the Clinton County Watchdog organization. It turns out commissioner candidate Whitney was not the only Watchdog honcho to feel the sting of defeat. Co-honcho Mike Remick made a run for a Republican nomination for Pine Creek Township Supervisor and was toppled by incumbent Dean Edwards Jr. by a 327 to 189 count.