Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Hennessey on track to win 14th term in 26th District
Unofficial election results indicate Republican Tim Hennessey will remain the senior member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
Hennessey, 72, was 2,643 votes ahead of his Democratic opponent, Paul Friel, 51, according to unofficial results posted by Chester and Montgomery counties Thursday.
Except for the southern portion of Pottstown, all of the 26th House District is in the following Chester County municipalities: The townships of East Coventry,
East Nantmeal, East Vincent, Honey Brook, North Coventry, South Coventry, Wallace, Warwick, West Caln, West Nantmeal, West Sadsbury and the boroughs of Elverson and Honey Brook.
Due to the presidential election, Chester County saw an 81 percent turnout of registered voters and 48 percent of those votes were cast by mail- in ballot.
By Thursday af ternoon, Chester County had counted all the in- person votes, and those mail- in ballots received by 8 p. m. on Election Day.
Chester County will resume counting on Friday at 9 a. m. at West Chester University.
Similarly, Montgomery County saw an 83 percent voter turnout and had counted all ballots received by 8 p. m. Election Day by Thursday afternoon and still has other ballots to count.
Hennessey’s victory was squarely centered in the southern and western portion of the district.
In the Pottstown portion, Friel, a member of the Owen J. Roberts School Board, out- polled Hennessey by 1,469 votes, with Friel winning 2,364 votes to 895 for Hennessey.
In the Chester County portion of the district however, Hennessey outpolled Friel by 4,112. According to unofficial results, Hennessey took in 18,562 votes in Chester County to Friel’s 14,450.
And Hennessey did best in the southern and western portions of the district.
In townships that are part of the Owen J. Roberts School District, where Friel’s name- recognition could be expected to be higher, he won a few election districts by thin margins in North Coventry, East Coventry and East Vincent.
In others, his vote totals were within three of four percentage points of Hennessey.
But as you travel south and west on the map of the 26th district posted by Chester County, into voting districts in Warwick, East and West Nantmeal and particularly West Caln and West Sadsbury, Hennessey won by more 60 percent of the votes in all but Honey Brook Borough and Wallace.
Even in those two election districts, Hennessey’s winning percentage was above 55 percent.
Asked to name a priority in in his next term, Hennessey told Media-News Group in an election preview article, “the best gift for our citizens would be to successfully change the Pennsylvania Constitution to allow our seniors to be relieved of the school tax burden and to allow some diversity from the absolute rigidity of the uniformity provision.”