TIME TO DECIDE!
LIGHT TURNOUT EXPECTED AS DELCO VOTES ON 2 COUNTY COUNCIL SEATS
Voters have been subjected to a particularly contentious election season for countywide seats in 2017, which draws to a close today at 8 p.m.
For Delaware County Council, electors will choose between Democrats Brian Zidek and Kevin Madden, Republicans John Perfetti and incumbent Dave White, as well as a Libertarian candidate, Edward Clifford.
Republican incumbent Sheriff Mary McFall Hopper will try to fend off Democratic challenger Jerry Sanders and Libertarian Matthew Wallace, while Democrat Joanne Phillips and Republican Robert Kane are running for the open position of county controller.
Also open is the register of wills after incumbent GOP Register of Wills Jennifer Holsten Maddaloni dropped her bid for re-election in August. Republican Beth Naughton-Beck and Democrat Mary Walk are running for that seat, while Republican District Attorney Jack Whelan and Democrat Kelly Eckel are vying for an open seat on the Delaware County Common Pleas Court.
Topping the news cycle for all of these races has been County Council, with no love lost between the county Republican and Democratic parties. The former has painted the Democrats as rich and out-oftouch with working-class families, while the latter has decried what they see as a “pay-to-play” culture that Republicans are desperate to retain.
“I think Democrats are going to have a good day at the county level and in our municipal elections,” said an optimistic David Landau, chair of the Delco Democrats. “We’ve put together, up and down the ticket, the best campaign, certainly, since I’ve been chairman.”
Landau said local issues the Democrats have raised coupled with anger over Republican President Donald Trump should boost voter turnout to as much as 25 percent, though he stopped short of calling it a referendum on the president’s policies.
“But I do believe that it’s going to be, in part, a referendum on the need to participate in democracy by voting,” he added. “I think people learned the lesson last year that too often they stay home and the result is Donald Trump, a Republican Congress, a terrible state Legislature and people understand the need to participate.”
His Republican counterpart, Andrew Reilly, said Democrats are mistakenly banking on anger over Trump to drive up their numbers at the polls in lieu of addressing local concerns.
“There may be an increased turnout for Democrats, but the Delaware County Democratic Party, I think that they think the Democratic voters are stupid because they’ve solely focused on Washington, D.C.,” said Reilly. “History has shown that Delaware County voters know this election is about local issues and will select the most qualified candidates to address those issues, regardless of party label.”
Off-year elections following presidential elections traditionally see the lowest voter turnout. The weather is expected to be cool and cloudy, but not raining, which might help edge up totals.
Reilly said his party has also been targeting Democrats and Independents over the summer who he said support the record of the current slate, pointing to four years of level taxes, 25,000 new private sector jobs and a 7.9-percent increase in wages. He is expecting about a 30-32 percent turnout today.
“I do believe there may be some motivated Democrats who are frustrated with Washington, D.C., but I do believe that a lot of those Democrats like what’s happened here in the county,” he said. “I think the Republican candidates’ message resonates not only with Republicans, but with Democrats and Independents as well.”
Democrats have enjoyed a slight registration edge in recent years and maintain a lead of 180,004 to 163,482 as of Oct. 16. Independents account for another 4,425, while 26,614 are listed as “no affiliation” and 10,105 are identified as non-partisan. Libertarians in the county tally 1,481.
“We have, in the Democratic Party, focused a lot of our resources (this year) on turnout because, as it’s well known, our failure to win elections at the county level is due to a failure of turnout,” said Landau. “Democrats just don’t come out and vote. We don’t even have to vote two-toone over the Republicans. (If) we vote the same numbers as Republicans, we win every election, because Democrats are coming out to vote straight Democratic. Democrats in these elections do not split their tickets.”
Both parties have been out in droves recently knocking on doors and handing out literature in a final push that is expected to continue today. Landau believes that kind of “good old-fashioned legwork” will drive up voter totals across the board, but was hesitant to predict what the actual turnout would be.
That question, as well as whether Democrats have finally been able to crack the Republican hold on countywide offices, will be answered today.