Dems and GOP maintain foothold in Lehigh Co. Commissioners race
The status quo appeared to be maintained in Lehigh County government Tuesday night with no sign there would be a turnover of county commission seats along county lines, preliminary election results showed.
Though new faces are set to join the board, with less than 50% of votes counted at about 10 p.m. it appeared that Democrats and Republicans both won some races.
Incumbent Democrat Geoff Brace appeared to have beaten Republican challenger Marjulee Colon. Brace, 41, of Allentown will be the longest-serving member of the board, having been elected in 2012.
Zachary Cole-Borghi appeared to have a clear lead over Republican Jacqueline Rivera as of Tuesday night for the seat of District 3. ColeBorghi, 31, of Bethlehem, has served as director for the Northeast Community Center in Bethlehem and works in vacation planning at AMR Collection. Cole-Borghi said he wanted to wait until all the votes were before declaring victory though.
“Out of respect to my opponent I want to hold off on making a statement,” Cole-Borghi said. “Elections are important and I would go against what I’ve said it the past by making a statement too early.”
Republicans appeared to hold on to District 1 with Republican Antonio Pineda holding a lead over Democrat Luke Savage. Pineda, 30, of Whitehall Township, is an environmental engineer and unsuccessfully ran for a county commissioner’s seat in 2019.
The race for District 5 was almost too close to call Tuesday night, but incumbent Republican Jeffrey Dutt appeared to have a 12 percentage point lead over Democrat Joyce Moore. Dutt, 53, of Emmaus, was appointed as a Lehigh County commissioner for District 5 in December and is seeking to win this seat in the election. Moore, 66, is a supervisor on the Upper Milford Township Board of Supervisors, serves on the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission and owns Joyce Moore Financial Services
The race for District 2 was too close to call with Republican Ron Beitler leading his opponent Democrat Mark Fedorov by about 500 votes at 10:20 p.m.
Beitler, 42, is a two-term Lower Macungie Township commissioner and owns Bar None Wedding Photography & Cinematography and Rising River Brewing Co. Fedorov, 52, of South Whitehall Township, is a real estate developer and owner of White Dog Management in Scranton.