It's very rare to see a write-in candidate beat someone who's already on the ballot. But that's exactly what has happened in the Upper Mount Bethel Tp, where two Supervisor seats were up for grabs.
There were two candidate on the Republican ballot, Cori Eckman and James E Potter. Eckman won 723 votes and Potter snagged 420. Unfortunately for Potter, he was eliminated by 439 write-in votes cast for Jason Albert. So the two Republican candidates are Eckman and Albert.
On the Democratic side of the ledger, Ed Nelson was the sole candidate. Jason Albert was kicked off the ballot as a result of problems with his nomination petition, which were pointed out by Nelson in a challenge.
Nelson, who incidentally is Township Manager until the end of the year, did pick up 126 votes. But he faced a write-in campaign from Albert and Eckman, and they beat him. Albert won 267 write-ins and Heckman garnered 250.
So unofficially, Eckman and Albert are the only two candidates on either side of the aisle. They can only be beaten if someone can top them with a write-in during November's election.
Eckman and Albert are part of Take Back UMBT, a group upset about the River Pointe development and the traffic it will bring. Northampton County voted to give developer Lou Pektor a tax break called a LERTA at this project, where increased real estate taxes will be phased in slowly over 10 years. Advocated of this tax break said it would bring badly needed jobs. Opponents said it would bring warehouses and truck traffic.
Based on these election results, it appears that a majority of Upper Mount Bethel Tp voters oppose this development.
1) Democracy wins.
ReplyDelete2) Ed Nelson is an unqualified goofball who should never have been placed in his position.
The residents might not like development, but if it's zoned for that use, tough titties.
ReplyDeleteSoon the RATS WILL EAT EACH OTHER IN UMBT!
ReplyDeleteAct 47 coming to a municipality near you 😂😂
ReplyDeleteThese 2 bozos will be a disaster for UMBT. Eckman has been accused of sexual harassment numerous times and can't hold down a steady regular job. She was fired from a bartending job a few years ago - how can we expect her to be able to handle a Supervisors role? Having her as an elected official is laughable.
ReplyDeleteAlbert is a dope and is barely able to spell his first name - even if you spot him the J-A-S-and O. Lord help us when they team up with Friedman and the ever useless "voice of the People", Tool Bermingham. Let the stupidity reign in UMBT.