Commissioner's Race

Judy Schwanks' decision to withdraw from the Commissioner's race has the entire county buzzing.  This had been a very quiet campaign, no one seemed to be talking or discussing the contest or the candidates up until now.  This news is focusing the public's attention on the election in midsummer, a bit earlier than usual.

This is good because these three positions are incredibly important and voters and citizens need to focus more of their time and attention on them.  The Board of Commissioners run Berks County and deal with an immense variety of issues and matters.  Local government often affects your life far more than anything the federal government does.

Several people are throwing their hats into the ring for Saturday's vote.  I'll explain how this process works for those unfamiliar.  Since Judy won the primary election then withdrew the County Democratic Party selects her replacement on the ballot.  Any registered Democrat can have someone nominate and second their nomination for the slot.  Only Democratic Committee persons may vote and it's a secret ballot necessitating a majority vote.  This means there could be multiple ballots until someone attains the majority of those present.  A quorum is 25% of membership.

So Saturday will see this special meeting of Committee persons and, as of now, I know of four people interested.  Kevin Barnhardt and Dave Batdorf, who both ran in the primary are expected to put their names forward.  Two Committee persons are also expressing interest and are seeking support.  The vote will likely come down to Kevin or Dave.  Both have considerable support and it could be a close election.

Interestingly our County Chair has already announced his support of Kevin Barnhardt in the newspaper.  That was unfortunate, not in that he supports Kevin, but that the Chair publicly revealed a bias in advance of running the meeting.  As such it wouldn't surprise me if Batdorf's people asks him to turn the meeting over to the Vice Chair.  It's important for the Chair to remain neutral in any internally contested Committee race to insure the perception of a fairly run meeting and election.  This is one more failure by Tom Herman in carrying out the duties of his office.  It's bad enough that instead of trying to bring people together and resolve disputes he enters those frays and pours gasoline on the fires.  This is one reason why we continue losing elections.

Comments

[Dan Sauder]

Who are the other two candidates? I have heard one other persons name, but have not heard anything from him (or Batdorf for that matter).

Kevin had an excellent showing in the primary in May and can quickly pick up where he left off, hopefully. That alone should give the edge to Kevin in my opinion.

Judy Schwank and Kevin Barnhardt are expected to be at Drinking Liberally on Thursday (I hope!)

[John Morgan]

I won't mention their names because I don't have first hand knowledge of their efforts.

See you at DL tomorrow evening. It's at Canal Street Pub for anyone interested, at 6 pm.

[Lee Levan]

John, I've received both a mailing and a phone call from Kevin. Presumably so have all committeepeople. He's also told the Eagle and others that he is a candidate. If anyone else intends to be nominated to fill the vacancy, they can't wait much longer to let it be known. They already are playng catch up ball and there is little time left in the game.

[John Morgan]

I didn't mention the letter and phone call because I wasn't going to tip anyone off as to what Kevin was doing. He's hard at work securing this nomination.