Susquehanna County Blog

Assuming the election results hold and Democrats Warren and Allen assume the leadership role in the Commissioners office in January, the following people have arguably done their absolute best (knowingly or not) to create this historic event.   The Democratic Party in Susquehanna County should hold this event to honor the people who helped the most.  This event should take place shortly after the installation of our new commissioners, at the Green Gables in New Milford. 

The top spot needs to be shared by three MVP’s - Roberta Kelly, Fred Baker and Tom Jurista.  These three did more to split the Republican party by syphoning off votes from the endorsed candidates by their insistence to run after losing in the primary.  Congratulations to all.  At the ceremony, you will be presented with voter registration forms to change your party affiliation to the current party of choice, the Democratic Party.

Next is the Trojan Horse Award.  Outstanding work by two Democrats - P.J. Amadio and James Jennings.  This is a great story that needs to be shared and used in future election cycles.  These two Democrats both had ads in the local paper endorsing MVP winner Republican Roberta Kelly furthering the Republican vote split and paving the way for Democrats Warren and Allen to change history in Susquehanna County!  Great job guys! 

Continuing on, we have the Best Supporting Roles - those nameless who tirelessly worked to support the write-in campaigns of Kelly and Baker.  They did their absolute best to promote their candidate, knowing there hasn’t been a successful write-in campaign in recent memory, maybe living memory, for the office of County Commissioner.  Congratulations to those brave, misguided souls who invested their time, money, personal reputations and possibly the future of their employment as good Republicans, for the “cause”.  While we realize the “cause” to them was important, the outcome was something not bargained for, but absolutely appreciated by the Democratic Party.  It will be interesting to see if personal reputations will be damaged or jobs lost by their actions.

 Do you know others who need to be awarded citations in this election?  Let’s hear them!!  Post them as a response here.

Although it ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings, she’s warming up.  According to the legal ad in the Independent  (11-7-2007), the Susquehanna County Board of Elections will meet on November 14th at 9am in the Commissioners’ meeting room to commence the canvasing of absentee ballots received from military and overseas electors.  This meeting is open to the public. 

Although there is little chance of the outcome of the election being changed by the absentee vote for a write-in for county commissioner, these votes are important and need to be counted.  As the race for the second, third and fourth position is as close as it is, there could be a change in those positions as well, but that too is unlikely.  Anyway, if your party is second and third in the vote tally do you really care?  it’s the number 4 position who would benefit from a move up.  Otherwise, it is time to go home. 

Assuming the results of the election stay the same, the Republican minority Commissioner, Giangrieco will be in a position known heretofore only to the Democrats - that of being elected as the minority commissioner.  Even more interesting, will be seeing the Democrats assuming the leadership roll in this county.  Although Commissioner elect Giangrieco has received the most votes, as the minority commissioner he won’t be the chairman unless the Democrats cave in immediately and lose all credibility by doing so.  

The Democrat party in Susquehanna County has one chance to prove itself in a leadership position,  Let’s see if they will step up to the plate and do so.  If not, it may be a very long time again before they have that opportunity. 

 The Republican party has a lot work to do, primarily in restructuring themselves from the ground up.  Although they have roughly a 2 to 1 edge in registered voters, they lack internal leadership.  It is a free country, you can’t stop someone from running a separate campaign if they lose a primary.  There needs to more cohesiveness in the party.  If you lose in the primary, you get behind the winners and support them.  We have one example of this, Ray Telnock who did, and three examples, Kelly, Baker and Jurista, who did not.  If these three had taken their losses, gone home and supported the endorsed candidates, none of this would have happened. 

Fight nicely kids, it’s a long time till the 2011 campaign season.

Early Morning 11-7-2007.  Well, without the write-ins fully counted, it appears that for the first time in recent history (and maybe in living memory), the majority commissioners will be Democrats.  As of the most recent update, 11:29am from the Susquehanna County website with 100% of the precincts reporting, the results are this so far:

Michael Giangreco, Esq.  (Republican) -    3,967 votes or 22.05%

MaryAnn Warren (Democrat, Incumbent) - 3,169 votes or 17.61%

Leon Allen (Democrat) -                           3,165 votes or 17.59%

Jeffrey Loomis (Republican, Incumbent) -   3,093 votes or 17.19%

Thomas Jurista (Independent) -                 1,307 votes or 7.26%

Write-ins -                                              3,290 votes or 18.29%

 As you can see, with the exception of Attorney Giangrieco, who appears to have easily captured the most votes, there are only 76 votes which separate the second, third and fourth place hopefuls.  With only 4 votes separating  second and third place, it is anyone’s race.  The write-ins, which total more than Warren, Allen, Loomis and Jurista votes probably in the end will be split primarily between Roberta Kelly (Republican, Incumbent) and Fred Baker (Republican).  Unless one of these two candidates gets the vast majority of the write-ins, their campaigns appear to have failed in more ways than one.  How much is the “majority of write-ins”?  Using the current totals, a write-in candidate would have to get at least 3,166 votes or approximately 96.24% (of the total write-in vote) just to stay alive in 3rd place.  Then there is the matter of the absentee vote.  This is generally small, but with the second, third and fourth place so close, it’s anyone’s guess where it will all fall out. 

Look for recounts and possibly court challenges to these results, which by no means will be final in all probability for some time.

Also, look for a major head hunt in the Republican party.  Losing control of the commissioners’ office will surely raise some eyebrows of the faithful, both here and away.  Maybe this will do the county some good.  Maybe the powers in Harrisburg and Washington will see Susquehanna County as having broken away from the famous Northern Tier  “T” where one politician observed that the only thing there is rocks, rattlesnakes and Republicans.  This could actually be a good thing, at least in the short term.  Maybe we can finally get some cooperation with grants, etc. 

As one Democrat noted yesterday, the Republican vote is so fragmented, there was a real possibility for two democrats to be elected.

On the other side, there were Republicans who were so sure of themselves that they thought there was a real possibility of three Republican commissioners.  When the egos in the GOP come back to reality, maybe these boys and girls will finally decide to play nicely together.  Maybe then they will see that 4 candidates who are declared Republicans, 2 write-ins and 2 endorsed will only split the vote, not strengthen it.  Let’s face it, there are just not that many Republican votes to go around. 

Now, it is a wait and see game.   

The hope here is that everyone took advantage of the biggest liberty we enjoy in the United States.  We actually have the responsibility of electing our leaders. 

If you voted, you honored the memory of all who sacrificed their lives for all of us to enjoy the freedom we do.  Thank you.

If you did not vote, you did not take part in the decision process.  Therefore, although you retain the right to speak due to the First Amendment, your opinions may not be taken with the same weight as someone who does vote.

Now, lets all stay up until ??? to watch the election returns.  Remember, because there are 2 write-in candidates, the final result of the voting will probably not be know for some days… 

Stay tuned!