|
Campaign 2010
Candidates
Dates and Deadlines
About the BCDC
Latest News
Events and Meetings
Assembly Districts
Municipal Organizations
Organization Web sites
VRM
Resources
Info Downloads
Links
Reference Library
Issues
Register to vote
Change Voter Registration
Apply for an Absentee Ballot
Find your Legislator
Your Elected Officials
Get to Know Bucks
Take Action
Contribute to the BCDC
List Your Event Online
What's Your Beef?
Spread The Word
Volunteer
Write Your Newspaper
|
|
Control of Warminster Flips to Democrats
|
November 3, 2007
For Immediate Release
|
Contact
Neil Samuels
Deputy Chair
|
|
No single reason cited for Democratic takeover
By: JACOB FENTON (Thu, Nov/08/2007)
Maybe it was the taxes. Or maybe it was the drapes.
Whatever it was, Democrats knocked off two Republican incumbents to take control of a township that's been run by the GOP for 12 years. Yet the reasons voters gave for the overthrow — according to the winners, anyway — were as unusual as the residents giving them.
One woman complained that blasting a former military base to build Ann's Choice, the massive age-restricted community, left jet fuel-tinged concrete dust all over her curtains. When she complained to a supervisor, she felt ignored, according to Ellen Sager Jarvis, one of the two Democrats to sweep into office. “It was a very personal thing,” Jarvis said.
“The big thing, really, is attitude. A lot of people said the attitude and disrespect shown towards citizens when they tried to contact the supervisors” convinced them to vote Democratic, said Jarvis' running mate, Frank Feinberg.
In unofficial results, Feinberg had 3,980 votes to Tuesday's election while Jarvis had 3,699. Donnamarie Davis, the board's vice chair, had 3,257 and supervisors Chairman Rich Luce had 2,613.
Luce declined to comment, and Davis could not be reached Wednesday.
Republicans might also have suffered as well from a series of gaffes by GOP Supervisor Fred Gold, who was not on the ballot. Davis asked for Gold's resignation this year after he called her a vulgar name under his breath at a public meeting.
Though there's been no official confirmation of it, reports of an ongoing ethics investigation might have soured voters on the party in power. Democrats pointedly promised to “restore integrity” to local government.
In a township where Republicans outnumber Democrats 51 percent to 38 percent, results were better than Gail Johnson had hoped for.
“I was surprised,” said Johnson, the only Democrat on the board. “I thought we had a chance to win; I didn't think we had a chance to win by such a large margin.”
During the campaign, Democrats argued that too many businesses were boarded up and that too many streets were unpaved and choked with traffic. Davis voted against the new developments that most irked voters, but voters apparently weren't interested.
Though control will change, Feinberg promised not to purge township employees or volunteers. People are sick of partisan politics.
“We're serious about having people who are qualified doing the job regardless of party affiliation,” said Feinberg. “On a personal note, if I didn't get along with Republicans I wouldn't get along with half of my family.”
Jacob Fenton can be reached at jfenton@phillyBurbs.com.
Article's URL:
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/113-11082007-1437464.html
|
|