Four seek seats on Blair board
By Kay Stephens, kstephens@altoonamirror.com
POSTED: October 28, 2007
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» View video interviews with candidates. Click on ElectionsThe race, initially attracting 11 candidates from a wide geographic area, was pared down to four in the spring primary.
Republicans Terry Tomassetti and Diane Meling are on the ballot with Democrats Donna Gority, the lone incumbent, and JoAnn Nardelli.
Voters will select two. The county has three commissioners, but voting for two insures that more than one party is represented.
If the election mirrors the primary, Tomassetti should have no problem winning one of the three seats. He was the Republicans’ favorite, receiving 8,468 votes, official returns show. That was more than double the 4,686 votes Meling received for second place.
Close behind were Bobbi Ellenberger Yoder, with 4,277 votes, and incumbent Commissioner Barry Wright, 4,046 votes.
Democrats, who had a quartet of candidates to consider in the primary, supported Gority and Nardelli, giving them 2,981 and 2,849 votes, respectively.
If Tomassetti has no problem taking top honors, the number of straight-party ticket votes, or the desire to split a ticket, is likely to influence how Meling, Gority and Nardelli finish.
Republicans have the advantage, with 45,980 registered voters. Democrats have 26,347 registered voters.
The three candidates that come out on top take office on the first Monday in January for a four-year term. Each will earn $60,879 annually.
Giving up their seats will be Wright, who lost in the primary, and Terry Wagner, appointed last year to finish the term of John H. Eichelberger Jr., who resigned to become a state senator.
Unlike in some years, when the commissioners race drew few candidates, interest was generated in running toward the end of 2006 as commissioners struggled with money issues, talked about the need for property reassessment and levied a 7.13-mill real estate tax increase to balance the 2007 budget.
As Wright and Wagner started showing support for Gority’s interest in tackling the county’s first property reassessment since 1958, other candidates started speaking out against it or offered a cautious interest.
After anti-reassessment candidates Tomassetti and Nardelli secured nominations in the primary, Meling said the voters had spoken, and she added her opposition.
Meanwhile, the county continues to struggle financially, and commissioners are trying to come up with a balanced budget for 2008. If commissioners who take office in January aren’t satisfied with the proposed spending plan, they have the option of reopening the budget and making adjustments.
Commissioners taking office in January also will find themselves immediately involved in contract negotiations.
An arbitration ruling settling a labor contract dispute with United Mine Workers of America requires the county and the union to reach an agreement on wages and health insurance issues by Jan. 15. If they don’t, the matter goes to the arbitrator to decide.
Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.
