In the election this past Tuesday primary in Pennsylvania there were few surprises as the races were mostly local. Conversely, the exception to this rule is the Democratic primary for mayor of Pittsburgh where Ed Gainey lost to Corey O’Connor. Locally the race for mayor of Johnstown is an interesting race between Democrat Sylvia King and Republican John DeBartola. There are also strong candidates for city council this year. For this post, I am taking a closer look at the Johnstown Primaries.
Sylvia King defeated Laura Huchel in the Democratic Primary by 59% to 39% while John DeBartola ran unopposed on the Republican side. The map above shows that King won 13 precincts, Huchel won 3 (2 in Moxham, one in 20th ward), and they tied in the second precinct of the 20th ward. King had 55.9% of the mail in/absentee vote and 60.2% of the in person vote.
Countywide turnout was 22.6% of registered voters. A total of 1,070 voted in the Democratic primary for mayor while 572 voted on the Republican side. The four Democratic city council candidates in the fall are Taylor Clark (25.4% of votes cast), Lorraine Brandon-Taylor (21.7%), Jasmine LaRue (19.3%) and Samuel Barber (18.2%). There were 5 candidates on the ballot for the Democrats. Voters could vote for up to four candidates. Greg Brown was the odd man out at 13.9%.
Concurrently, the candidates were Mike Hamacek (27.1% of votes cast), Nicholas Spinelli (25.8%), Joseph Taranto (23.8%), and Charlene Stanton (20.6%) for the GOP. There were 4 candidates on the ballot for the Republicans. They were subsequently unopposed as voters could vote for up to 4 at large candidates.
This closer look at the Johnstown primaries reflects those who came out to vote. The general election in November will be hotly contested here. Will people turn out when it’s time?
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