The Row offices

In the Prothonotary race Carolee got 60% as predicted and Dottie Stankovic barely held on for another term as Register of Wills.


Prothnotary


Carolee Medico Olenginski (Rep) . . . 33,800 60%
Nancy McGinley Bellas (Dem) . . . . 22,328 40%


Register of Wills


Dottie Stanky Stankovic (Dem). . . . 29,626 52%
Gina Nevenglosky (Rep) . . . . . . 27,073 48%

Predictions-The Row offices

I'll save my prediction of the Controller's race for a later post.

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I've been saying for months that Republican Carolee Medico Olenginski will romp to victory in the Luzerne County Prothonotary contest even without the news that her opponent's husband is a crook. She has spent the last few months saying "I told you so" and she did.

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I've never met Democratic Nancy Bellas and I was surprised that she won the primary. She has skipped the public forums and I can't say that I blame her. She doesn't want to answer for the crimes of her husband.

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Carolee wins big 60%+

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In the Regisister of Wills race I originally thought that longtime incumbent Dottie Stankovic would win easily. I'm not so sure now. Republican candidate Gina Nevenglosky has been the energizer bunny and has got some traction over the allegation that Stankovic hasn't been in the office as much as she should be.

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The showing up for work thing and the fact it's a Republican year just may put Gina over the top but I think that Dottie will hold on.

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Stankovic 51%-Nevoglosky 49%.

The other row offices

I've been concentrating on the race for Luzerne County Controller because that is where most of the action has been lately. We have two other spots up for election on November 3rd and I hope this will be the last time we ever have to vote for candidates for these positions. But that is up to the Government Study Commission and then the voters to ratify a new charter.


I've been saying for months that Republican Carolee Medico Olenginski will romp to victory in the Prothonotary contest even without the news that her opponent's husband is a crook. I've never met Nancy Bellas and I was surprised that she won the primary against Duryea politico Art Akulonis and the most qualified candidate Gerald Mullery. I hear that the local Dems have given up on her and Mullery has even been handing out Carolee signs.

TL: Allan Bellas has resigned his post as President of Wyoming Valley West School Board President...Bellas has agreed to plead guilty to corruption charges related to his former post as Luzerne County Redevelopment Authority Executive Director. He previously accepted a bribe in exchange for helping a developer get a tax break deal.


Incumbent Democrat Register of Wills Dottie Stankovic is taking some flack over her work hours. The CV reviewed security records that show she never swiped her security card more than a third of the time over the last 21 months. But that does not mean she was a no-show at the Penn Place office on North Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilkes-Barre, Stankovic explained.
"I was in the office, and somebody else used their pass to open up the door. One opens it up, and five or six go in," Stankovic said.

Gina Nevenglosky, her Republican opponent, has claimed she has been to the Register of Wills Office "20-some times" this year and, she said, Stankovic was never there.

The suspicion that not all row officers put in a full day's is not new. Remember that Bob Reilly was selling used cars during business hours and a few years before that he was working in a beer store on weekdays.

This dust up just may be the answer to Gina's prayers of being elected.

Where are the local Democrats?

The Luzerne County Republican Party and Row office nominees have had a bunch of high profile get togethers, media events and fund raisers since the the May Primary but I've hardly heard a peep out of the Democratic row officer candidates.

Democratic Judge candidate Bill Amesbury has been on the hustings and Tina Gartley has a slew of events listed on her website. Republican Dick Hughes is also working hard. I have bumped into Judge Thomas Burke (R), who is up for retention, in a few places and I have yet to hear anyone say a bad thing about him. As far as I know he is not even raising money. The other judge up for retention, Peter Paul Olszewski Jr., knows that he is in trouble and has an event this week. Via PittstonPolitics.com PPO-2 will host a retention rally this Thursday, Oct 1 at 7PM. It will be held at the Red Mil Tavern in Pittston.

It looks like the Judicial candidates are running their campaigns independently of the county Democratic Party. That is probably a good stratergy.

Back to the row officer races.

Long time Register of Wills Dottie Stankovic is up against Republican Gina Nevenglosky. I always liked Dottie because she wouldn't always play ball with the powers that be. Her best endorsement came from former county Democratic Chairman Joe Mazur who was "gleeful" that Steve Flood lost the Controller nomination to Maryanne Petrilla in 2005. He said that "She and certain other people have been a cancer within the organization."
I haven't been to any Polka festivals lately so I haven't seen Dottie. Gina has scheduled an event at the courthouse on Saturday October 10, 2009 at 1:00PM.

Republican Carolee Medico Olenginski is looking to return to the office of Prothonotary after being defeated twice by the disgraced Jill Moran. Carolee has been everywhere since the primary and I still predict that she will win in a walk. Nurse Nancy Bellas won the Democratic nomination in May and hasn't been heard from since.


In the Controllers race Bob Morgan surfaced today to complain about a math error on Walter Griffith' s campaign finance report. Morgan was the only Democratic candidate for Controller in the primary which I thought was kind of weird for an open seat. Take a look at Morgan's report and you will see some familiar names. This is the first times in months that I have read Morgan's name in the papers or anywhere else. Griffith has been everywhere asking people for their vote.

Regular commenter Will Toole, the Independent candidate, has been pressing the flesh, working the blogs and writing letters to the editor. His latest missive in the CV asks the same question I have been asking the last few years.

Why hasn't casino gambling reduced property taxes?

I'm sure (hope) that our Democratic candidates will be more visible in the next few weeks before the election. If they think that they can rely on the registration edge to carry them to victory they are in for a big surprise. You still have to ask people for their vote and in this toxic atmosphere that may not be enough.

Gina has a website

Republican candidate for Luzerne County Register of Wills Gina Nevenglosky is up on the intertubes.

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Gina Nevenglosky

Luzerne County Candidate Register of Wills/Clerk of Orphan's Court

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Tired of Elected Officials Not at work receiving full time pay and benefits? Fill this seat with the person who will be at work every day serving the citizens of Luzerne County. The news articles and information from the recent FBI investigations have given evidence of theft, money missing and tampering with paper work. It is necessary to oversee staff in each Row Office. That is the job of a Row Officer. Elect Gina Nevenglosky for Register of Wills/Clerk of the Orphans' Court to restore employee accountability in government.

Her opponent is long time Democratic office holder Dottie Stankovic who doesn't have website as far as I know. I called her office earlier (about 12:15) today to ask why but nobody answered the phone. Some wag later told me she was having lunch with Bob Reilly at the Olive Garden across the street from Nationwide Car Sales but I can't verify that.

The Yonk is exercised about this lunch break policy asking What if? Julius Caesar might have survived because Brutus might’ve been on a rigatoni run.

So far I can't find a website for the Democratic Row officer candidates Bob Morgan and Nancy Bellas. GOP Controller nominee Walter Griffith has a site as does independent Wil Toole and they are both on Facebook. Republican Prothonotary candidate Carolee is on Facebook
but doesn't have a website up yet.

Looking to the fall

Luzerne County Judge

I think it's safe to say that Bill Amesbury will be the top vote getter for 1 of the 2 seats up for grabs by virtue of his nomination on both sides of the ballot. So the race is between Republican nominee Dick Hughes and Democrat Tina Gartley. Hughes has rock solid support on the GOP side and has broad appeal throughout the county. Even a trendy lefty like Carl Romanelli backs him. It still will be hard for him to overcome Gartley's advantages such as snagging the Democratic nomination in a county that has almost a 2 to 1 edge in Democratic registration and the feeling that there should be a woman on the Court of Common Pleas. About the only thing that can sink her is if she or a member of her family is tied to the Juvie Brothers.


Register of Wills


Two woman are vieing for this row office in the year of the woman. Dottie Stankovic has always been independent of the the local Democratic Party but the disgust with the local Dems just might make this a close race. The Republican nominee is Gina Nevenglosky

Prothonotary

This is another match up of 2 female candidates. Former GOP Prothonotary Carolee Medico-Olenginski romped to victory in the primary and will probably cruise to an easy win over first time candidate Democrat Nancy Bellas. Carolee back in the Courthouse, this will be fun.

Controller

Long time pain in the ass Walter Griffith won the Repubublican nomination and will face off with Bob Morgan in the fall. I think that Walter has been a "pain" in a good way like Steve Flood was when he was Controller. Let's just hope that he ignores nasty blog posts about him and stays out of the fray.

Wilkes-Barre Area School Director

Christine Katsock was the top vote getter on both sides of the ballot and should finally get elected to something. I haven't checked but people tell me she changed her registration to "D". Either way I'm voting for her. The only incumbent to hold on was Lynn Evans which is not surprising in this enviroment of investigations and indictments. Harry Haas won a spot on the GOP side and it looks like he will competing with former W-B Councilman Phil Latinski.

My view


Vote Repubublican in Luzerne County

Enough is enough. Throw the rascals out.

Who's running for what?- Register of Wills

Incumbent Dottie Stankovic is looking to win her fifth term and has stepped on the toes of the local Democratic party leadership, they even ran a challenger against her in the last primary. But her legion of polka fans came out for her and she won easily. The Republicans didn't even put up a token candidate in 2005 but they have one this time around . Gina Nevenglosky ran for Treasurer in 2005 and is an avid deer hunter who proposed requiring licenses for cats.

Congratulations to both ladies on their upcoming nominations. We will check back with you in the fall.

2009 elections

In Luzerne County we will be electing a Controller, Prothonotary, Register of Wills and Jury Commissioners. The Controller's spot has been vacant since Maryanne Petrilla was elected Commissioner and Rapid Edward has not nominated a replacement. Incumbent Prothontary Jill Moran has drawn some fire about her work habits and business dealings and the speculation is that she will not seek a third term. Democrat Dottie Stankovic was unopposed in the general election four years ago although the good old boys tried to knock her off in the primary. Jerry Bonner is the Democratic Jury Commissioner and I can't even remember who holds the Republican slot.

Jobs like Prothonotary and Register of Wills are clerical positions that should not even be elected offices. Same goes for Jury Commissioner who's only official duty is to once a year hit the print button on a computer to get a list of prospective jurors. But we will have elections for these jobs until we get Home Rule.

As usual the action will be in the Democratic primary that will probably make the November election a formality. I hope that I'm wrong about that prediction and new county GOP Chairman Terry Casey can recruit some quality candidates and the back mountain money guys raise some serious cash for them.

I will be posting some scuttlebutt about who may be running for these positions in the coming days. If you have heard any names being tossed around let me know in the comments or toss me an email.

We will also get to pick at least one new Judge plus various school board members and municipal offices.