Election results 2017- Municipal races

Some selected results from some down ballot races that I had an interest in because friends of mine were in the running. Spoiler alert, most of them lost. Sometimes I feel like the black cat of politics.

John Cordora at Blogfest

Longtime Kingston resident John Cordora ran for for Mayor of Luzerne as a Democrat. John has been a Republican candidate for State Rep and Mayor of Kingston. I always found him to one of the more entertaining people on the local political scene. He was always a good sport taking my snark in stride even when I said he resembles Vincent Price.

James Keller (R)  280
                                                          John Cordora (D)  235

Luzerne County Young Republican Prez John Lombardo  made his first run for elective office as a candidate for the Pittston Area School Board. It was just a matter of time before we saw his name on the ballot and it won't be the last. He's been a guest blogger on Gort42.   John is a lot like the young Gort becoming a political junkie at a young age.  He ran a great race and came close.

Joseph Salvo (DEM)		2,714
John Lombardo (REP)		2,384

 Keep an eye on what goes on in Kingston Township in the near future. I predict they are heading for  all sorts of legal challenges involving sunshine law violations and of conflicts of interest. The winning candidate is the son of of one of the present Supervisors who works for the township  road
Department.

Liz Martin has been a hard working public servant who deserved reelection.

Robert Wagner (R)  841
Liz Martin (D)         774

Mayor Jim on the mend

Gort,

Thank you for your kind words regarding my recent hospitalization. By way of update, I was released from the Wilkes-Barre General Hospital shortly after noon on Monday. I had been taken by ambulance the prior Tuesday morning, and I was the subject of a bypass operation later that morning. Six bypasses later, I began the recovery process. I am quite glad to be home.

My most sincere thanks go to the professionals of the Kingston/Forty Fort Fire Department for all they were able to do for me on Tuesday morning. Also, I cannot thank enough the men and women of the Wilkes-Barre General Hospital for the first-rate and compassionate care they provided. They were tremendous.

Thank you as well to the hundreds of people who sent well wishes with calls, notes, cards, text messages, facebook postings, and gifts. Every one certainly meant a lot.

I'm looking forward to a complete and successful rehab and being back on the job as soon as possible.

Again, many thanks to all.

Jim Haggerty

Get well Mayor Jim

Kingston Mayor and Chairman of the Luzerne County Government Study Commission Jim Haggerty had emergency bypass surgery at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital on Tuesday. Let's hope they get his ticker on beat again. I've had a few conversations with Jim over the last few months about home rule and other subjects and found him to be very receptive to my ideas. He is one of the good guys on the local political scene.

Now he thinks he is Boss Tweed

I have to like John Cordora because he is a Blogger's dream. Cordora is like our own local version of Rick Santorum or Michele Bachmann.
If you want someone to say something that is bat shit crazy he is your guy.

In 2006 he won the Republican nomination for State Rep in the 120th District. He ran a stealth campaign and came out ahead of 2 very attractive candidates. In the general election against Phyllis Mundy he got blown out and then blamed his loss on Lynette Villano and the Luzerne County GOP. His top issue was gay marriage.

In a news release, Cordora also attacked Mundy for supporting "abortion on demand, higher taxes, gay marriage and all the other liberal garbage."

In the recent primary election he was a Republican candidate for Mayor of Kingston saying he had a secret plan to prevent crime. It had something to do with putting a large spotlight on top of the new fire station on Wyoming Ave. that projects the image of a winged mammal that calls a Caped Crusader into action. He claimed to have visited thousands of homes in Kingston and found agreement that Jim Haggerty was a lousy Mayor. On election day he got a whopping 254 votes.


Now he is backing the Democrats.

TL: “I’m going to make sure I deliver at least 500 votes to (mayoral candidate Stephen) Radzinski and (council candidates) Barry Adams and Curt Piazza,” said Cordora.

Let's do the math. He gets 254 votes in a town that is still leading in Republican registration and then promises 500 votes for the Dems after he gets clobbered in the primary.

Everytime I hear someone say our problems in Luzerne County are a result of voting in Democrats all the time I think of him. I agree that one party dominance is not healthy but our local R's have to recruit some serious candidates



More John Cordora fun is in my archives.

Who's running for what?-Mayor of Kingston

The TL has some announcements.

Jim Haggerty is running for reelection saying "The future of our community is as bright as ever.” He will probably cruise to another term in the job that he has held since 1998. He has basics down, the trash is picked up on time and the streets are plowed when it snows. The police force is professionally run and he has partnered with Edwardsville to provide better fire protection and ambulance service.


Haggerty is also running for the Luzerne County Government Study Commission. He told me that he can contribute to the study because he is the Mayor of a home rule municipality and would bring the nuts and bolts experience of governing to the formation of the new charter. He also predicted that Home Rule would win this time.

Mayor Jim has 2 opponents in the GOP primary, Jeanne Shuella and John Cordora. I don't know anything about Shuella but Cordora rings a bell. He said the centerpiece of his campaign will be the lack of crime prevention in Kingston. “I have a common sense, aggressive plan to reduce crime in Kingston and I only want one term as mayor to prove it.” If someone can figure out how to prevent crime they should patent the process and sell it.


Cordora ran for State Rep against Phyllis Mundy in 2006 and got trounced. Then his "centerpiece" was his opposition to gay marriage and the pay raise. For most of the campaign he was the invisible man and when he did raise his head he attacked Mundy for supporting "abortion on demand, higher taxes, gay marriage and all the other liberal garbage." I think he listens to too much talk radio. After the election he blamed his loss on Lynette Villano and the dysfunctional Luzerne County Republican Party.

There are 2 Democrats running for Mayor of Kingston, Curt Piazza and Stephen Radinski.