Tom Leighton wins in Wilkes-Barre

Tom Leighton (DEM) . . . . . . . 3,852 55.20 %

Lisa Cope (REP) . . . . . . . . 2,365 33.89 %

Betsy Summers (LIB) . . . . . . . 737 10.56 %

Them Dem's made a clean sweep wining all the council seats and the Controller's office.

Wilkes-Barrre Mayor and City Council

What about the School Board?

Most of the attention in the city of my birth this election has been focused on the Mayor's race pitting incumbent Democrat Tom Leighton against Republican Lisa Cope and Libertarian Betsy Summers. Most incumbents like it when there are more than 2 names on the ballot in the General Election in a local election. The TL political reporter quotes 2 Captains Obvious confirming that

Political science professors see two challengers dividing city’s opposition vote

Tom Baldino of Wilkes University and David Sosar of King’s College say Leighton already has several advantages in the race, but with two candidates vying for the votes of discontented residents, the two-term Democrat becomes an even safer bet.

The Citizens Voice ran profiles of the candidates for the 5 Wilkes-Barre city council seats. W-B will see at least 3 new council members next year.

Incumbent councilmen targeted in Wilkes-Barre


Nov. 8 election to change face of Wilkes-Barre council

Election polls

Very few scientific polls are conducted in local elections for the simple reason that they are expensive and very few campaigns have the money to conduct one. Even if they did the chances are that they don't have people with the expertise who know how to use the results to shape an election strategy.

I know the Wilkes-Barre Mayor's race has been polled (guess what camp did that) and Pittston Politics reports that Jackie Mo had a survey that showed her up big before Salaventis went on the air. In the last Congressional races the local papers paid for polls but they are not about to waste money on a municipal election. Besides, it looks like the Times-Leader can't afford it anyway.

Polling the Judicial races is pointless and trying to survey the races for seats on the new Luzerne County Council is impossible with so many candidates and without a model to build on.

Local bloggers decide to take up the slack .

The LuLac Political Letter

Here are the poll results we took for the General Election in 2011. As we indicated yesterday, the poll was among LuLac readers, it had 178 respondents, to our knowledge they only voted once and is presented as an unscientific sampling of the pulse of LuLac readers who follow politics as well as this blog site.

It's a tradition on Gort42 to put up some polls on the sidebar the week before the election. I'm not going to list multiple candidate races such as County Council and the Judicial contests. Altogether there are 35 candidates.

So we have 2 questions.

Who will win the races for Luzerne County DA and Mayor of Wilkes-Barre?

Vote on the side bar.

Looking to 2012 I have heard reports that the NRCC has polled the 11th CD recently finding that former 10th CD Congressman Chris Carney would top Congressman Lou Barletta by 5 points. I'm trying to get more info on that.

Speaking of local bloggers

Blog of the week
Harold Jenkins from NEPA Blogs talks to us today about "Gort42", the ultimate guide to local politics and local political blogs.

NEPA Blogs Flapdoodle

Wilkes-Barre Mayor forum tonight

The forum will be held Wednesday, Oct. 26th at 7 p.m. at Wilkes University, Stark Learning Center, Room 101. Others are calling this a debate but that remains to be seen. Audience members will be able to submit written questions. Former State Representative and W-B City Council member Kevin Blaum will moderate, he now writes a Sunday Column for the Times-Leader. I go back a long way with Kevin, who is pretty savvy guy, and I hope he lets the candidates mix it up.

Only Betsy Summers has a website but you can find all 3 on Facebook.

Re-Elect Mayor Tom Leighton

LISA COPE FOR MAYOR

Betsy Summers

I haven't paid much attention to the politics of my hometown lately but I have to agree with my friend the Blogfather that Leighton has been a big improvement over the last guy. He got the finances in order so the city doesn't need 3 tax anticipation loans and it's bond rating was restored. Boscov's didn't close and the downtown has more businesses than when he took over. There are more police officers on the street and a new fire station was constructed in Hollenback Park.

On the down side a few places have pulled out of the downtown lately and the Heights firehouse had to be closed because it was falling apart.

Trying to blame the mayor for crime in the city is unfair as there will always be drunken idiots with beer muscles and the federal and state drug and gun laws encourage gang warfare Ask the Mafia how prohibition was good for business plus just about every resident of every town in the northeast will complain about potholes and the condition of the roads.

Leighton's challengers are doing their best to make something out of his alleged ethical lapses such as the home security system paid for by the taxpayers, hiring his kids for summer jobs, the LAG towing contract, Old River Road Bakery, security cameras and a few other things.

There is an old rule to politics that says the challenger doesn't win an election but the incumbent loses it. Wilkes-Barre is an overwhelmingly Democratic city and with 2 challengers spitting the anti Leighton vote in the race Mayor Tom should be with us for the next 4 years . The 2 Captain Obvious college professors agree. Tom Baldino of Wilkes University and David Sosar of King’s College say Leighton already has several advantages in the race, but with two candidates vying for the votes of discontented residents, the two-term Democrat becomes an even safer bet.

Tom Leighton wins in Wilkes-Barre

Tom Leighton . . . . . . . . . 2,603 55.67 %
Charlotte B. Raup. . . . . . . . 1,810 38.71 %
Nick Punko . . . . . . . . . . 242 5.18 %
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 21 .45 %


WITH 20 OF 20 PRECINCTS COUNTED

His opponent will be Lisa Cope


Lisa Cope . . . . . . . . . . 357 34.59 % 357 Frank R. Sorick . . . . . . . . 283 27.42 % 283 Karen Ceppa. . . . . . . . . . 260 25.19 % 260

Almost 6000 votes for the Democrats and less than 1000 for the Republicans