Over the past few months we have spoken to three prominent local Democrats who have the opinion that the Republican Party has a good shot at winning a majority of seats on Conshohocken’s Borough Council this November. The three Democrats voiced dissatisfaction with the candidates running and two spoke about strife between the local level Democrats and those at the county level. There is currently only one Republican on Borough Council, Robert Stokley, and his seat, Ward 6, is not up for election this cycle.

To obtain a majority of seats on Borough Council, the Republicans will need to win three of the four seats (Ward 1, Ward 3, Ward 5 and Ward 7) up for election in November. Republicans are facing only one incumbent in those races, Karen Tutino in Ward 1, and she has not yet faced the voters in Ward 1. She was appointed to the position when Raj Gupta resigned.

The most interesting result from the recent primary on the Democratic Party side is that 19% of the votes in Ward 3 went to write-in candidate(s) and not the party’s nominee Tina Sokolowski. That doesn’t show strong support from the party’s base. Current Borough Council President Paul McConnell currently holds that seat and decided to not seek reelection. However, that seat looked very safe for the Democrats because the Republicans did not have a candidate on the ballot for the primary (meaning they couldn’t find anyone to run). Republican Joseph Januzelli did, however, receive enough write-in votes in the primary to qualify to be on the ballot in November.

Here are the candidates for this November:

Ward 1

Karen Tutino (D) vs. Joe Ferrigno (R)

Ward 3

Tina Sokolowski (D) vs. Joseph Januzelli (R)

Ward 5

Rosemary Northcutt (D) vs. Kevin McMonagle (R)

Ward 7

Colleen Leonard (D) vs. Chuck Mandracchia (R)

If you are wondering which ward you live in, click here.

We are planning to ask a bunch of questions of all the candidates after Labor Day. We also hope to hold a Meet the Candidates’ Night in October as well. Stay tuned.