March 10th was the deadline for candidates for Conshohocken’s Borough Council to file to qualify for the May primary. There are four seats up for election and only incumbent has chosen to run. The incumbent, Democrat Karen Tutino in Ward 1, was appointed to the position after a resignation. So it is really the first time she has sought election in Ward 1.
Below is our ward by ward breakdown:
Ward 1
Karen Tutino (D)(Incumbent) does not have a primary challenger, nor does Joe Ferrigno (R).
Ward 3
Borough Council President Paul McConnell (D) has chosen not to run for reelection. Tina Sokolowski (D) has entered the race. Republicans do not have a candidate in this ward. Sokolowski does not have a primary challenger.
Ward 5
Matt Ryan (D) has chosen not to run for reelection. Rosemary Northcutt (D) and Kevin McMonagle (R) have entered the race. Neither has a primary.
Ward 7
Eddie Phipps (D) has chosen not to run for reelection. This will be the only ward with a primary. On the Democrat side Colleen Leonard and Matt Breidenstein will face off on May 19th. The winner of that race will face Churck Mandracchia (R) in the general election. Mandracchia does not have a primary challenger.
We do not recognize most of these names, so we will work on profiling each candidate and asking their positions on local issues. We think there is at least one Independent candidate out there that could shake things up.
Next week we will tell you why the lack of incumbents running could prove very interesting.
Full disclosure, Matt Breidenstein is the President of the CPW Rotary, which MoreThanTheCurve.com works with to produce the Conshohocken Beer Festival. We have also sold the Rotary an advertisement the past few years.