ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A pair of Lehigh County Court rulings this week let an Allentown councilwoman and a Whitehall Township mayoral hopeful remain in their primary election races.
City Council candidate Rodney Bushe tried to have incumbent Candida Affa knocked off the Democratic primary ballot by challenging nearly all of the 128 signatures Affa turned in this month.
Lehigh County Judge Melissa Pavlack struck about a dozen of the signatures from her petition, but Affa still surpassed the minimum 100 signatures needed to stay on the ballot.
- Allentown City Councilwoman Candida Affa will remain in the primary election race after surviving a petition challenge
- Whitehall Township mayoral candidate Tina Jo Koren successfully defended an appeal, letting her to remain on the Republican ballot
- Pennsylvania has closed primaries. Local voters have until May 1 to register with one of the two major parties to vote in that primary
The court order means city Democrats will have seven candidates from which to choose in the May primary.
Aside from Affa and Bushe, a specialist with the non-profit Promise Neighborhoods, the other candidates are incumbents Ce-Ce Gerlach and Santo Napoli; former council candidates Luis Acevedo and Tino Babayan; and Sarina Torres, a Kutztown University student and small business owner.
No Republican candidates filed for the city council race.
Meanwhile, Judge Michele Varricchio ruled Tina Jo Koren will remain on the Republican ballot for Whitehall mayor.
Kade Marx challenged Koren's paperwork, arguing in a hearing last week that she filed an incorrect statement of financial interests with the township.
Koren, the township treasurer, turned in the form marked for incumbents — to run for mayor, Koren should have checked the box for candidates.
However, Marx failed to make that distinction in his original complaint, instead claiming Koren failed to turn in the statement at all. With no dispute about whether the statement was filed on time, Varricchio dismissed the complaint.
The township will see two contested primaries for the mayoral race.
Koren will face John C. Hersh in the Republican primary; a third candidate, Ron Reaman, withdrew his petition last week.
The Democratic primary will see Joseph Marx Jr., president of the township board of commissioners, face off against Michael Cocca.
Incumbent Michael Harakal bowed out of the race earlier this month. He's been at the center of a harassment complaint that forced the township to change its policies this year.
