Crowded GOP commissioner race will highlight Forest County ballot

This year’s primary election ballot in Forest County will feature a race for the three county commissioner seats.

Meanwhile, several incumbents holding other county row office positions won’t face any ballot opposition in the primary.

The May 16 primary in Pennsylvania is a closed primary, meaning only registered Republicans and Democrats can cast ballots for their candidates.

A check of candidates who filed petitions by last week’s deadline shows many will be running without ballot opposition. In addition to the row officers, those unopposed candidates including township supervisor and borough council hopefuls.

The township supervisor race in Hickory Township as well as two school board races will feature no candidates listed for either party on the ballots.

But write-in candidates could receive enough votes to capture their party nods in the primary.

Five candidates will be listed for the three commissioner posts. They are incumbent Democrat Robert Snyder Jr., incumbent Republican Mark Kingston, and three other Republicans — Patrick Kline, Joe Calla and Janey Brown.

Kline has been a Green Township supervisor, Calla is a Barnett Township supervisor and Brown is the proprietor of Haller’s General Store in Tionesta.

Longtime commissioner Basil Huffman, a Republican, retired at the end of 2022, and Norm Wimer, a former county commissioner and current Forest County coroner, was appointed to fill the remaining year of his term.

Wimer is not seeking election as a commissioner.

The top two vote-getters for each party in the primary will appear on the general election ballot, and the top three vote getters will be elected in November.

But the November ballot may include just three candidates for the three spots unless another Democrat gets enough write-in votes to join Snyder on the ballot.

Elsewhere, incumbents Alyce Busch (district attorney), Wimer (coroner) and Stacey Barnes (treasurer) are unopposed on the ballots. Busch is a Democrat and Wimer and Barnes are Republicans.

There will be no listed candidates for any of those three positions on the opposite ticket.

Republican Miriah TKach will be the only candidate listed on either ballot for the county’s prothonotary, register, recorder and clerk of courts post.

Dawn Millin, the current prothonotary, register, recorder and clerk of courts, is retiring at the end of April. TKach has been the deputy in those positions.

The three county auditors are also up for election. Running for those slots are Republicans Crystal Bell and Colleen Lamberto and Democrat Deborah Wagner.

Forest School Board

Elsewhere in the county, no one has filed a petition to run for the one open four-year Forest School Board seat in Region A.

In Region B, incumbent Shirley Edmondson has cross-filed to run on both the Republican and Democrat tickets for a four-year seat.

No one filed a petition to run for the second four-year school board seat in Region B.

In Region C, two four-year seats and one two-year seat are up.

John Atkin, a Democrat, and Troy Johnston Jr., who cross-filed, are on the ballot for the four-year seats, and Republican Tabitha VanDyke is running for the two-year slot.

All the listed school board candidates are incumbents.

Tionesta Borough, townships

In Tionesta Borough, Republicans Robert Holzer, Jamie Say and Christi Black are running for the three open borough council seats. All three are incumbents.

No Democrats will be on the ballot.

Meanwhile, one six-year township supervisor slot is up for election this year in each township in the county. No Democrats are on the ballot for any of those posts.

There will be two contested supervisor races on the Republican side as Greg Geyer and Kevin Carter are running for one Jenks Township seat, and Bill Hall Jr. and William Scherer Jr. are running for one Kingsley Township seat.

Unopposed Republican supervisor candidates are Michael Traugott (Barnett Township), Jeff Hartzell (Green Township), Brian Potts (Harmony Township), Richard Shaffer (Howe Township) and Todd Allio (Tionesta Township).

May 1 is the last day to register to vote before the primary, and May 9 is the last day to request a mail-in or absentee ballot.

All mail-in and absentee ballots must be received by county election offices by 8 p.m. on primary election day.

The last day to register to vote before the Nov. 7 general election is Oct. 23.