BREAKING DOWN THE SCHOOL BOARD RACE

WEST CHESTER – The results of the West Chester Area School Board elections proved very few surprises, however some trends were very noticeable in reviewing the final results.

The Republican ticket of Sean Carpenter, John Wingerter, Maria Armandi Pimley, and Heidi Adsett swept the four open seats on the school board, defeating the Democrat ticket of Susan Spellman Tiernan, Susan Carty, Lisa Samuel, and Deborah Liczwek. How the final balloting played out is no surprise, considering the county's historic trend towards voting Republican in most local races.

Overall, the unofficial vote tallies were as follows:

TIERNAN		CARTY	SAMUEL	LICZWEK	CARPENTER	WINGERTER		PINLEY	ADSETT
7081		6893	6541	6423	8676	8787		8617	8757

 

The gap among the four Republican candidates was only 170 votes, compared to a 658 vote gap among the four Democrat candidates. More Republican straight ticket votes (4,284) were cast compared to Democrat straight ticket votes (2,313). This is relatively close to the county-wide straight ticket breakdown – there were 18,276 GOP straight ticket votes compared to only 9,676 Dem straight ticket votes. That leads one to believe that the GOP was far more effective in promoting their ticket compared to the Dems. (Note: the straight ticket figures do not include Thornbury, Delaware County; Delaware County's election web site, like the rest of the county's web site, is lacking for details compared to other counties.)

While Democrats received more votes and captured West Chester Borough (no surprise there, given the way that West Chester has devolved into a left-wing loony bin, at least politically), Republicans outpolled Democrats in the surrounding townships.

In East Goshen, the Republican ticket handily defeated the Dems, although the Dem ticket did split in East Goshen 4, which is the "triangle" in the deep southern end of the township south of West Chester Pike.

The strongest turn-out for the GOP came in East Goshen 5 and East Goshen 8; both precincts include portions of the Hershey's Mill retirement community (5 covers the west side of the development, 8 covers the east side). As was the case in East Bradford, the straight ticket balloting proved to be the difference for the GOP, as the margin was nearly 3-to-1 (compared to nearly 2-to-1 in the rest of the county).

TOWNSHIP	PRECINCT	STR D	STR R	DIFF	TIERNAN	CARTY	SAMUEL	LICZWEK	CARPENTER	WINGERTER	PINLEY	ADSETT
East Goshen	1	50	129	79	163	171	161	152	265	267	272	275
East Goshen	2	36	105	69	89	97	95	92	183	189	187	184
East Goshen	3	34	110	76	117	121	113	109	189	195	188	194
East Goshen	4	68	71	3	134	134	123	120	134	127	133	130
East Goshen	5	120	444	324	226	237	200	193	598	625	603	614
East Goshen	6	47	124	77	162	153	150	155	252	248	257	259
East Goshen	7	53	156	103	152	151	166	151	275	276	277	284
East Goshen	8	62	232	170	125	128	115	114	301	303	299	293
East Goshen	9	18	67	49	66	72	67	58	115	141	115	121
East Goshen	TOTAL	488	1438	950	1234	1264	1190	1144	2312	2371	2331	2354

 

Other than the fact that Delaware County has been a GOP stronghold for as long as anyone can recall, it's really difficult to break down the results in Thornbury, DelCo. Delaware County, unlike Chester County, does not break down election results by precinct, but it's probably fair to say that the GOP held their own.

	PRECINCT	STR D	STR R	DIFF	TIERNAN	CARTY	SAMUEL	LICZWEK	CARPENTER	WINGERTER	PINLEY	ADSETT
Thornbury [D]	1	0	0	0	559	570	533	514	829	829	803	796
Thornbury [D]	TOTAL	0	0	0	559	570	533	514	829	829	803	796

 

The results in Thornbury, Chester County, were a lot closer than in the other townships. While the GOP had a 2-to-1 margin in the straight ticket category, the Dems held their own in both precincts. The margins in Thornbury 1 (east end of the township) were closer than they were in Thornbury 2 (west end of the township and the Thornbury development).

	PRECINCT	STR D	STR R	DIFF	TIERNAN	CARTY	SAMUEL	LICZWEK	CARPENTER	WINGERTER	PINLEY	ADSETT
Thornbury [C]	1	49	85	36	155	159	150	148	176	173	173	173
Thornbury [C]	2	32	72	40	134	126	125	114	156	157	147	147
Thornbury [C]	TOTAL	81	157	76	289	285	275	262	332	330	320	320

 

Westtown also proved to be closer than expected for the GOP, as like Thornbury, the GOP's straight ticket margin was only 2-to-1. The Dems, however, made it relatively close in Westtown 2 (northwest end) and Westtown 5 (west of U.S. 202 and the Oakbourne development north of Oakbourne Road).

	PRECINCT	STR D	STR R	DIFF	TIERNAN	CARTY	SAMUEL	LICZWEK	CARPENTER	WINGERTER	PINLEY	ADSETT
Westtown	1	40	117	77	148	140	117	116	208	211	212	215
Westtown	2	57	87	30	122	121	114	119	159	165	169	166
Westtown	3	66	117	51	191	193	175	161	238	238	230	241
Westtown	4	61	110	49	149	142	130	128	188	196	196	192
Westtown	5	29	68	39	113	110	112	105	151	142	142	144
Westtown	TOTAL	253	499	246	723	706	648	629	944	952	949	958

 

In East Bradford, Republicans outpolled Dems in the straight ticket category, 558 to 271. Without the straight ticket votes, the Dems would've captured East Bradford with more non-straight ticket votes in all precincts except for South 2.

TOWNSHIP	PRECINCT	STR D	STR R	DIFF	TIERNAN	CARTY	SAMUEL	LICZWEK	CARPENTER	WINGERTER	PINLEY	ADSETT
East Bradford	N-1	42	60	18	105	101	99	106	120	117	116	116
East Bradford	N-2	69	144	75	234	216	206	206	260	266	263	268
East Bradford	S-1	87	202	115	297	287	267	280	334	319	327	328
East Bradford	S-2	73	152	79	176	161	158	155	285	299	288	309
East Bradford	TOTAL	271	558	287	812	765	730	747	999	1001	994	1021

 

West Goshen proved to be a lot closer than the rest of the townships in the District, as Dems captured three precincts – North 2 (north of Fern Hill Road, east of U.S. 202), Middle 2 (east of Five Points, north of West Chester Pike, south of Paoli Pike), and South 1 (south of Gay Street, west of Westtown Road – including the off-campus West Chester Commons student housing complex).

	PRECINCT	STR D	STR R	DIFF	TIERNAN	CARTY	SAMUEL	LICZWEK	CARPENTER	WINGERTER	PINLEY	ADSETT
West Goshen	N-1	45	108	63	153	142	134	134	187	194	181	180
West Goshen	N-2	26	59	33	129	113	121	112	106	115	102	104
West Goshen	N-3	40	114	74	138	127	124	117	239	246	242	243
West Goshen	N-4	49	104	55	138	126	127	126	215	225	220	228
West Goshen	M-1	49	52	3	109	112	102	106	111	110	109	111
West Goshen	M-2	65	66	1	156	159	157	155	144	143	139	141
West Goshen	S-1	58	43	-15	179	164	164	162	99	99	103	112
West Goshen	S-2	39	59	20	101	98	87	89	111	120	119	124
West Goshen	S-3	57	96	39	138	131	120	126	160	157	161	160
West Goshen	S-4	39	92	53	137	126	116	117	171	173	179	173
West Goshen	TOTAL	467	793	326	1378	1298	1252	1244	1543	1582	1555	1576

 

Dems also appeared to make some inroads in West Whiteland as well. While the GOP had more straight ticket voters in all seven precincts, the Dems outpolled the GOP in West Whiteland 2 (which includes the Exton Station condo complex) and West Whiteland 5 (east end of the township and the Indian King development).

	PRECINCT	STR D	STR R	DIFF	TIERNAN	CARTY	SAMUEL	LICZWEK	CARPENTER	WINGERTER	PINLEY	ADSETT
West Whiteland	1	33	76	43	127	122	110	111	176	180	173	177
West Whiteland	2	61	64	3	150	145	140	131	128	134	123	131
West Whiteland	3	8	24	16	34	33	32	36	47	49	45	44
West Whiteland	4	60	72	12	190	191	172	175	152	162	153	162
West Whiteland	5	62	137	75	180	171	173	163	238	229	227	230
West Whiteland	6	76	154	78	211	197	182	182	325	324	316	324
West Whiteland	7	40	90	50	82	85	82	77	128	132	127	136
West Whiteland	TOTAL	340	617	277	974	944	891	875	1194	1210	1164	1204

 

As noted, the only municipality where the GOP failed to win a single precinct was West Chester. The Dems outpolled the GOP in the straight ticket category by less than 2-to-1. However, it was clearly not enough to overcome the GOP's strong advantage in East Goshen.

	PRECINCT	STR D	STR R	DIFF	TIERNAN	CARTY	SAMUEL	LICZWEK	CARPENTER	WINGERTER	PINLEY	ADSETT
West Chester	1	85	58	-27	255	238	223	210	157	137	141	147
West Chester	2-E	30	2	-28	41	34	35	34	5	5	4	5
West Chester	2-W	37	11	-26	70	69	70	69	22	22	22	22
West Chester	3	38	24	-14	107	101	100	95	54	58	53	52
West Chester	4	30	11	-19	77	75	76	74	30	28	33	31
West Chester	5	53	34	-19	189	193	180	178	91	90	90	93
West Chester	6	61	39	-22	153	147	139	149	76	86	65	82
West Chester	7	79	43	-36	220	204	199	199	88	86	93	96
West Chester	TOTAL	413	222	-191	1112	1061	1022	1008	523	512	501	528

 

Taking away the straight ticket votes, the Dems would've made this a much closer race. Had that been the case, the Democrats Tiernan and Carty would've actually taken the top two positions in the balloting, with Wingerter and Adsett taking the other two seats.

TIERNAN	CARTY	SAMUEL	LICZWEK	CARPENTER	WINGERTER	PINLEY	ADSETT
4768	4580	4228	4110	4392	4503	4333	4473

 

As was the case with the county-wide row offices, it was yet another case of "close but no cigar" for the Chester County Democrat Party.