Bensalem Candidates Chosen for November General Election

The day before the Bensalem School Board votes on a controversial budget proposal, voters took their chance to decide who will compete for the four seats up for grabs in November's general election.

Of the four school board seats, only one incumbent, Kim Rivera, chose to run again. After winning the nomination on Tuesday, Rivera will appear on the Republican ballot with Jason Harris, Kiran Patel and Jennifer Ryan.

Like the majority of school board candidates, Ryan crossfiled her candidacy and earned enough votes to appear on both parties' ballots, joining Bill Nazarro, Eric Stern and and Peter Waitze on the Democratic side.

The primary results were much less dramatic for the Bensalem Township Council seats. The three Republican incumbents, Tony Belfield, Joseph Pilieri and John Mathieu, will face Democratic challengers Bhasker Patel, Bryan Allen and Kevin Brutschea, in the November 5 general election. 

"The biggest obstacle for the Democrats is turnout," said Allen as he welcomed voters outside Bensalem High School. "We do very well when there is a national race to draw people out. The off-year, municipal elections is where we generally struggle against our opponents."