School Board Incumbents Hold On to Primary Nominations

All five Phoenixville Area School Board members whose seats are up for grabs this year will defend their incumbencies in November’s general election.

The candidates took advantage of the cross-filing opportunity for school board candidates to run as both Democrats and Republicans, securing their places. None of the incumbents earned nominations from both parties. The Democrats chose J. Kenneth Butera and Irfan Khan, while the Republicans held on to Kevin Pattinson, Paul Slaninka and David Ziev.

The top Democratic vote-getter was Lisa Longo, capturing 20.58 percent of the registered votes. Republicans favored Eric Daugherty, giving him 18.5 percent of the votes. Daugherty and Mike Ellis were the only cross-filed candidates who earned nominations from both parties.

With no contested races in the borough council primary races, all candidates received their parties’ nominations. In the North Ward, Democrat Edwin Soto will challenge incumbent Christopher Bauers. The Middle Ward has Democratic incumbent Jennifer Mayo facing off against Michael Cianci.

In the East Ward, Richard Garces for the Democrats and Robert Bolton for the Republicans will vie for the seat currently held by Shai Perednik, who filled the seat in January 2014 after Mike Speck was elected Phoenixville mayor. Council President and Democrat james Kovaleski will defend his West Ward seat against Republican Eric Smith.

The general election will be held November 3.