An attempt by the teachers’ union for a guerrilla victory in the West Chester Area School Board race was found to have fizzled when the dust cleared and the votes were counted.
When conservative Republicans running on a platform that put concern for elderly or unemployed property taxpayers ahead of teacher-union interests won in the spring primary, union supporters launched an unconventional and expensive write-in campaign to take the board.
The West Chester Area is a strong Republican area and winning on the GOP ballot is considered a shoo-in for a municipal election.
In fact, three of the candidates — Karen Miller,Linda Raileanu and Maureen Snook — also won on the Democrat ticket as cross-filing is allowed in Pennsylvania school board races.
There were two others on the Democrat ballot — Wayne Burton, who was endorsed by the Democrat Party, and Ted Diehl, who called himself an independent and was not endorsed. Neither was part of the write-in campaign.
On Election Day, Nov. 8, 43,665 write-in votes were cast divided among six candidates, including one in a race to fill the remaining two years of the term originally won by John Wingerter, who resigned, and now held by Ms. Miller, who was running for a four-year term.
It was very likely the largest write-in campaign ever held for a school board election in Pennsylvania.
When the results were certified, however, only one of the insurgents, Sue Tiernan, managed to win sneaking in fifth for the final four-year seat.
The final count for the four-year seats is:Ms. Miller, 9,206; Maureen Snook, 8,958; Linda Raileanu, 8,505; Vince
Murphy, 7,945; Ms. Tiernan, 7,690; Gary Bevilacqua, 7,550; Galen Plona,
7,497; Rick Swalm, 7,453; Spencer Virta, 6,979; Antonia Keg, 6,785; Burton, 3,568; Diehl, 3,253.
The other write-in candidates were Bevilacqua; Swalm, who is incumbent board president; Virta; and Ms. Keg. Bevilacqua and Virta were the ones who did not have teaching backgrounds.
Plona was the taxpayer candidate who did not make the cut.
In the two-year race, conservative Ed Coyle easily beat Jim Smith, an incumbent who changed his mind about stepping down, 9,658 votes to the
6,413 write-in votes.
The election has resulted in at least five pro-taxpayer directors on the nine-person board.