Delco Candidates Mingle At DCCC — Among the Republican candidates for Delaware County, Pa. offices staffing a booth, today, Aug. 20, at the Delaware County County College Flea Market are Jeff Jones (left) who is seeking a County Council seat; Dawn Getty Sutphin (right) who is running for common pleas court judge and Beth Stefanide-Miscichowski (second from right) who is running for district attorney. Between them are Rich and Rochelle Amadio of Prospect Park who stopped by to see what they could do to help out.
The Republican county contingent, which also includes council candidates Joy Schwartz and Bill Dennon, is accomplished and highly qualified.
Chesco Sheriff Cuts Standards To Draw Deputies — The Chester County Pa Sheriff Department has a designed a dingbat schemed to end its dearth of deputies.
No longer will those seeking employment for this important law enforcement job need to meet the same certification level as municipal police officers.
Yes, Chesco voters your new deputies will now be more likely to be grifters, incompetent, lazy or violent.
Problems plague department under Sheriff Fredda Maddox
Actually, all of the above.
The department is down at least 40 deputies.
When Bunny Welsh was sheriff just four years ago the department was fully staffed and highly admired.
When Democrat Fredda Maddox took over things went south. Morale collapsed by all accounts. Nobody wanted to work for her. There was bullying and partisanship.
Fredda is stepping down as sheriff and hoping to step up to Common Pleas Court judge this Nov. 7.
She has hand-picked her assistant Kevin Dykes to be her replacement. He’s said to be just as bad if not worse.
Chesco Sheriff Morale Issues Mean Rent-A-Cops At Courthouse — County sheriffs are typically tasked in Pennsylvania to provide courthouse protection but Chester County judges find themselves resorting to private security.
The Chesco Sheriff Department under Fredda Maddox is short 40 deputies. The problems started soon after the Democrat won election in 2019 — replacing Bunny Welsh who declined to seek re-election — and are attributed to bad morale.
Ms. Maddox is not seeking to keep the post this November, however, but is running for county judge.
Fredda Maddox
She has hand-picked Kevin Dykes to be her successor.
Running against Dykes is Republican Roy Kofroth.
Former Deputy Matt Mendenhall posted the below on social media.
To all my friends, family and acquaintances in Chester County PA.
Please vote for Roy Kofroth for Sheriff.
From April of 2017 until June of 2020, I was a proud Chester County deputy sheriff working respectfully under Sheriff Carolyn “Bunny” Welsh.
During that time (September of 2017) I became involved with her K-9 unit and ultimately became a handler working an EDC named “Nero”. Nero and I proved to be an excellent team and provided solid service to all of the citizens of Chester county on a daily basis.
I was promoted to the rank of Corporal of K9 and worked beside some of the best law-enforcement officers anyone would hope to be beside during the worst and best of times.
In December 2019 Sheriff Welsh decided not to run for the position she held honorably for 20+ years and with the utmost integrity and professionalism. Her deputies respected her, she supported all of us and went to war right beside us everyday as a true leader does and anyone working in that office at that time would wholeheartedly agree.
As with any job, there were always a few hiccups here and there, but nothing that we were unable to get through as a team.
Sheriff Welsh retired with the respect of the office and handed the reins over to Sheriff elect Fredda Maddox who appointed Kevin Dykes as her Chief Deputy.
Between January and March of 2020, things declined rapidly under the leadership of Maddox and Dykes, morale was awful and deputies were leaving at an alarming rate to work at other police departments, some even taking a pay cut or choosing p/t to do so.
When they realized where my loyalty fell, they both rather quickly made it a priority to completely destroy my reputation and character, not only as a corporal but also as a friend to other deputies and an award-winning K9 handler with numerous achievements under Sheriff Welsh.
Nero was taken away from me by Dykes and Maddox, there were warnings or no reasons provided to me. They both presented lies to other deputies and command staff about me not wanting him anymore and that I was no longer interested in the unit. This was an absolute distasteful lie that Maddox and Dyke’s presented to my closest co-workers. I sent numerous emails to the sheriff and the chief pleading with them to allow me to keep my position with K9 and to not take Nero away from me. I have several email copies to prove this. I had a one on one meeting with Sheriff Maddox and was still denied the request to remain with my k9 partner.
Matt Mendenhall and Nero
Nero was taken away from me for no reason, whisked away by another Corporal who was also unfortunately lied to and who turned against me. To this day they have never told me where Nero went, who he’s with or what he’s doing and that is what hurts the most.
My family was and is STILL devastated.
As if that wasn’t hurtful enough, I was then falsely accused of starting arguments, making threats and insulting the current Sergeant even though it was quite the opposite, I was relieved of my Corporal duties for reasons unbeknownst to anyone besides them. I was sent to the government service center (GSC) away from everybody to wand people at the entrance before finally resigning in June of 2020 in order to save my career and integrity before becoming completely smeared by Maddox, Dykes and the Sergeant.
To say this was a blow to my 20 year LEO career is an understatement, never during my entire time as a police officer was I ever treated so terribly and embarrassed to wear the uniform. I was unethically written up by incompetent, inexperienced lieutenants (Unrelated to K9) who were too afraid to do the right thing. And for the record to all, Sheriff Welsh also went through the same type of smear campaign run by those who became greedy with power, lies and falsehoods.
So if you’ve made it this far into my post, thank you for sticking with me, I ask all of you please, as someone who has worked directly under Kevin Dykes, I plead with you to not vote for him as Sheriff, whether you’re a Democrat, an Independent or a Republican, PLEASE do not cast your vote for this unethical man
Ask some of the deputies personally if you second-guess anything I’ve stated, there is a reason he was not kept and retained in his former position with the DAs office.
Vote for Roy Kofroth, I know him well, he has great intentions, knows the job and is a man of integrity. He stood beside me during one of the absolute worst times in my career and has the respect of everyone in the office to which Dykes cannot say, again, vote Roy Kofroth for Sheriff and share this with your family and friends, thank you.
Obviously, Mr. Mendenhall comments are personal and subjective, and one can reasonably either accept or reject them.
On the other hand, the Sheriff Department is down 40 deputies and the Courthouse is using private security.
Some more things to consider:
For what is Ms. Maddox using the money in the budget for those missing 40 deputies?
How much extra is the private security costing the Chesco taxpayer?
If Chester County residents don’t awake from wokeness, the quality of living there is going to drop to the point where one’s former lifestyle will be but a sweet memory.
Chesco Sheriff Morale Issues Mean Rent-A-Cops At CourthouseChesco Sheriff Morale Issues Mean Rent-A-Cops At Courthouse
In what will be the seventh special legislative election in Pennsylvania this year, the new state representative in the historically Democratic 21st District will be decided on Sept. 19.
Sara Innamorato resigned her House seat to prepare for her run against the GOP candidate, Joe Rockey, for the newly-created position of Allegheny County executive.
Lindsay Powell is the chosen candidate of the Allegheny County Democratic Committee to replace her. She is the director of workforce strategy at InnovatePGH and is a member of the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh.
She would be the first African-American female to represent the 21st.
Erin Connolly Autenreith is the GOP nominee. She is a realtor who chairs the Shaler Township Republican Committee.
Her father, Thomas Connolly, was the Mayor of McKees Rocks (1982-86), and her mother, Olga, was on the Mckees Rocks Council for 30 years.
Ms. Autenreith’s social media accounts indicate her participation in the January 6th demonstration, according to this claim, and other “extreme positions”.
Ms. Autenreith says that certain issues, such as abortion, be decided through a referendum. She spoke against political polarization.
The 21st District includes parts of Pittsburgh as well as the adjacent suburbs of Etna, Millvale, Reserve and Shaler.
There has never been a GOP representative for the 21st District. Frank J. Pistella, a Democrat, served the longest, for 27 years from 1979 through 2006, and Dom Costa served for a decade, from 2009 to 2019.
An argument could be made for term limits, given all of this.
Candidates Describe Democrats Law Enforcement Disaster In Delco — Maybe the most troubling thing revealed at last night’s, Aug. 3, United4Delco Candidates Forum was the unmitigated disaster Jack Stollsteimer has caused in Delaware County regarding law enforcment.
The incumbent district attorney, a Democrat, fired most of the long-time stable of county prosecutors including the fellow who handled the Arthur Bomar appeals said Beth Stefanide-Miscichowski, who is seeking to replace him.
Decades of institutional wisdom were lost.
Ms. Miscichowski has had a long career in law including time in the Delaware County D.A.’s office where she handled juvenile prosecutions, which was another thing about which she hammered Stollsteimer.
She noted Delco’s juvenile detention facility is closed so the juveniles are being incarcerated — at least during the daytime — at the county’s Intermediate Unit educational facility in Aston.
Aston Police are called there just about every day.
In response to a question, she described how crime is rocketing in once safe and sound Haverford, now a strongly Democrat town.
Ms. Miscichowski said Stollsteimer is indifferent to the needs of the community and merely sees the office as a stepping stone.
County Council candidate Jeff Jones warned of a looming 35-percent property tax hike courtesy of the present all-D council.
He said the county budget is now 421 pages. When the Republicans ran things just four years ago, it was 40 pages.
He said Republicans have to heal and come together to stop this stuff.
He gave a shout out to Dawn Getty Sutphin, the Common Pleas Court judicial candidate who was unable to attend. He described her long and respected career in law and noted that her opponent has held a law license for just seven years and never set foot in a courtroom.
He talked about the sad decline of his hometown of Upper Darby.
He said the County’s Veterans Affair’s Office has been the subject of complaints from veterans groups since the county took over. He said it’s only now gotten more responsive due to it being an election year.
County Council candidate Joy Schwartz also noted the looming tax headaches coming due to the present council’s policies. She also described the importance of elections trusted by the voters. She noted that Delco has more ballot dropboxes than any other county including Philadelphia and Allegheny. The boxes are suspect by many; expensive to maintain and unnecessary. Why would a drop box be needed when there is a mailbox just a short distance away?
Mrs. Schwartz was a William Penn history teacher for 20 years and coached the mock trial team which she took to state competitions.
County Council candidate Bill Dennon, who is mayor of Upland, said he expects his ticket to win.
“I don’t start anything to lose,” he said.
Also speaking were school board candidates for Rose Tree Media and Unionville-Chadds Ford.
The event was held at Gatsby’s Bar and Grill 4936 Pennell Road, Aston, Pa. 19014.
From left are Delaware County Council candidates Jeff Jones, Joy Schwartz, Bill Dennon; Joe Dychala and Wendy Willauer who helped organize the event; Unionville-Chadds Ford school board candidate Madeline Werner; and Delaware County District Attorney candidate Beth Stefanide-Miscichowski
Candidates Describe Democrats Law Enforcement Disaster
Corrupt County Leadership May Kill Pa GOP Says Ex-Candidate — Berks County attorney Joshua Prince has blogged — here and here — about his experiences as a Republican May 16 primary candidate for Commonwealth Court.
He expresses dismay about the Pennsylvania GOP’s future as he has found that the entrenched party leadership — on the state level and in many counties — to be more concerned about keeping power and their dwindling perks than winning.
Prince says this leadership is trying to remove party activists they see as a threat to their rice bowl. Many of these activists are elected committepeople.
He echos things about what we have long written. See here and here and here and here and here for just some examples.
Prince, actually, mentions Montco and Chesco as places where the leaders put self-interests ahead of their supporters. He also mentions places such as Cumberland County where it might not be expected by those who hold romanticized views of the Pennsylvania T.
He says many of the party activists under attack are saying they’ll quite the party and support independent candidates if the attacks don’t stop.
These are the most dedicated workers come campaign time.
Prince has appealed to state GOP Chairman Lawrence Tabas to intervene.
Surprisingly for some, the Delco GOP is not on Prince’s list of villains.
It’s not on ours either.
It may not be a perfectly functional family but it remains a family. New Chairman Frank Agovino appears to be listening to activist concerns. The party leadership has even dipped its toe into election integrity, and effectively.
Corrupt County Leadership May Kill Pa GOP Says Ex-Candidate
Corrupt County Leadership May Kill Pa GOP Says Ex-Candidate
Delco Envelope Examination Ends; County Praised — An examination of ballot envelopes in Delaware County, Pa. at The Wharf in Chester ended soon after noon, today, July 19.
The envelopes were from the May 16 primary election. The examination took about seven hours over two days with six stations. The examiners — all volunteers — photographed each envelope signature.
The request had been made by Delaware County Council candidate Joy Schwartz and poll watchers Greg Stenstrom, Leah Hoopes and Paul Rumley.
Stenstrom said they found no discrepancies between the 25,000 vote tally reported by the county and the number of envelopes. He thanked the county and praised the county poll workers for their cooperation and assistance.
Stenstrom said they will process the data and report back.
Mrs. Schwartz and the poll watchers made the request to examine the envelopes shortly after the election, which the county perversely fought for nearly two month taking it all the way to Commonwealth Court.
Stenstrom said the envelope images are stored on the county’s BlueCrest sorters and dozens of man-hours — including paid county labor — would have been saved if the Delco just gave them the images on a disk.
He had also made this point at the 9-hour hearing, Nov. 28, before Judge Barry Dozor.
Greg Stenstrom, Erik Kocher, Scott Thomas, Joy Schwartz and Maria Fine at the cancelled envelope exam, June 2. In the background is the symbol for the Philadelphia Union soccer team which has its headquarters at The Wharf.
Delaware County Concedes, Will Let Auditors See Ballot Envelope Signatures — Delaware County, Pa. has agreed to allow Republican candidates and poll watchers to count mail-in ballot envelopes from the May 16 primary election and see the signatures on them, according to Greg Stenstrom who is one of the poll watchers.
Stenstrom received an email yesterday, July 13, from county Director of Elections Jim Allen saying “the envelopes are going to be available for review unredacted.”
Stenstrom requested that the two-day audit be scheduled for the middle of next week.
Stenstrom; fellow poll watchers Leah Hoopes and Paul Rumley; and Delaware County Council candidate Joy Schwartz requested to see the envelopes shortly after the election but were stonewalled by the county.
Facing legal challenges, the county conceded but demanded that the envelope signatures be hidden. They began taping over them. This prompted the audit to be cancelled with the petitioners appealing to Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court.
The taping had been done after consultation with the Department of State.
Commonwealth Court Justice Michael H. Wojcik heard the petition, July 11. He accepted the county’s argument that his court was not the appropriate jurisdiction because the secretary of the state could not compel action.
Wojcik sent the case to Delaware County Common Pleas Court.
Sometime between then and yesterday some authority in Delco took a sane pill and agreed to an unredacted audit. Pointless legal expenses will be end and, hopefully, election trust will increase.
Envelope signatures are no different than voter rolls which are obviously and necessarily public records. How one voted cannot be learned from the envelope.
Delco Ballot Envelope Signature Case Kicked To Common Pleas Court— Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Justice Michael H. Wojcik ordered, this afternoon, July 11, the case to see envelope signatures from the May 16 primary be heard in Delaware County Common Pleas Court.
Defendants were Al Schmidt, secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; Delaware County; Delaware County Park Police Department; Delaware County Director of Elections James Allen; and Delaware County Park Police Chief John S. Diehl.
Schmidt is off the case now.
Plaintiffs were originally Republican County Council candidate Joy Schwartz; and certified poll watchers Gregory Stenstrom, Leah Hoopes and Paul Rumley. Four other Republican candidates have joined, however.
The county and state were represented by lawyers while the plaintiffs represented themselves.
The government lawyers claimed that Commonwealth Court was not the proper venue as allowing access to the records was solely a county responsibility and the secretary of the state could not compel action.
If the state government was involved Commonwealth Court would be the venue.
The plaintiffs say there is a 14,289 ballot disparity between what was observed being counted at the county’s Wharf Centralized Counting Center and the 24,289 recorded the night of the May 16 election.
A request to examine the ballot envelopes was fought by the county before it conceded to it. This June 2 examination was called off, however, when the county insisted on covering the envelope signatures with masking tape. These are not just public records but the only way to determine if the envelope came from a legitimate voter.
Stenstrom said that Allen initially told the plaintiffs that signatures were covered at Secretary Schmidt’s direction but changed his statement in an email claiming it came from attorney Manley Parks acting on advice from the Secretary.
Parks, who represented Delco today, said that the state merely offered a suggestion and didn’t order action.
Stenstrom, in his presentation, pointed out that the Pennsylvania Department of State fined Fulton County millions of dollars after they made a preliminary audit of its voting machines when it failed to follow “a suggestion”.
He also said in open court that Delco has actively destroyed records regarding elections from 2020, 2021 and 2022. He said they have evidence.
Mrs. Hoopes said that she worked a decade in geriatric health care. If a tragedy occurred because she followed advice from her superior, the superior would be sued as well as herself, she said.
Judge Wojcik emphasized the case was not dismissed. He would have taken a big step in restoring trust in our elections, though, if he simply told Allen to let them look at the freaking names.
Our judges really better start taking election concerns seriously. Wojcik used a technicality to punt on an issue which should not be an issue.
Why is Allen and the county fighting this so hard? It’s not about privacy. These names are given to thousands of non-government people every month.
Voter rolls are obviously public record.
It should also be obvious that the envelope signatures cannot reveal how a vote was cast.
There is no honest answer either as to why the county is fighting so hard a right-to-know order from a state arbiter.
Governor Ordered Signatures Covered On Ballot Envelopes? — The counting of ballot envelopes by Republican candidates along with citizen activists was postponed after Delaware County officials ordered envelope signatures to be covered with tape before they were counted.
The counting was scheduled to take place, yesterday morning, June 2 at the county’s Wharf election facility.
The covering was allegedly ordered by the Pennsylvania Secretary of State. There is suspicion that it was done at the behest of Gov. Josh Shapiro.
This is getting curiouser and curiouser. Seriously, what is the fuss? The envelopes are public record by law and the signatures are part of that record. There is no expectation of privacy. One can’t tell one’s vote from the envelope and that is by design. And that one has voted or is registered to vote is obviously public record. How do you think you get those mailings every October?
And, of course, seeing a legitimate signature — much less any signature — is the only way to determine that an envelope carried a legitimate vote.
Don’t blame the rampant skepticism about the integrity of our elections on Donald Trump or internet conspiracy theories. Blame it entirely on our election officials, especially those in Pennsylvania.
Ready to count envelopes at Delaware County’s Wharf, June 2, are clockwise from left Greg Stenstrom, Erik Kocher, Scott Thomas, Joy Schwartz and Maria Fine. Joy is a Republican candidate for County Council
Governor Ordered Signatures Covered On Ballot Envelopes?
