UPDATED:
Unofficial vote totals show Republican Frank Murphy beat out Democrat Rhona Klein for Chadds Ford Township supervisor. Figures provided by Democratic Party Chairman Rob Porter indicate Murphy received 594 votes to Klein’s 403.
Porter’s figures include absentee ballots counted. Delaware County’s numbers don’t show absentees. The county’s total is 575-395 for Murphy.
For Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board Region C — Chadds Ford and Pennsbury townships — Republican Carolyn Daniels defeated Leticia Flores DeWilde 1,035-875. Flores DeWilde only led in one precinct, that being Pennsbury’s North 1 in Crosslands.
A visibly tired Murphy, who had spent all but one hour at the polls on Nov. 5, said at the end only that he looks forward to serving the people of Chadds Ford Township.
An equally tired Klein, who lost by a similar margin against incumbent Deborah Love in 2007, congratulated Murphy and thanked her campaign staff.
“I just want to congratulate Frank. Good luck. I hope he abides by what he promised, to be more inclusive and welcome volunteers. And I want to thank my volunteers and especially my campaign team.,” she said.
She added that she hoped a win by a Democrat would have made Chadds Ford “more inclusive with different points of view.”
Klein later amended her statement to include thanking the voters.
Daniels did not provide any comment or statement by the time this story was updated, but Flores DeWilde did.
"I want to thank all of my family and friends for all of their support and hard work during the campaign," she said. "I am very proud of the work that we accomplished and I am honored to be surrounded by such wonderful people. I have enjoyed my time on the School Board and I wish Ms. Daniels the very best on the board."
Flores Dewilde was an interim replacement for Murphy who resigned from the board in June.
Other races
• Steven Simonson and Michael Rock will be school board directors from Region B in the U-CF School District while Jeff Hellrung and Keith Knauss will remain directors from Region A. All four ran unopposed. Simonson and Rock replace Jeff Leiser and Holly Manzone, who chose not to run for another term.
• In Concord Township, Republican Elizabeth “Libby” Salvucci was reelected supervisor as was fellow incumbent Republican Dominic Cappelli. Salvucci bested Dan Foster 2,388-1,847, while Cappelli beat Dan Levin 2,369-1,868.
One controversial issue in Concord is the possible rezoning of the 325-acre Woodlawan Trustees property. Both Democrats came out against any change, as did Salvucci. Cappelli recused himself from deliberations so his seat on the board was seen as crucial.
Kevin P. O’Donaghue, chairman of the Concord Township Republican Party and an incumbent supervisor, offered a comment saying, "Despite an influx of money from Harrisburg Democrats, Washington, and the State of Delaware, the residents of Concord recognized who is really looking out for their interests and supported our Republican team on election day.”
He said the comment also referred to county-wide races including the race for Court of Common Please in which District Justice Richard Cappelli and William “Chip” Mackrides, were elected to the bench.
• Incumbent supervisors Charles “Scotty” Scottoline, of Pennsbury, and Scott Boorse, of Birmingham, ran unopposed for supervisor in those townships.
All votes are unofficial until verified.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
(10 votes, average: 4.20 out of 5)
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Its a shame Kevin P. O’Donaghue can’t even be a gracious winner. Watching him and supervisors colleagues in action yesterday was disgraceful. Dominic Pilleggi driving around to the polls with his license plate reading “Build” and all five supervisors ganging up on Save The Valley workers at Maris Grove trying to bully and intimidate them. Anytime O’Donaghue or anyone of his fellow supervisors talk about outside influences, voters should be encouraged to go to the courthouse in Media and look up who supports the Concord Township Republican Party. The answer…out of state developers. Fix your ordinances, be transparent, shed conflicts, include others, protect open space, slow the pace of development and traffic….that is what the voters of Concord were saying yesterday. We hope O’Donaghue and his colleagues will stop talking and have ears to hear this message.