Salisbury's Glenn Eckhart Wins County Controller Race
Glenn Eckhart will leave Lehigh County commissioners to assume new position, joins Republican-led victories in most countrywide races.
Lehigh County Commissioner Glenn Eckhart, a Salisbury Township resident, won his bid for country controller, according to unofficial vote tallies. Eckhart, a Republican, ran against Democratic incumbent Thomas Slonaker and won with 53 percent of the vote, 22,067 to 19,921.
South Whitehall Commissioner Brad Osborne won his bid for one of four spots on the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners in a hard-fought, eight-person contest, according to unofficial vote tallies.
Osborne was part of a Republican sweep on the county board, as incumbent Democrat Gloria Hamm and Democrats Geoffrey S. Brace, Dennis L. Pearson, and Timothy S. Waitkus fell short in their bids.
Also winning seats on the board were Scott Ott, Vic Mazziotti and Lisa Scheller, who ran as a slate.
Osborne watched the count from the DaVinci Science Center on Tuesday night, where he gathered with his wife, Janice, friends and candidates from other races, namely Doug Reichley, who won Lehigh County Judge, and David Bond, who won one of three seats on the South Whitehall Board of Commissioners.
Patch reported live from the gathering.
The unofficial vote tallies are as follows:
* Ott, 23,070 votes.
* Scheller, 22,532
* Mazziotti, 21,851
* Osborne, 21,448
* Hamm, 19,315
* Pearson, 17,639
* Brace, 17,147
* Waitkus, 16,970 votes.
James Jesberger
10:30 am on Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Tea party politics and straight-ticket voting trumped common sense in the Eckhart-Slonaker race. Eckhart may not have even finished high school! How can he possibly oversee the $400 million plus that runs through county agencies?
Margie Peterson
10:52 am on Tuesday, November 22, 2011
A 1999 League of Women Voters Guide says Glenn Eckhart graduated from Salisbury High School in 1985.