NEW HANOVER >> The primary election picture in the township is a little more complicated than it looks at first glance.
On paper, there are only two primary races on May 16, between Molly Bauer and Anita Kratz for tax collector, and the race for a supervisor seat with two years left on the term between Kurt Zebrowski, appointed in August, and Brian Hemingway.
The seat became vacant in July when longtime supervisor Ralph Fluharty abruptly stepped down.
Hemingway is a member of the New Hanover Sewer Authority Board and Zebrwoski is a member of the township planning commission.
Both are Republican primaries. There are no Democrats filed for any elected posts in New Hanover Township
The other two seats up for election in November are currently held by Andrew Kelly, who is not seeking reelection and Marie Livelsberger, who was appointed to the seat in 2016 to replace Doug Muller, who stepped down in April, 2016.
However, Lievelsberger’s name will not appear on the ballot because she was removed from the ballot by a Montgomery County judge after her petition was challenged by Shawn Malloy.
A Conshohocken Police Officer who was among the 10 people who applied to replace Fluharty, Malloy is on the ballot to run for one of the two open seats that have six-year terms.
Malloy’s complaint was that Livelsberger had missed the deadline for filing her “statement of financial interest,” a technicality that led to the judge ordering her name removed from the ballot.
Ironically, both Malloy and Hemingway also missed the same deadline for the same filing, but as Malloy told The Mercury in March “no one objected to mine.”
“It was nothing personal, it’s a political move,” Malloy told Digital First Media in March. “It was an attempt to eliminate her and upping my odds of winning the election.”
With no opponent, that odds would look pretty good.
As is often the case in New Hanover, with no Democrats on the ballot it is conceivable that the November election contest will actually be decided by the May 16 primary.
Livelsberger’s removal left Malloy and William “Ross” Snook, a member of the environmental advisory board, as the only two candidates on the ballot for the two open seats.
However, signs around town indicate that Livelsberger has decided to run a write-in campaign and is running as a team with Snook and Zebrowski.
Similarly, signs pairing Malloy and Hemingway have appeared together, signs also indicating they are endorsed by Kelly.
In fact signs were the subject of a lengthy debate at the April 10 supervisors meeting at which Hemingway sought permission from the supervisors to erect campaign signs for himself, Malloy, Bauer and a Boyertown School Board candidate on township property and in township parks.
Kelly made the motion but ultimately, a modified motion, allowing all candidates to erect their signs in parks and on township property, was defeated in a 3-2 vote.
Kelly and Supervisor Charles D. Garner Jr. voted yes, and Zebrowski, Livelsberger and Chairman Phil Agliano voted no, according to an observer at the meeting.
