- Democrat Thomas Johns won a seat on the South Whitehall Board of Commissioners, beating the incumbents' preferred candidate, Republican Chris Peischl
- The board has mostly seen unanimous votes in the past two years after all the incumbents lost in the 2019 and 2021 elections
- The incumbents who won re-election and Johns all said they hope to work with each other
SOUTH WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. — A board that has mostly seen unanimous votes in the past two years may soon start to see more dissent.
Three seats were up for election on the South Whitehall Board of Commissioners, the governing body of the township.
The two Republican incumbents running, Diane Kelly and Jacob Roth, after getting both the Republican and the Democratic nomination in the primary, handily won in the general election, according to unofficial but complete election results.
But their pick for the third seat up for election, Republican newcomer Chris Peischl, lost to Democrat Thomas Johns, who served on the board 2009-17.
Johns will be the only Democrat on the five-person board. He used to be a Republican, but he said he switched parties because he does not like the direction the Republican Party is heading.
The results show Kelly and Roth getting more than a thousand more votes than Johns got. Kelly got 4,424 votes, and Roth 4,187 votes.
Johns got 2,941 votes, and Peischl 2,822 votes.
Democrats won in several key races in the area, such as the Parkland School Board and Lehigh County Commissioners, and did well across the region.
“The people in the township that know me know my honesty, my trust and my credibility."South Whitehall Commissioner-elect Thomas Johns
In an interview after the election, Johns credited his win to the help of the Lehigh County Democratic Committee and two former commissioners, Joe Setton and Howard Ellsworth.
He also said people in the township know him and his character.
“The people in the township that know me know my honesty, my trust and my credibility,” Johns said.
In an emailed statement, Peischl thanked the people who supported him. He said he was “very disappointed,” but that he would continue to be involved in the community.
‘Other political forces’
Roth, Kelly and Peischl campaigned together during the primary and general elections. In interviews after the election, both Roth and Kelly expressed disappointment about Peischl's loss.
Roth said he thinks that, unlike past years, South Whitehall voters came to the polls because of the school board, county and statewide races, not because of the commissioners race.
He said he thinks residents are generally happy with the current board.
“I think had there not been other political forces up and down the ballot… had the voters in South Whitehall been primarily driven by the commissioners race, there might have been a different result,” Roth said.
“I feel a number of people voted party lines without researching the candidates."Former South Whitehall Board of Commissioners candidate Chris Peischl
Peischl had a similar perspective in his statement.
“I feel a number of people voted party lines without researching the candidates,” the statement read.
“For example, the person who received the third place votes [Johns] voted to raise taxes when he was a commissioner. So people voted for a person to raise their taxes.”
Roth said that in 2019 and 2021, the South Whitehall Board of Commissioners races were the driving forces bringing people out to vote.
In both those elections, all the incumbent candidates lost to newcomers.
Kelly was among those newcomers in 2019, and now is the longest-serving member on the board.
Other members either resigned or were voted out, likely because of anger surrounding controversial development projects in the township.
Will board members get along?
In an interview before the primary election, Johns critiqued the current board, saying it should be more fiscally responsible and should lower engineering costs for developing in the township.
Johns described members of board as being in “lockstep” with each other and said they are “not out to look for the best interests of the public.”
While members of the current board sometimes disagree, the vast majority of its votes are unanimous.
In an interview before the general election, Roth said he didn't know Johns personally but that he thinks the township was “not on the right track” when Johns was on the board.
Both Johns and Roth said in interviews after the election that they hope to work with each other.
“I hope we’re all going to work together and not have a 4-1 vote all the time,” Johns said.
“In previous years, the South Whitehall Board of Commissioners was severely split,” Roth said. “There was a lot of animosity and infighting, and 3-2 votes.
"It just really wasn't healthy for our local government. So my approach to working with him [Johns] is the same approach that I'll take with any other commissioner.
“Throughout the campaign, he didn't necessarily put forth an official platform per se, but I look forward to learning about his goals. And I hope that he's willing to work with me as I am willing to work with him.”
“I am confident that we will be able to continue to debate the matters of our community publicly in a respectful manner and come to a consensus together."South Whitehall Board of Commissioners President Diane Kelly
In response to Johns’ critiques, Kelly said she thinks the current board is “very fiscally responsible,” but that she is looking forward to hearing his opinions and any suggestions for improvement.
She said she has not heard complaints about engineering costs.
Kelly said as the president of the board, she has worked to keep the meetings professional, despite any disagreement.
“I am confident that we will be able to continue to debate the matters of our community publicly in a respectful manner and come to a consensus together,” Kelly said.
Johns will begin his four-year term on the Board of Commissioners in January.
