Election Day is November 7, but vote by mail ballots will be sent out by the Mercer County Clerk today. Since COVID, this alteration in the way we vote has changed the landscape for election season – in the “before times,” we would not be thinking much about the election until mid-October. Now the time line is moved up and, since people will start voting as soon as those mail-in ballots are received, MercerMe has moved up its timeline too, to try to help our Hopewell Valley neighbors with their voting decisions. As far as we know, the League of Women Voters is not sponsoring a debate this year, so we posed questions to candidates in contested races and that information can be accessed by the links, below.
There are three types of elections happening within the three municipalities of Hopewell Valley: council or committee, school board, and fire commissioner.
Council/Committee
Pennington has no challengers for the seats that are up this year. Mayor James Davy(D) is running unoppposed for his seat, as are Council members Kit Chandler(D) and John Valenza(D).
Hopewell Borough has an uncontested Mayor election – only long-time Councilmember Ryan Kennedy is running. There are three candidates running for two Council seats and you can read their answers to our questions here.
Hopewell Township: Four candidates are running for two seats. You can read their answers to our questions here.
School Board
Neither Hopewell Borough nor Pennington have open seats for representatives on the School Board. Hopewell Township has two people running for a one-year term and five people running for two seats for a three-year term. You can read their answers to our questions here.
Fire Commission
There are no contested seats for any of the fire districts. Candidates are:
HOPEWELL BOROUGH FIRE DISTRICT (3 Year Term) (Vote for Two)
Melvin H. Myers
Gregory Davies
HOPEWELL BOROUGH FIRE DISTRICT (1 Year Unexpired Term) (Vote for One)
John Blasi
HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP FIRE DISTRICT (3 Year Term) (Vote for Two)
Cosmo W. Tomaro
Erick Burd
PENNINGTON BOROUGH FIRE DISTRICT (3 Year Term) (Vote for Two)
Sandra Radice
Scott T. Schaub
PENNINGTON BOROUGH FIRE DISTRICT (1 Year Unexpired Term) (Vote for One)
John O’Connor
Originally published October 1, 2023. Republished October 30
