Tuesday’s election primer

The 2018 Primary Election is set to be held on Tuesday, featuring competitive races for governor, lieutenant governor and U.S. Senator on the Republican ballots and a five-person race for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor.

Carbon County voters have an opportunity to participate in those at-large races, including 18,141 Democrats and 18,136 Republicans who were certified as eligible when the registration period ended on April 16.

Balloting will take place from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the county’s 51 election precincts.

In addition to the governor-lieutenant governor and U.S. Senate elections, voters will also be able to cast their ballots for positions in the U.S. and Pennsylvania houses of representatives and for some Pennsylvania Senate positions.

This year’s election cycle has Gov. Tom Wolf and U.S. Senator Bob Casey, both Democrats, seeking re-election to their four-year and six-year terms, respectively. They are unopposed in the Primary.

The Republicans have three candidates running for the gubernatorial nomination and the right to run against Wolf. They are Scott R. Wagner, Paul Mango and Laura Ellsworth.

Meanwhile, the GOP voters will also decide on one of two candidates to go head-to-head-with Casey. Seeking that nomination are Jim Christiana and Lou Barletta.

In the lieutenant governor’s race, the Democrats have five candidates from which to choose, including the incumbent, Mike Stack, and challengers Kathi Cozzone, John Fetterman, Ray Sosa and Nina Ahmad. Seeking the GOP nomination are Kathy Coder, Diana Irey Vaughan, Jeff Bartos and Peg Luksik. Similar to the president-vice president ballot positioning, the lieutenant governor nominees will not face each other in November, but will run alongside their respective governor candidates.

U.S. Congress

In the aftermath of the PA Supreme Court’s redistricting of the 18 Pennsylvania seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, Carbon County residents now find themselves in a new 9th Congressional District, which includes all of Carbon and Schuylkill counties,

Currently, representatives Matt Cartwright and Barletta represent parts of Carbon County as the officeholders in the 17th and 11th Congressional districts, respectively.

There being no incumbent in the new 9th District, the primary balloting has attracted three Democrats and three Republicans for their parties’ nominations.

Carbon Democrats will pick from Greg Wegman, a dentist from Reading, Denny Wolff, former PA Department of Agriculture secretary from Columbia County, and Laura Quick, a United Parcel Service driver who lives in Palmyra, Lebanon County, while the county’s GOP voters have a choice between Dan Meuser, former PA Department of Revenue secretary who is a business owner/consultant, George Halcovage of Pottsville, who is currently serving his seventh year as a Schuylkill County Commissioner, and Scott C. Uehlinger of Topton, who served in the Central Intelligence Agency.

Meuser actually lives in Kingston Township, which is in the 8th Congressional District.

The House seat is a two-year term.

PA House, Senate posts

Elsewhere, half of the PA Senate seats are to be filled by the electorate this year, including a four-year term in the 14th Senatorial District.

Sen. John Yudichak, a Democrat, is running for re-election and he is unopposed within the Democratic Party and has no opposition from the Republicans.

The district includes all of Carbon County and parts of lower Luzerne County.

In the state House of Representatives, Carbon County has two representatives, those being Republicans Doyle Heffley and Jerry Knowles.

Heffley represents all of Carbon County, except Summit Hill Borough which was cut out of the 122nd Legislative District by the Republican-controlled redistricting committee after the 2010 Census.

As such, Summit Hill has now been included as part of the 124th Legislative District, where Knowles is the incumbent. The district also includes East Brunswick, East Union, Kline, North Union, Rush, Schuylkill, Union, Walker, West Brunswick and West Penn townships and Coaldale, Deer Lake, McAdoo, New Ringgold, Orwigsburg, Port Clinton, Ringtown and Tamaqua boroughs in Schuylikill County, as well as eight municipalities in Berks County.

Both Heffley and Knowles are unopposed in the Primary balloting. Knowles also has no opposition from a Democratic candidate.

Heffley, who is seekng his fifth term, will face Democrat Kara Scott, president of the Bowmanstown Borough Council, in November. She is unopposed on her party’s side in the Primary balloting.

The state House seats are two-year terms.