Persichilli wins Pennington mayoral post; Lawver and Heinzel re-elected to borough council
By: John Tredrea
Hopewell Township Deputy Mayor David Sandahl kept his seat on the Hopewell Township Committee on Tuesday, defeating Michael Chipowsky.
Mr. Sandahl, a Democrat, received 3,368 votes. Mr. Chipowksy, a Republican and former chief of the Hopewell Township Police Department, received 3,033 votes.
Township voters also passed a ballot question to reduce the township open space tax from four cents to two cents per $100 of assessed property value. The question passed 3,104 to 2,984.
In the Pennington Borough mayoral race, Democrat Anthony Persichilli defeated incumbent Mayor Republican James Benton in the contest to finish Jim Loper’s unexpired term, which ends Dec. 31, 2007. Mr. Benton was appointed to the mayoral post early this year after Mr. Loper, who moved out of Pennington, resigned.
Mr. Persichilli received 642 votes on Tuesday. Mr. Benton received 517. Mr. Persichilli will be sworn in as mayor as soon as the election results have been officially certified. That means he could be sworn in as soon as next Monday night’s Borough Council meeting.
The Pennington Borough Council stayed all-Democratic, as incumbent council members Eileen Heinzel and Joseph Lawver defeated Republican challengers Rachel Donnington-Torpey and Cosmo Iacavazzi by wide margins.
Ms. Heinzel and Mr. Lawver received 691 and 689 votes respectively. Ms. Donnington-Torpey and Mr. Iacavazzi received 462 and 449 votes respectively.
In Hopewell Borough, Republican incumbents Mark Samse and David Knights ran unopposed for council seats. Their vote totals were unavailable Tuesday night.

