By John Tredrea, Special Writer
Unless the picture changes on primary election day, June 2, when some more candidates might decide to run for local office, there will be just one Hopewell Valley race in November and that will be in Hopewell Township.
Harvey Lester, who lives on Continental Lane and is serving as Hopewell Township mayor for 2015, faces a race for re-election to a three-year term on the Hopewell Township Committee in November. He will run as a Republican.
No other Republicans filed by the 4 p.m. Monday deadline.
For the township Democrats, the candidate is Julie Blake, a Fanning Way resident. Ms. Blake’s name will appear on June 2 primary election ballots and, unless things change, she will run against Mr. Lester in November. If successful, she would begin her first three-year term on the governing body in January 2016.
Ms. Blake and her family have lived in Hopewell Township for the past 15 years.
Mr. Lester won his Township Committee seat as a Democrat in November 2012 and began his first three-year term in January 2013.
On March 10 he announced that he was switching his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican. He filed as a GOP candidate by the Monday deadline.
In Hopewell Township, where the Township Committee is made up of five members (elected to three-year terms), the mayor is chosen by the committee’s members from within the membership for one-year during the annual January reorganization meeting.
IN HOPEWELL BOROUGH, incumbent Mayor Paul Anzano, a Democrat who lives on First Street, filed for the primary and, unless things change, will run unopposed for the mayor’s post in November.
There were no other filings for the mayor’s four-year job.
Mayor Anzano originally was elected to Borough Council for a three-year term in November 2004. In January 2005, he replaced Democrat Alice Carter Huston, who did not seek re-election in November 2004.
. In 2007, then Councilman Anzano ran for mayor and was elected to his first four-year term. He replaced former Mayor David Nettles, who chose not to seek re-election.
Seeking re-election to Borough Council are Debra (Horowitz) Lehman, a Democrat who lives on Mercer Street, and Roxanne Klett, a Republican who lives on Model Avenue. There were no other primary filings for those two Borough Council seats.
Councilwoman Lehman began her first three-year term on council in January 2010. She was re-elected in November 2009, when she was top voter-getter, and again in November 2012.
Councilman Klett took her seat in October 2013. She was the unanimous choice of Hopewell Borough Council to replace longtime Councilman David H. Knights, who died Sept. 24, 2013.
IN PENNINGTON, incumbent Democratic mayor Anthony Persichilli, who lives on Baldwin Street, filed a petition to run in the primary. There were no other filings for the mayor’s four-year post.
Former Councilman Persichilli was elected to a three-year term on the governing body in November 2004. The results of that election meant that when Pennington Council reorganized in January 2005, there would be no Republicans on council. The mayor, Jim Loper, would be the only Republican left.
Suddenly, in early 2006, Mayor Loper — who had served in that post since February 2001 (and had been a Borough Council member for five years prior to that) — resigned. He was moving out of the borough to Lawrence, where he worked.
So, Borough Council had to pick a replacement and in late February members picked Republican James Benton, then executive director of the New Jersey Petroleum Council.
However, in November 2006, then Councilman Persichilli defeated incumbent Republican Mayor Benton, in the contest to finish Jim Loper’s unexpired term, which ended Dec. 31, 2007.
The rest is history.
Two Borough Council seats, currently occupied by Deborah Gnatt and Joseph Lawver, are due to be filled in the November general election.
Ms. Gnatt, a Democrat who lives on Hale Street, is the only candidate who filed for the primary. She was appointed March 19, 2014, to replace Dina Dunn, who resigned.
Democrat Lawver did not file. He was appointed to council on May 28, 2014, to fill the vacancy on council created by the resignation of Councilwoman Eileen Heinzel, who became borough administrator.
Prior to a move out of Pennington, he had served on Borough Council for several years. It was after he and his family returned to Pennington that he rejoined council.
In Hopewell and Pennington boroughs, there are six-member councils (members serve three-year terms) and mayors, elected separately, for four-year terms.
— Ruth Luse contributed to this account.
