[ DELCO TIMES ] Chester Stunner: 2 Dems win first citywide races since ’91

[Desire Grover]

By AMY BRISSON
[e-mail]

[ Delco Times Photograph ]

CHESTER — Democrats rocked the establishment by capturing two Chester City Council seats in Tuesday’s municipal election.

Democrats John Linder and Portia West trounced their Republican opponents in what has been a longtime GOP stronghold.

Besides one period of Democrat control in the 1990s, Republicans have had an iron grip on the city government since the 1900s.
“This is unusual. And the message that is being sent from the community is that they are tired of the old way of doing politics and they want change to come to Chester,” said West during a jubilant celebration at the Chester Fine Arts Center on Tuesday night.

Linder and West beat popular former Clippers basketball coach Fred Pickett Jr. and retired teacher Marsha Taylor for two open council seats.

The part-time city council position pays $40,000 annually and each member heads a city department. The seats are being vacated by Republicans and longtime council members Willie M. Wells, who heads the Accounts and Finance Department, and Walter Miles Jr., who serves as Director of Public Safety.

Both Democrats are coming in with packed resumes and long histories of activism and involvement in local politics.

Linder, 61, a Chester-born professor at Delaware County Community College, is veteran of numerous educational and civic boards and also headed Village Charter School before it merged with the Chester Upland School District last year.

West, 59, is an administrative assistant for QVC, a resident of the Chatham Estates housing development and a longtime community activist with service on a number of different educational advocacy boards. The Democrats were counting on a boost from last year’s election, when city residents came out in droves to elect President Barack Obama.

That momentum helped Linder last year in a race against incumbent Republican state Sen. Dominic Pileggi, R-9, of Chester. The outpouring of support gave Linder an almost 2-to-1 margin lead within city limits, but he lost overall in the district.

This year, Linder said that name recognition and increased party registration help snag the win. “I’m very happy about it and excited about it,” he said. “We don’t want to change things that are working, but as we said in our campaign, there’s a lot of things that need working on and those are the things we want to change to make the city a better place.”

As early as 10 p.m. Tuesday, with only a percentage of votes counted, Republican Campaign Manager Jim Turner acknowledged that it would be unlikely for the GOP to overtake the Democratic lead.

He praised the work that recent Republican administrations had accomplished and said he hoped the newcomers would approach the position with a spirit of cooperation.

“It’s been a long time and it’s going to be very interesting,” he said.

Pickett, who conceded before 11 p.m., said he still felt good about the race.

“We had a low turnout at the polls and the fact that it was 3-to-1 Democrats who registered when Obama ran. A lot of people just came out and voted straight Democrat,” he said.

Pickett added, “I hope they don’t... [ READ MORE ]