Township Democrats Renominate Liz Rogan; County Republicans Tap Incumbent Sheriff

The president of Lower Merion's Board of Commissioners won the panel's only primary-election contest Tuesday, winning over Ward 7 voters who, like their counterparts around the Main Line and Philadelphia area, .

Liz Rogan, who was appointed president in January after predecessor Bruce Reed's departure from the board and endorsed in the primary by township Democrats, got 69 percent of the votes (301) from her Wynnewood ward. Fellow Democrat Ted Erfer grabbed 31 percent (137 votes).

The seven odd-numbered wards of Lower Merion's 14 wards are electing commissioners this year. Both parties entered one candidate apiece in Wards 1, 3, 9 and 13. No Republican entered the Ward 5 race, where Democrat Cheryl Gelber is the incumbent, and no Democrat signed up for the chance to face Ward 11 incumbent Republican Lew Gould in the fall.

Three Democrats and no Republicans were on the ballot for Narberth's three Borough Council races.

The county's 531,776 registered partisan voters include 244,420 Democrats and 208,588 Republicans, according to the county Voter Services department's records. At last count just before midnight Tuesday, 13.6 percent of the Democrats and 18 percent of the Republicans voted in the primary.

Independent voters were not allowed to vote.

Elsewhere, incumbent county sheriff Eileen Whalon Behr of Whitemarsh, a Republican, easily overcame challenger Robert J. Durante of Norristown, also with 69 percent of the vote. In November she will face Democrat William A. Holt Jr., who was unchallenged Tuesday.

County Democrats picked Cheryl Austin of Abington and Richard Haaz of Springfield for the two seats available in the Court of Common Pleas general election, while Republicans chose Dan Clifford of Springfield and Maureen Coggins of Hanover. Three of the four candidates listed themselves on both parties' ballots, but none landed in the top two on both ballots.

In judicial races, county Republicans favored statewide winners—Cumberland County's Vic Stabile for Superior Court Judge and Anne Covey of Bucks County for Commonwealth Court—passing over Philadelphians Paula A. Patrick and Paul P. Panepinto, respectively.

In November, Stabile will face lone Democratic candidate David N. Wecht of Allegheny County. Covey's opponent is uncertain, as the race between Democrats Kathryn Boockvar of Bucks County and Barbara Behrend Ernsberger of Allegheny County was too close to call with more than 95 percent of the vote counted.

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