By Winthrop Rodgers
Contributing Writer

The Democratic slate of candidates swept the seats that were up for election on the East Marlborough Township Board of Supervisors on November 4, winning by larger than expected margins.

Democrats Chris Manning, Steve Peuquet, and James Chance were all elected over Republican rivals Alicia Tamargo, Bruce Jameson, and Joe Misiewicz.

“We over-performed in terms of my expectations,” Peuquet, a first-time candidate, told the Chester County Press in an interview after the election.

The Democratic ticket won by a margin of around 500 votes. Manning received 1,935 votes, the most overall, compared with 1,367 for Jameson, his closest Republican rival. Peuquet won 1,775 votes compared with 1,276 for Misiewicz, according to results published on the Chester County Board of Elections’ website.

Chance, who was running in a head-to-head contest against Tamargo for an unexpired two-year term on the board, won by a 15.84% margin.

The margin of the victories was larger than previous elections. Current board chair Ellen Sosangelis won her race in 2023 by 337 votes. In 2021, Democrat Kathryn Monahan beat Republican William Mullin by 116 votes. Current board vice chair John Sarro, a Republican, won his seat in 2019 by just 20 votes.

An analysis of the initial precinct results showed that East Marlborough had slightly higher turnout this year than the county as a whole, 52.5% versus 47.7%.

“The numbers that we saw at the close of the polls certainly reflected something that was more favorable for Democrats than I think many folks might have otherwise expected,” Manning told the Chester County Press.

“East Marlborough Township is a community of neighbors,” he continued. “Party affiliation matters for some things, but it's less relevant in our local races, where people just want leaders who are going to align with the things that are important to them, regardless of party.”

The primary issue during the campaign was taxes. The township more than doubled property taxes last year in order to address the growing expense of public services, especially related to the local fire and EMS services and other inflationary pressures.

The Republican ticket promised to prevent further tax increases, including the proposed introduction of an earned income tax (EIT).

“Enough is enough. We’ll block the EIT and restore fiscal discipline,” they said on their campaign website.

In contrast, the Democratic candidates promised to deal pragmatically with the township’s challenging financial situation, despite the political risk.

“I really thought that the tax increase last year was going to really have a big effect on the results of the election. Turns out that, I think, it had a lot less,” Peuquet said.

“I think I also speak for my colleagues…none of us really like the idea of having to raise taxes, but we also feel that we need to make decisions that are in the best long-term interest of the township,” he added.

Peuquet felt that that forthright message, combined with a campaign that employed frequent and personal approaches to voters, was what won the election.

“We just thought it was both unreasonable and even disingenuous to promise that we're not that we're going to stop tax increases,” he said.

While local issues tend to dominate local races, election night across the country was unambiguously positive for Democrats, who rode a wave of dissatisfaction about the Trump administration to victory. The party won in key races in New Jersey, Virginia, California, and New York City, while also handily winning judicial elections in Pennsylvania that had attracted national attention.

Peuquet, an economist and a retired professor of public policy at the University of Delaware, said he had no empirical evidence to suggest that the national mood affected the races in East Marlborough, given the absence of randomized exit polling at the municipal level. However, he admitted it was a possibility.

He said that while knocking on doors he repeatedly heard anger about the government shutdown and even the Trump administration’s decision to tear down the East Wing of the White House.

Manning did not think any one factor was at play, but suggested that the broader political climate is motivating people to be more involved.

“People are really paying closer attention to what's happening in government and feel compelled to make sure that their voices are heard, and are doing that by voting,” he said.

In a message on their Facebook page, the Republican slate admitted that the elections had not gone “the way we had hoped.”

“This campaign was built on community, and those efforts to maintain the character of East Marlborough and stem the rise in taxes didn’t end with an election,” the statement added.

Requests for comment from the Republican candidates through their campaign website email address and social media were not returned by press time.

Whether it was local, state-wide, or national issues driving voter sentiment this year, the size of the Democrats’ victory in East Marlborough was notable.

“I was hopeful that we would win, but I really did not think we would win by the margin that we won by,” Peuquet said.