By Andrew Martins
Staff Writer
ALLENTOWN – Two three-year terms on the Borough Council will be on the ballot in November, but only one candidate affiliated with a political party has filed a nominating petition to run for office.
Acting Borough Clerk Laurie Gavin said incumbent Democrat Robert Schmitt filed a nominating petition by the April 4 deadline.
The terms currently held by Schmitt and independent Councilwoman Madeline Gavin will end on Dec. 31.
Gavin declined to say if she plans to run to retain her seat on the governing body when questioned by a reporter.
Schmitt and Gavin were elected to three-year terms in November 2013 and joined the council in January 2014. They defeated Republican incumbents Audrey Mount and Jean Hunter on Election Day 2013.
In 2015, Republican council members Dan Wimer and Margaret Rose, and Stuart Fierstein, Allentown’s longtime Republican mayor, did not seek re-election. Voters elected Robert Strovinsky and Johnna Stinemire to the council and Gregory Westfall as mayor.
The current council is evenly split among Democrats Angela Anthony, Wil Borkowski and Schmitt, and independents Strovinsky, Stinemire and Gavin.
Westfall, the mayor, is an independent.
A Republican candidate could earn a place on the November ballot by receiving write-in votes in the June 7 primary. An individual who wants to run for the council as an independent candidate has until June 7 to file a nominating petition.
