Delco Candidates by Gender

Having previously looked at county-wide candidates in Bucks and Montgomery Counties by gender, it's time to take at look at Delaware County. This information is taken from the Delaware County Democrats website (www.delcodems.com) and the Delaware County Republican Party website (www.delcogop.org/).

Delco does things a little differently from the other two. In Bucks and Montco the minority party is guaranteed one of the three county commissioner positions. On the Delaware County Council it's winner take all, those who receive the highest number of votes win, regardless of party, and for many years all of the county council has been Republican.

This year each party is running three candidates for county council. The Republicans are running two men, Thomas J. McGarrigle and John P. McBlain, and one women, Colleen P. Morrone. The Democrats are running one man, Keith Collins, and two women, Lin Aramethy Floyd and Jayne Young. McGarrigle is an incumbent; the others would be new to the office.

The District Attorney's race is open; there is no incumbent. The Republican candidate is male (currently chair of the County Council); the Democrats are running a woman for the office.

There are currently 18 judges on the county Court of Common Pleas; six of them have traditionally female names. (Photos of the judges indicate that their genders match their names.) The Republicans are running five candidates, one of whom is female. The Democrats are supporting one of the men running on the Republican ticket. They list three other candidates, two men and one women.

Right now there are four men and one woman on the County Council. One of the men and the one woman are running for other county offices. The woman's term is up and she is running for Court of Common Pleas in lieu of re-election. The man would have to give up his seat if elected District Attorney. However, a third county councilor does not appear to be running for re-election. If, as usually happens, all the Republican candidates win, the gender breakdown of the council would remain 4 to 1. If one or more of the Democrats win that balance would change but it could be a 5-0, 4-1, 3-2, 3-2, depending on which of the Democrats won and which of the Republicans did not, if that makes sense.

We'll have to wait and see.