Click here to subscribe today or Login.
The primary was good to John Kochan, but not so good for the man who led the effort to remove Kochan from an appointed council seat in April.
According to unofficial results, Republican Kochan won 75 votes, and 25.82 percent of the votes cast, while Terry Jones, one of the leaders to have him removed, won only 35 votes. The man who replaced Kochan, Michael Johnson, won only one vote more at 36.
But the real winner was Douglas Fawbush, with 81 votes, on the Republican side of the ballot.
Kochan also picked up the nomination for the two-year seat with 73 votes.
The Republicans have no formal opposition on the November ballot, as there was no official Democratic candidate, but there were 52 Democratic write-in votes.
Fawbush and Kochan were supported by the current borough council majority, who appointed Kochan to a vacancy created in February when Michael Weiss resigned.
Jones and councilman Gerard Maskinas challenged the legality of the Vacancy Board chairman’s appointment, and took the case to Luzerne County Court. In April, Judge Mark Ciavarella found for the plaintiffs and removed Kochan, and named Johnson to the vacancy.
The council majority has appealed the decision to the state supreme court.
The unofficial results, at press time, were: Jones 35, Kochan 75 (four-year term) and 73 (two-year term), Johnson 36, Fawbush 81, plus 52 Democratic write-in and 60 Republican write-in votes.