Ward Co-Chairs Beat Back Challenges

Incumbents beat challengers across town Tuesday night in Democratic Ward Committee co-chair primaries.

Here are the final results, including absentee ballots and machine votes

Ward 16 (Fair Haven)
Celestino Cordova 84
Sarah Debala 80
Mishele Rodriguez 70
Jayuan Carter 65

Ward 17 (Annex)
Alphonse Paolillo 209
Christina Laudano 180
Marianna Apuzzo 44

Ward 20 (Newhallville)
Barbara Vereen 239
Oscar Havyarimana 226
Rhonda Nelson-Sheffield 181
Jeanette Sykes 180

Ward 21 (Newhallville)
Raymond Jackson 132
Katherine Sacks 121
Maceo Streater 73
Maverick Jacobs 68

Ward 26 (Upper Westville)
Amy Marx 301
Sharon Jones 301
Pamela Allen 79

Ward 29 (Beaver Hills)
Audrey Murriel-Tyson 251
Major Ruth 223
Tamika Hollis 72

There were six contested Democratic Party Ward co-chair races citywide Tuesday. The candidates in all other wards ran unopposed.

The top two vote-getters in each ward serve as the co-chairs for the next two years.

There were no contested races Tuesday for Republican Party ward committee co-chairs.

Click here for background on the six contested campaigns. Click here for a story about the longest-serving ward co-chair, Johnny Dye, who ran unopposed Tuesday for another term.

The ward committee co-chair positions are some of the least understood roles in local politics. Each of the city’s 30 wards has two co-chairs in charge of ward committees.

Their limited responsibilities per local Democratic Party by-laws are to convene committees consisting of up to 50 registered Democrats in their respective wards.

They then must cast ballots at the once every two years Democratic Town Committee convention in support of their respective alder candidates, as well as for hopefuls running for mayor, city clerk, and one of two elected spots on the Board of Education.

The co-chairs often function as de facto ambassadors for the Democratic Party at the street-by-street level, working to register new voters, educate local party members about candidates running for office, communicate neighborhood concerns to their respective alders, and get people to the polls during elections.

In Ward 21, incumbent Kate Sacks and her running partner Ray Jackson defeated challengers Maverick Jacobs and Maceo Streater.

“We ran a good race,” Streater said after the polls closed and the vote was announced. ​“Now we all have to keep working together.”

“We definitely need their intelligence,” Jackson said about Jacobs and Streater. ​“These are two intelligent brothers.”

Ward 21 Alder Steve Winter celebrated the victory of the two candidates he had endorsed in the co-chair primary.

“I’m excited to see how this team serves the city,” he said. In terms of hitting the doors, increasing registration, and boosting voter turnout as well as working to reform the party’s bylaws.

Ward 29’s reelected victors both said that they’re going to continue to get the vote out in on the Beaver Hills blocks they already know so well — especially in this year’s crucial presidential election, when Democrats are trying to unseat Donald Trump.

“We can’t take [voter participation] for granted,” Major Ruth said. ​“It’s our primary job” as ward co-chairs.

“Sharon and I cannot be more thrilled that we got the exact same number of votes. It’s an amazing reflection of our unity and togetherness,” Amy Marx said of her shared 301-vote victory with longtime fellow co-chair Sharon Jones in Ward 26. She also credited challenger Pam Allen for her hard work on her campaign.