Lackawanna
3 Council seats being contested in Lackawanna
Three incumbents will battle to keep their seats on Lackawanna’s five-member City Council as city voters head to the polls Tuesday.
The seats up for grabs in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd wards carry a four-year term. Arguably, the most hotly contested race is in the city’s 1st Ward, where three challengers seek to unseat embattled incumbent Andrea Z. Haxton, who, after having lost lost the Democratic primary, will run on the Sunshine Party line.
Haxton, who became the first woman to serve on the City Council after being elected to her first term in 2005, was fined $1,000 a year ago for code violations on a commercial building she owns at 297 Ridge Road and on which she was accused of being in arrears on her city and county property taxes.
She often blames her political woes on adversaries she says are actively sabotaging her. Among Haxton’s challengers are Adulsalam K. Noman, a first-time candidate who won the Democratic primary in September. Noman, a Lackawanna school district employee, is additionally running on the Republican, Working Families and Taxpayers First lines.
The other two challengers for the seat are political newcomers Joseph L. Jerge, whose name will appear on the Independence and Conservative lines, and William J. Minniefield, who has served as chairman of the Global Concepts Charter School Board and is running on the First Ward Reform Party line.
In the 2nd Ward, incumbent Geoffrey M. Szymanski, a laborer for the Erie County Water Authority, is running on the Democratic, Conservative and Working Families lines, while his challenger, Timothy J. Blarr Sr. is running on the Republican and Taxpayers First lines.
In the 3rd Ward, incumbent Francis J. Kulczyk, whose name will appear on the Democratic, Independence and Conservative lines, is seeking his first full term against Dennis M. Mulqueen, a truck driver making his first run for public office. Mulqueen’s name will appear on the Republican, Working Families and Taxpayers First lines.
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