Yesterday in Harrisburg, the Republican Central Caucus held its first straw poll vote for GOP lieutenant governor candidates; 104 votes were taken. How did our local GOP candidate Carol Aichele do?
The downside for Commissioner Aichele was that she did not lead the vote count; businessman Chet Beiler (29 votes) from Penn Township narrowly edged out Dauphin County Commissioner Nick DiFrancesco (26 votes). However, the upside of the straw poll is that no candidate received even 30% of the central vote in this first of 6 straw polls across the commonwealth. But remember the straw poll is not binding and it is probably too early to read too much into yesterday’s results.
Here’s the breakdown of the vote from yesterday’s straw poll:
- Lancaster County businessman Chet Beiler: 29 votes
- Dauphin County Commissioner: Nick DiFrancesco: 26 votes
- Philadelphia-based political commentator Joe Watkins: 17 votes
- Bucks County Commissioner Jim Cawley: 13 votes
- York businessman Steve Johnson: 9 votes
- Chester County Commissioner Carol Aichele: 5 votes
- Former Lancaster County treasurer Greg Sahd: 1 vote
- Erie’s Jean Craige Pepper: 1 vote
- Lebanon County Reform activist Russ Diamond: 0 votes