Incumbent Township Commissioner Chairman Loses Race -- Again

Bethlehem Township’s at-large Commissioner Arthur Murphy has apparently once again lost his chair to challenger Martin Zawarski by a margin of 64 votes, according to unofficial vote totals.

Meanwhile, Thomas Nolan, the incumbent Republican commissioner from the township’s First Ward, fended off a challenge, defeating Democrat Nimita Kapoor-Atiyeh by a near three-to-one margin, according to the unofficial vote counts released on the Northampton County website.

In the Third Ward, where Jerry Batcha decided not to run for re-election, Republican Phil Barnard defeated Democrat Martin Comer by 70 votes. Again, those results are unofficial.

Zawarski appeared to have when he won the Republican primary. But Murphy on the Democratic ballot where there were no candidates and secured a spot on today’s ballot.

Zawarski gained 1,517 votes to Murphy’s 1,453 votes, a slim 2 percent margin, which was much closer than the GOP primary, which Zawarski won by 18 percent and 150 votes.