Whitemarsh Township was part of one of the few competitive primaries in the area for the May 19th primary election. There were four candidates running in the Democratic Party primary to represent Whitemarsh Township as the state representative for the 148th district, which, in addition to Whitemarsh, includes Narberth and a portion of Lower Merion Township. The race was without an incumbent as longtime State Representative Mary Jo Daley (D) had announced her retirement.

The four candidates included recently elected Whitemarsh Township Supervisor Megan Griffin-Shelley, former Narberth Mayor Andrea Deutsch, environmental lawyer and civil rights advocate Jason Landau Goodman, and Leo Solga, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

Griffin-Shelley and Landau Goodman were the frontrunners in the race. Griffin-Shelley secured Daley’s key endorsement and is a Whitemarsh native. Goodman picked up his share of endorsements and is a native of the Main Line side of the district.

The day after the election, unofficial election results from Montgomery County had Griffin-Shelly edging out Landau Goodman 4,879 to 4,777, or 102 votes.

After the counting of provisional ballots, etc., Griffin-Shelley is now up by 105 votes, and Landau Goodman has conceded the race. Please note that the results are still unofficial as the election results have not yet been certified.

Griffin-Shelley will now move to the general election in November. The Republican Party did not have a candidate on the ballot for its primary, but just prior to the election, the Montgomery County Republican Committee was promoting Matthew Abelson as its preferred write-in candidate. Abelson lives in Lower Merion, and according to the Republicans, he is “a Rabbi, educator, coach, father, and husband.” It is not yet known if Abelson, or another write-in candidate, received enough write-in votes to face Griffin-Shelley in November.

Photo: Griffin-Shelley campaign