By Tim O’Meilia
As the presidential election season rumbles on elsewhere, in south Palm Beach County coastal towns, there’s no place more comforting for an incumbent than a high-backed chair behind the council dais.
Of the 19 seats up for election this spring in nine coastal towns, 11 sitting elected officials will remain seated for another term without so much as a write-in challenge. In Manalapan, newcomer John J. Murphy — not even an incumbent — won a commission seat just by filing papers.
Voters in Ocean Ridge and Delray Beach will be able to pick and choose among 9 candidates to seat four representatives March 13. Profiles of the candidates in those contested races can be found elsewhere in this edition of The Coastal Star.
Voters in five other towns will stay home.
A quick look at who got a free pass:
Lantana
Mayor David Stewart, one of the longest-serving mayors in Palm Beach County, was unopposed for a fifth three-year term.
South Palm Beach
Stella Jordan returns for a second two-year term and former Councilman Robert Gottlieb, who was recently appointed to fill the vacancy of Susan Lillybeck, gets a full term.
Manalapan
Murphy wasn’t the only candidate without an opponent. Louis DeStefano got another two years in a seat representing oceanfront residents. Howard Roder is back as a Point Manalapan commissioner. Both earned their way by defeating former commissioners in 2010.
Murphy, an elected county committeeman in New Jersey for 20 years, succeeds Robert Evans in the at-large Seat 2 post. Evans did not seek re-election after serving four years.
Briny Breezes
As is pro forma in this town that rarely stages an election, Council President Sharon Kendrigan (five years) and Aldermen Nancy Buczon (four years) return with relative newcomer Pete Fingerhut for two more years. Roger Bennett remains the non-voting mayor for his sixth year.
Gulf Stream
Garrett Dering was appointed several months ago to the seat held by Chris Wheeler, who resigned. Dering now will serve the remaining two years of Wheeler’s term because no one filed against him.
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