Daley’s fall foe undecided
Democratic incumbent Peter J. Daley will apparently face Republican challenger Edward Angell in the November election, however, Angell’s primary election opponent, Nate Nevala, said Wednesday that he isn’t ready to concede the race. “The numbers are not official. We spent the morning at the courthouse with my legal team and we’ll stay the course until Friday when they count all the ballots from the military personnel. There are more than 1,000 absentee ballots and a lot of them could be in our district,” Nevala said.
The unofficial results from Fayette and Washington counties showed Angell with 869 votes to Nevala’s 801 votes.
In the Democratic primary, Daley received a total of 3,960 votes to James Rohaley’s 1,988 votes and Randy Barli’s 1,379 votes.
“I was satisfied with how it worked out,” Rohaley said. “When you added my total and Barli’s total together, Daley only won by about 10 percent.”
The difference is actually just under 15 percent.
“That wasn’t bad at all,” Barli said. “I don’t have to get elected to office to do the things I want to do. I don’t have to be a state legislator, but it would have made it a lot easier.”
Barli said he would still like to debate Daley on what he views as the issues. Rohaley said he would now put his energy into supporting Daley’s Republican opponent in an effort to get Daley out of office. Rohaley had said he would do that prior to the election, since Nevala is Rohaley’s great-nephew and he intended to back him against Daley.
“I still don’t think he (Daley) deserves to win,” Rohaley said. “I met Mr. Angell and his wife at the candidates’ forum in California and they were nice people. I think I’ll do everything I can to help him out. He seems very sensible and reasonable.”
Rohaley has been a life-long Democrat, but said he has no problem throwing his support behind a Republican at this point.
“This is my last hurrah. I’m 80 years old. What are they going to do to me?” Rohaley said.
Angell said he is already preparing for the November election, which he views as being just around the corner.
“People are looking to change the way we approach government. People want to be involved and people want accountability in government,” Angell said.
Angell said his biggest challenge for November, assuming he has won the Republican nomination, will be gaining name recognition. He’s not as worried about the heavy Democratic registration in the 49th Legislative District.
“I plan to represent all voters in the district, Democrats and Republicans, not just one party. I’m not a typical politician. I’m a servant there and I’m a servant for the whole district,” Angell said. “There are clear-cut issues that need to be addressed in this race. They are not Democrat-Republican issues, they are responsibility issues and accountability issues.”
Daley could not be reached for comment Tuesday night or Wednesday. An aide at his district office in Donora said Daley was out in the district Wednesday.