WESTFIELD – The mayoral election results came in at Emma’s Everyday Gourmet restaurant on Washington Street Tuesday evening where incumbent Daniel M. Knapik and his campaign staff gathered one precinct at a time.
It was like watching a tennis match, with volley after volley as the results were read. Knapik took an early lead, then his challenger, Michael L Roeder, LTC, US Army retired, would charge back and close that margin of victory.
Knapik leaped out to a 334 vote lead with a strong showing in both precincts of Ward 5, then Roeder quickly closed that gap with victories in both precincts of Ward 4, Roeder’s home ward, which Roeder won by a margin of 153 votes, cutting Knapik’s lead to 181 votes.
Knapik stormed ahead with the results of Ward 2, his home ward, where he took a 152 vote victory, extending Knapik’s lead to 333, ironically his final margin of victory.
Roeder continued to come back with the results of Ward 1 where he won both precincts by a total of 44 votes, again cutting Knapik lead and continued that trend in Ward 3, with a margin of victory of 34 votes, cutting Knapik’s lead to 255.
Ward 6 sealed the victory for Knapik where he took a 57 vote margin of victory.
The final vote reports came in at 9 p.m., followed by a long sigh of relief and then a victory party.
“It was a little closer than I wanted it to be,” Knapik said. “This city has been through more change in the past four years then it the previous 40 and change is always difficult.”
Knapik said that his priorities during the next two years are the construction of a new senior center, the Ashley Street elementary school and a science and technology wing at Westfield High School, as well as economic development in the city’s core district.
Knapik will be working with a dramatically different City Council as only four of the six incumbent At-large councilors were returned to office. Those four are James R. Adams, Brent B. Bean II, Brian Sullivan, who finished 1,2 and 3 respectively and David A. Flaherty who found enough voter support to finish seventh. Incumbents John J. Beltrandi III (3,100 votes) and Agma Sweeney (,2,990 votes) failed to win reelection.
The new members of the At-large council contingent are Cindy Harris, who finished fourth, Dan Allie who finished fifth and Matthew T. VanHeynigen who finished sixth.
The City Council ward races also result in narrow victories and upsets. Ward 1 incumbent Christopher Keefe beat his challenger, Mary Ann Babinski by only 11 votes out of a total of 1,543 ballots cast.
Ward 2 featured a race pitting two new candidates, with Ralph Figy (585 votes) taking a victory over Carl Vincent (413 votes)
In Ward 3 Brian Hoose, who was unchallenged in his inaugural bid for a council seat, received 830 votes.
Incumbent Mary O’Connell retains her Ward 4 seat with a vote count of 844, defeating challenger Michael Burns, who received 667 ballots.
The biggest upset of the council ward contests occurred in Ward 5 where challenger Robert A. Paul Sr., took 1,060 votes to defeat incumbent Richard E. Onofrey Jr., who received 925 votes.
Ward 6 incumbent Christopher Crean was unchallenged and received 1,565 votes.
