Pitzer beats Teague in Gettysburg GOP primary

As the final votes were tallied on Tuesday night, everyone seemed to be waiting for the results of the Gettysburg council First Ward Republican race, one of the few contested elections in the borough.

But because of a last minute write-in campaign, it was actually the Democratic race that everyone was buzzing about at the end of the night.

Scot Pitzer ended up winning the Republican primary, beating out Charles Teague with 89 percent of the votes. However in a write-in campaign for the Democratic ticket that he had also been lobbying for, Pitzer lost out to newcomer Rodger Goodacre, who had only officially announced his campaign the day before. In an unofficial count of the write-in ballots, Goodacre won by about 20 votes.

"My campaign was about as grassroots as it could get," Goodacre said, explaining that he spent almost no money and instead went around knocking on as many doors as he could.

With the help of Democratic supporters, Goodacre launched a stealth campaign over the last three days leading up to the election, said Roger Lund, chair of the Adams County Democratic Committee. The decision to launch a campaign so late in the game was strategy, Lund said, since the campaign had little money at its disposal and thought it would be most effective to focus all of its efforts at one time.

Goodacre, who recently retired from a long career with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,

added that he was happy with how the campaign worked out and said that he is ready to focus on what he sees as one of the biggest issues facing the borough - finances.

"I want to approach this in a way that is fair and balanced for Gettysburg and all members of the community," Goodacre said, explaining that he wanted to deal with the borough's troubles with ever-shrinking funds in a way that serves all of its residents.

Pitzer also focused heavily on dealing with the borough's financial difficulties throughout his campaign, reminding voters that his main focus is the taxpayers.

"My message was all about the people, and reducing taxpayer's burdens," Pitzer said. "Council should be talking about saving money and not finding ways to spend it."

Throughout his campaign Pitzer said that he tried to talk to as many taxpayers as possible in order to get a better understanding of what they wanted out of a council member. It was because of this effort that Pitzer became a write-in candidate on the Democratic ballot.

"My efforts were on all taxpayers," Pitzer said. "I didn't want to focus on one specific demographic or party. Borough issues are not Republican, Democratic, or Independent. They affect everybody."

Pitzer amassed a large group supporters to help him spread this message throughout town and many felt so strongly that they even gathered at the First Ward polling place on Tuesday for some last minute campaigning.

"We need more young people involved," said Ted Streeter, a former borough council member and Pitzer supporter. Young people like Pitzer, who is 31, know more about the business community, Streeter added, and they contribute uniquely to the council.

In November, it looks like it will be Pitzer and Goodacre campaigning to get that chance to bring their own unique qualities to council.

astansbury@eveningsun.com; 717-637-3736, ext. 163; Twitter: @amystansbury

Source: http://www.eveningsun.com/localnews/ci_23294540/pitzer-beats-teague-gettysburg-gop-primary?source=rss

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