{"id":1368,"date":"2025-10-15T10:26:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T10:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/1368\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T10:26:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T10:26:06","slug":"pa-election-2025-delaware-county-council-voter-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/1368\/","title":{"rendered":"PA election 2025: Delaware County Council voter guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

What questions do you have about the 2025 elections? What major issues do you want candidates to address? Let us know.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

A five-member council handles all administrative and legislative duties for Delaware County.\n<\/p>\n

The Home Rule Charter grants Delaware County Council the authority to adopt budgets, pass ordinances and hire personnel to lead county departments.\n<\/p>\n

But unlike other neighboring counties<\/a>, Delaware County does not require minority party representation on the council. This quirk in governance along with Delaware County\u2019s history of machine politics<\/a> has led to lengthy stretches of single-party dominance.\n <\/p>\n

More than 150 years of Republican rule began to falter in 2017 when Democrats Kevin Madden and Brian Zidek scored two seats on the council<\/a>. Candidates Monica Taylor, Christine Reuther and Eliane Paul Schaefer won the remaining three seats<\/a> in 2019. Democrats have maintained sole control of the council ever since.\n<\/p>\n

Two council seats are up for election in Pennsylvania\u2019s November 2025 election<\/a>. Republicans have rallied around challengers Brian Burke and Liz Piazza. Burke previously served on Upper Darby Township Council and Piazza is a former county employee.\n<\/p>\n

Incumbent Democrat Richard Womack is running again. Madden has reached the end of his second four-year term and cannot run for re-election, clearing the way for former county Controller Joanne Phillips to join as Womack\u2019s running mate.\n<\/p>\n

Republican Brian Burke<\/p>\n

Brian Burke, 59, is originally from Lansdowne. He later moved to Drexel Hill where he got married and started a family. Burke is 41-year member of the Local Steamfitters 420 union and is active within St. Dorothy Parish.\n<\/p>\n

His father was the first Democrat to ever be elected to Lansdowne Borough Council in 1976. He then came back in 1992 and served as the only Republican on Lansdowne\u2019s council.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cPolitics is in my blood,\u201d Burke said.\n<\/p>\n

In 2019, Burke successfully ran for Upper Darby Township Council as a Democrat just as the party began to rewind decades of Republican<\/a> majority-control. A feud<\/a> over American Rescue Plan Act funding drove a wedge between council members<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

Burke, who was council president, accused the administration of misusing millions of federal COVID-19 recovery dollars and sided with two Democrats and three Republicans against then-Mayor Barberann Keffer and five Democrats.\n<\/p>\n

The local Democratic Party pledged to ensure<\/a> Burke and the two other council members \u201cdo not hold elected office as Democrats again\u201d in the township, citing their role in \u201cobstructing\u201d township business.\n<\/p>\n

Burke then switched parties<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

He credited himself for bringing a township parking scandal<\/a> to light. In 2023, he launched an unsuccessful bid for mayor<\/a> in Upper Darby as a Republican. Burke said he\u2019s learned to ask the hard questions.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to hold everybody accountable and I think I was held accountable for the four years in Upper Darby and I hope Delaware County, if elected, they hold me accountable every day of a four-year term,\u201d Burke said.\n<\/p>\n

He slammed Delaware County Council for establishing a health department, deprivatizing the George W. Hill Correctional Facility and spending more money on outside legal counsel. He believes those actions have contributed to an increased burden on taxpayers.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThings need to change,\u201d Burke said. \u201cWe need to stop spending.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

If elected, Burke said he wants to reel in spending and root out \u201cmismanagement.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I go in line in a supermarket, fill my basket and I only have $100, is that checker going to let me go, if I have $240 worth of groceries? No,\u201d Burke said. \u201cSo why should we allow county council to do what they\u2019ve been doing for the last four years \u2014 and why should we let them continue to do this?\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What questions do you have about the 2025 elections? What major issues do you want candidates to address?…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[212,1383,28,30,29,1384],"class_list":{"0":"post-1368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-delaware-county","9":"tag-elections-2025","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","12":"tag-pennsylvania-news","13":"tag-philly-suburbs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}