Kostka Wins Township Committee GOP Primary

Incumbent Republican Township Committeeman Don Kostka won a total of 1,184 votes in Tuesday's , according to unofficial results from Clerk Trudy Atkinson.

His challenger, Annabel Pierce, received 570 votes. There were also five write-in votes. A total of 2,169 votes were cast for township, county, state and federal representation, including mail-in ballots.

Pierce said Tuesday night she called Kostka, who will be running for his second term in the general election, to congratulate him and that she was thankful for her supporters.

"I would like to thank everybody who came out and voted for me and I'll see my residents next year too. I plan to stick around, this just wasn't my year," she said.

Pierce said she is not considering running as a write-in candidate on the November ballot.

Kostka said Tuesday he is happy with the results and that he had a challenger in the Primary.

"I'm very pleased with the results," he said. "I'm happy for the Primary challenge because what it caused me to do was do an awful lot of walking.  Any time you do a lot of walking, you shake a lot of hands and you get to exchange thoughts with people in town. That to me was the biggest plus-going door-to-door, exchanging points of view and, I tell you, nothing feels better than having people that are not related to you, tied to you in any way, give you a vote of confidence."

Kostka also spoke about those who did not vote for him and said he will try his hardest to work to all residents' needs.

In speaking of the November election, when , Kostka said he is confident "it will be a more positive election."

"Knowing Mike O'Brien, he's a decent man. He cares about the town, I care about the town," Kostka said. "I will articulate the positives that I bring to the table and I'm sure Mike will do the same and the voters will decide."

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