A four-person contest for two Republican nominations for six-year terms on the Penn Forest Township Board of Supervisors, and a minor race between a husband and wife of an inspector of elections position, will be the only challenged municipal races on the primary election ballots in the Jim Thorpe area on May 18.

There are no contested races in Jim Thorpe Borough nor Kidder Township.

Penn Forest Township

The challenged race has Judith M. Knappenberger, Roger L. Meckes, Patrick Holland and Brandon Bell seeking two spots on the November ballot. There are no Democratic candidates.

Josiah Behrens III, a Republican, is seeking the GOP nomination for a four-year term as tax collector in the township, while party member Anton Leppler is running for the six-year term as constable.

There are only two other people who appear on the township’s ballots. They are Robert F. Steiger, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for a four-year term as judge of elections in the Middle District, and Democrat George Hollingsworth, who is running for his party’s nomination for the four-year term as judge of elections in the North/East District.

Otherwise, no one is running for 10 positions that are slated to be filled by the township voters this year. They include two auditor’s positions, for two-year and six-year terms, respectively; four-year terms as judges of elections and inspectors of elections in the South/West, North/West and East districts; and inspectors of elections in the Middle and North/East districts.

Jim Thorpe Borough

There are no challenges on the Jim Thorpe Borough ballot, although there will be a borough council race in November.

That’s because four Democrats and two Republicans are seeking nominations for four four-year terms that will be filled in the general elections. To go head-to-head in the fall are Democrats Dennis J. McGinley Jr., Thomas Highland, Michael S. Rivkin and Joanne Klitsch and Republicans Gregory Strubinger and Mary Shorten.

Michael J. Sofranko, a Republican, is seeking his party’s nomination for a four-year term as mayor; Patricia A. Spillman, a Democrat, is seeking that nomination for a four-year term as tax collector; and James McHugh, a Democrat, is running for his party’s nomination for a six-year term as constable. They have no opposition on the other sides of the ballots.

There is one other race in Jim Thorpe, that being in the Fourth Ward where Doren S. Perdie and Steven Perdie are running against each other for the Republican nomination for a four-year term as inspector of elections.

Several other unopposed candidates appear on the town’s ballots for nominations from their respective parties for four-year poll positions. They include: Adell Rosick, Republican, inspector of elections in the First Ward; Karen Lauth, Republican, judge of elections, Third Ward; Lisa Marie Lauth, Republican, inspector of elections, Third Ward; James Gilmore, Democrat, judge of elections, Fourth Ward; and Edith Crossin, Democrat, judge of elections, Fifth Ward.

There are no candidates for the four-year terms of judge of elections in the First Ward, judge of elections and inspector of elections in the Second Ward and inspector of elections in the Fifth Ward.

Kidder Township

Six candidates for elective positions in Kidder Township are all unopposed this time around.

They include Republicans Wilson D. Klotzman Jr. and Bruce Berger, who are running for two nominations that are open for six-year terms on the township’s board of supervisors; Republican Raymond M. Gluck, who is seeking his party’s nomination for the four-year term on the board; Democrat Kim M. Ginopolas, who is running for her party’s nomination for a four-year term as tax collector; and Republicans Lois J. Hammer and Norma J. Wiegand, who aspires to four-year terms as judge and inspector of elections, respectively, in the North District. There are no candidates against them on the opposite sides of the ballots.

No one is running for the six-year term as constable in Kidder, nor a six-year term as auditor, or four-year terms as judge and inspector of elections in the South District.