An incumbent Eastport city councilor who ran for re-election Tuesday as a write-in candidate won another term on the board, defeating a challenger whose name was on the ballot.
David Morang was re-elected to the five-seat council with 213 votes, according to the city’s preliminary vote results. The city was delayed in tallying up the totals because of a glitch that occurred in its ballot machines after the polls closed Tuesday night, according to Eastport officials.
Only two seats on the council were up for re-election. Colleen Dana-Cummings, another incumbent city councilor, had her name on the city ballot and also was re-elected, with 329 votes. The other candidate whose name was on the ballot, challenger Victoria Ganz, came in third place with 162 votes.
Morang said Thursday his name wasn’t on the ballot because he was in a motorcycle crash in August on the city’s breakwater pier and couldn’t get around to collect enough signatures to make the formal filing deadline. He said he got a concussion, broke some ribs, and seriously injured his knee.
But he has improved since then and people still encouraged him to run as a write-in candidate, he said. He is glad to be re-elected and can get around now, even though he’s not fully healed from the crash.
“I’m still hurting, but I’m a lot better now,” Morang said.
Both Morang and Dana-Cummings were appointed to fill vacant council seats last year. Dana-Cummings was appointed in April after the council voted to remove Ross Lawrence from the board. Morang, who previously had served on the board, was appointed after David Oja abruptly resigned in May to protest the firing of Kate Devonshire as Eastport’s city manager.
The council has not yet hired a replacement for Devonshire. George “Bud” Finch, who served as Eastport’s city manager from 1995 to 2010, has been filling the post on an interim basis since June.
