11/3/2010
Weiner trumps Annone for Brandywine/Greenville council seat - Community News

By Jesse Chadderdon
Community News  www.communitypub.com
Last update Nov 03, 2010 @ 03:15 PM

Councilman Robert Weiner (R-Chatham) easily won re-election Tuesday night, thwarting a challenge from Democrat Michael Annone.
Weiner won 11,974 votes (59.4 percent) to Annone’s 8,182 votes.

Reached by telephone late Tuesday, Weiner said he was “elated” with the margin of victory in his 2nd District race. He also thanked Annone for calling to concede earlier in the evening and said the two had a nice conversation about some of the issues facing the county.

For Weiner, the biggest of those issues is development. He said his work to oppose what he believes are irresponsible projects like two large-scale commercial centers being proposed in Greenville.

“I hope to work with my fellow members of council to direct the land use decision making process so that irregular approvals of applications that ought not be granted do not go through,” he said.

He said he wanted to amend the county’s redevelopment ordinance so that only underutilized properties like abandoned gas stations or retail centers are eligible for incentives and not already well-functioning sites.

“I share the public’s concerns over many of these development issues,” he said.
Soon, Weiner fears the county could face additional pressures from development community as Council President Paul Clark, who’s wife is a leading land use attorney, transitions to county executive to replace Senator-elect Chris Coons.

“There is a concern that we may face new challenges to control special influences that developers have had over county government at times over the last few decades,” he said.

Clark has not voted on plans represented by his wife and said in an interview with the Community News last month that should he become county executive, he would consider taking additional measures to distance himself from her work.

Annone said his own stance on land use issues in New Castle County was misinterpreted in an Oct. 27 News Journal Article headlined "Stances on growth divide candidates." That article falsely painted him as a candidate in favor of lax development restrictions, he said.

"The reporter and I talked for an hour and 45 minutes and to have that headline took away eight months worth of work," he said. "I was having great momentum. People were very excited. I knew it was going to be a close race, but that article did not help me at all.",

But Annone, who said Weiner beat him fair and square, was proud of the race that he ran and the votes he gathered.

"I was very happy with everybody who supported this campaign. It was a very uplifting experience,” he said.

Copyright 2010 The Community News. Some rights reserved

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