Mirroring a 2002 race for the same seat, Republican County Council 5th District incumbent George Cole picked up nearly 90 percent of the vote on Tuesday, to again defeat the Independent Party candidate Wolfgang VonBaumgart and remain on council for another four years.
Cole, who has sat on council for two decades and whose mother and father served before him, picked up 88.2 percent of the vote on Tuesday. VonBaumgart picked up 11.8 percent of the vote, improving from the 10.2 percent he received in 2002, when Cole received 89.8 percent. With Cole as a standout on the council for his support of controlled growth, no Democrat filed to run for the 4th District seat this year, or in 2002.
“I’m looking forward to another four years of arguing about the land-use decisions being made in Georgetown,” Cole said. Vance Phillips (R–4th), Cole’s nemesis in many land-use discussions, also retained his seat Tuesday. “Mr. VonBaumgart just didn’t mount much of a campaign and didn’t have much to say and didn’t have much of a record.”
VonBaumgart said he ran against Cole — albeit without spending much money — to give the public the voting option that the Democrats have denied the county in the last two elections. He admitted, though, that his ideas — including those about handing the government “back to the people” with referendums and recalls, and electing the county administrator and planning and zoning positions — were “ahead of the curve.
“I don’t think Sussex County is quite ready for me yet,” VonBaumgart said after the election on Tuesday.
An updated Sussex County Land Use Plan is due to the state by the end of next year and is the most important issue now facing the county council, Cole said. Unfortunately, he added, with current leadership, change on many issues — including the Environmentally Sensitive Developing Area — is unlikely.
The ESDA designation has been criticized recently for allowing developers to build in vulnerable parts of Sussex County where the state does not encourage growth and will not pay for infrastructure expansion. The county recently preliminarily approved 1,052 homes in The Estuary community, adjacent to the Assawoman Wildlife Area and on back roads that many feel are already over-stressed.
“I don’t see much changing,” Cole said.