We're keeping an eye on these 6 Bucks County 2025 municipal races. Here's what's at stake

Chris Ullery
Oct 26
6 min read

Updated: Oct 29

Chris Ullery | Bucks County Courier Times | Oct. 27, 2025, 5:03 a.m. ET

Election Day is almost here, and there are hundreds of races on the ballot across Bucks County's 54 municipalities this year.

The 2025 municipal election could see 480,883 voters heading to the polls from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Nov. 4 to choose who represents them at the most direct level: their township supervisors and borough council members.

These are the officials who decide the local tax rates, set ordinances and make decisions with lasting impacts on area infrastructure, businesses and families.

Here are just a few of the races that stand out this election cycle.

Bensalem

At age 87, Bensalem’s longtime Republican Mayor Joseph DiGirolamo is seeking another term in office, a position he's held since 1994.

Throughout his more than three-decade tenure, DiGirolamo founded the Bensalem Economic Development Corp. and was instrumental in initiatives such as Towns Against Graffiti and the Transportation Management Association.

In the May 2025 primary election, DiGirolamo garnered just 300-some votes more than his main challenger, Democrat Stephanie A.G. Ferrandez, earned in her primary. Ferrandez serves on the Bensalem Township School Board as co-chair of the community outreach and public relations committee, and is running on a platform of “common sense” development that prioritizes community spaces.

If elected, Ferrandez will be just the third person to ever hold the title of Bensalem mayor since township officials voted to adopt a mayor-council form of government in 1987.

In the months since the primary election, the race has heated up — both on social media and on Bensalem's lawns. Countless campaign signs have popped up across the township, including some wishing DiGirolamo a happy birthday, which some residents have seen as an attempt to draw attention to the candidate’s age.

Haycock

Normally quiet Haycock Township has roiled for a year over allegations of financial mismanagement and a lack of transparency from township officials.

One of the officials at the center of the controversy is Chris Bauer, the township secretary and treasurer. Some residents have criticized him for adding his girlfriend to the township's health plan a decade ago, when his aunt was in charge of insurance for Haycock, in light of the recent budget deficit. The Bucks County District Attorney's Office investigated last year and closed the case without filing charges.

Bauer has also denied wrongdoing, calling the allegations a personal or political vendetta.

He is running as a Republican for reelection to his other office of tax collector this year. His Democratic opponent, Pamela Fly, reportedly received the township's pension plan audit in a records request and found that Bauer had combined his tax collector and secretary/treasurer roles on tax forms in a way that resulted in a higher township pension, despite town supervisors stating in June that this wasn't the case.

Some residents are also incensed over the supervisors' handling of the budget process, which they say was rolled out without sharing information about tax hikes as early as they could have, according to the Bucks County Herald.

None of the current Haycock supervisors are on the November ballot: David R. Keefer is running as a Democrat and Robert C. Bender, who currently serves on the planning commission, is running as a Republican. The candidates are vying to replace Supervisor Henry DePue, a Republican, whose term expires this year.

Trumbauersville

There are five seats up for grabs on tiny Trumbauersville Borough's council, with three incumbents running to fill them: President Christopher Betz, Allyson Goodin, and Stephen Spor, all Republicans.

Democrats Mark Huber and Wesley Comes, independent Stephanie Helbling, and Republican Robert Hyde are also vying for seats.

Nearly half of Trumbauersville voters are registered Republicans compared to just 31% Democrats and 19% unaffiliated with either party. But candidates Comes and Helbling have focused on what they describe as a lack of transparency from current board members, particularly concerning a series of water challenges the borough has seen in recent years.

Borough officials have sought to repair failing well systems using a water connection to neighboring Milford Township in the meantime. Residents have experienced brown water in recent years from various service interruptions, including a boil water advisory in 2023 when a wellhouse pipe broke.

Borough officials declined earlier this year to release the results of an investigation into an unknown substance floating in a ditch. Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection staff also followed up in May and June, reminding officials that they had yet to receive the results of the borough investigation.

Results that have been made available didn't show a threat to human health. Betz has said that the water challenges are par for the course in local government, and that critics’ concerns are unfounded.

Warminster

Warminster is one of the few races in Bucks this year where multiple supervisor seats are open in a town dominated by the opposing party.

Two of Warminster's supervisors — Judith Hoover and Ken Hayes, both Democrats — have terms expiring this year. Hayes is running for reelection, and Democrat Mary Owens, who previously served as supervisor and auditor, is running to replace Hoover.

Challenging the Democrats are Republicans Robert Guarini, the township's auditor, and Vitaliy Velenchuk, a current member of the Bucks County Human Relations Council.

Four Democrats currently sit on the board of supervisors with one Republican. But Warminster voters lean Republican, according to October's voter registration data: Approximately 45% are GOP voters, 40% are Democrats and 15% are unaffiliated with those parties.

Telford

Party control for the Telford Borough council is on the balance in the only municipality split between Bucks and Montgomery counties.

GOP voters make up 49% of 1,636 voters in Bucks County and approximately 44% in Montgomery County, but nearly 19% of those voters in Montgomery County and almost 17% in Bucks County are third-party or unaffiliated voters.

The board is currently in a 4-3 split in favor of the Republicans on the board, not including Republican Mayor Jerry Gureste, who's running for reelection unopposed. Mayors are typically tie-breaking votes and not regular voting members of a borough council.

While three of those Republican-held seats are on the ballot this year, incumbent Robert Sparks of Bucks County is running unopposed for the council’s only two-year term on the ballot.

Assuming Sparks isn’t beaten by write-in candidate, the current make up of the next council is split 2-2 along party lines.

That leaves incumbents Robert Jacobus, Republican, and John A. Taylor, Democrat, joining Republican candidates Linda Rossi and Teresa Rixon and Democratic candidates Lauren Geitz and John William Ralston competing for four-year terms.

While the Democratic candidates have been targeting Jacobus for his support to defund the Indian Valley Public Library in 2023 — and the number of times Rixon and Rossi have attended borough meetings in the past year — the Republicans haven't demonstrated much of a campaign.

Taylor, Geitz and Ralston have banded together under the Telford Unity banner with a website describing their positions, including a platform to revitalize the borough’s downtown, fiscal responsibility and community trust.

Online searches for the Republican candidates, individually or as a slate, returned no direct campaign websites or social media profiles. The Montgomery County Republican Committee includes the party’s four council candidates names, but not much else for voters to read up on.

A campaign website for Telford Tough shows images of Jacobus, Rossi and Rixon in a banner on the homepage, and at first appears to be the site for the current candidates. But the candidate information for that site contains biographies for Jacobus and his two Republican running mates in 2023, Claudio Sanchez and Luke Ziegler.

The homepage also includes a message of thanks from the 2023 candidates to “Republican primary voters” and makes references to fighting “obscene materials” allegedly available to minors at the Indian Valley Public Library.

Falls

Democrat Tim Loteckie faces off against Republican Jennifer C. Metzger for a six-year term on the board of supervisors in Falls, which in recent years has dealt with redevelopment of the old U.S. Steel property, development along the Route 1 corridor and loss on landfill fees impacting the budget.

With only one seat on the ballot for the board currently consisting of five Democrats, party control won’t be at stake. But the winner will be serving through what one consulting firm called a fast-approaching “fiscal cliff."

Township officials have for years relied on approximately $18 million in annual hosting fees from a decades-old landfill to help fund the budget and keep tax increases at bay.

While officials have made changes, including creating a 1% earned income tax and raised taxes for the first time in 31 years in 2023, PFM Consulting Group LLM warned in a report to officials that revenues will start outpacing expenses as soon as 2031.

The redevelopment of the U.S. Steel property is drawing attention from the tech industry, as Amazon has proposed building a new data center in the township.

While the center could be a boon for the township’s finances, residents fear it may drive up electricity rates and harm the environment.

Approximately 47% of the township’s 23,375 voters are Democrats. But the 34% share of Republican voters and almost 19% third-party registrations could tip the balance at the polls.