Former Luzerne County Councilwoman Jane Walsh Waitkus announced Sunday she will run for a council seat this year.
Watikus, a 72-year-old Democrat who lives in Dorrance Twp., was elected to council in 2015. She ran unsuccessfully for reelection in 2019.
Waitkus served as vice chairwoman of council the last few months of her tenure, following the resignation of former councilman Eugene Kelleher.
On Sunday, Waitkus said her experience on the 11-member council that serves as the legislative branch of county government will help her hit the ground running, if she is elected to one of five seats on the ballot this year.
It looks like this yearâs race for Luzerne County controller might be a rematch of 2017, when incumbent Democrat Michelle Bednar defeated Republican challenger and former controller Walter Griffith.
Griffith and Bednar both said this week they plan to seek their partyâs nomination in the May 18 primary.
Bednar, 54, of Conyngham Twp., will seek a third and final four-year term in the office to which she was first elected in 2013. The county charter limits the controller to three consecutive terms.
Griffith, 66, of Kingston Twp., will make another attempt to regain the office from which he resigned in 2013 as part of a plea agreement in a wiretapping case.