The town’s March municipal election has been canceled after the three incumbent Town Council candidates went unchallenged for their seats.
During a special Town Council meeting Friday at Town Hall, council members unanimously approved a resolution affirming the results of Tuesday’s 113th election caucus in which Mayor Danielle Moore and council members Julie Araskog and Ted Cooney were nominated unopposed to their seats.
Potential challengers had until Wednesday’s qualifying deadline of 5 p.m. to file paperwork, but none did.
Council member Julie Araskog smiles while being nominated for a fifth term during the town’s 113th annual election caucus Tuesday. To her left are Mayor Danielle Moore, who won a third term Friday, and her mother, former Mayor Lesly Smith.
With no opposition, Moore was re-elected to her third term as mayor, while Araskog and Cooney will serve their fifth and third terms, respectively. Araskog holds the Group 1 seat, and Cooney holds the Group 2 seat.
They will be sworn in to office at the April 8, 2025, council meeting, the town said.
All three candidates announced their re-election bids last month.
Moore, a lifelong resident, served six years on the Town Council before being elected mayor in 2021. She was nominated Tuesday by former Council President Maggie Zeidman and seconded by Alfred “Skip” Aldridge and Carla Termini Cove.
In that role, she created and has guided the town’s Strategic Planning Board, helped steer the redevelopment of the Town Marina, and directed the town’s response to urgent and critical issues such as the discovery of a dangerous toxin in the town’s water supply in 2021 and the distribution of antisemitic flyers to private residences on the island last year.
“The mayor is our most influential elected official in a community that prides itself on local control,” Zeidman said of Moore. “She’s the main point of contact across the waterway, in the county, in the state, and with federal officials. She works on critical issues that effect our well-being. Dani is effective, and that’s exactly what we need.”
Araskog, who chairs the town’s Ordinances, Rules & Standards Committee, first was elected to the council in 2017, and re-elected in 2019, 2021 and 2023. A North End resident, she also is a member of the town’s Public Safety Committee.
She was nominated Tuesday by former Architectural Commission Chairman Michael Small and seconded by Gail Howe and Denise Hanley.
“She is an educated and trained attorney, and brings that qualification and component to the deliberations of the council, which has made her excellent in standing up for all of us as residents,” Small said of Araskog. “She fights for us. If she says no, she believes that’s in our best interest as residents.”
Cooney, a former chair of the town’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, first was elected to the council in 2021 and re-elected in 2023. He previously served on the town’s Architectural Commission, and chairs the town’s Public Safety Commission.
He was nominated Tuesday by his brother, Jack Cooney, and seconded by Landmarks Preservation Commission member Brittain Damgard and Planning and Zoning Commission member William Gilbane.
“Ted is smart and sensible,” Jack Cooney said of his brother. “He puts in the work. He really shows up educated before these discussions in this room. And he really serves as a bridge across generations in this town in a role that he’s done with real class and maturity. He represents a voice for — I consider myself an older millennial — but a growing cohort of us who are raising young families in this town. Ted is committed to the issues that matter to all residents.”
Town Council members serve two-year terms. There are no term limits. The town’s most recent municipal election was held in March, when Bridget Moran defeated John David Corey to win the Group 3 seat vacated by Zeidman. Council members Lew Crampton and Bobbie Lindsay were re-elected unopposed.
There were no municipal elections in 2016, 2020, 2022 and 2023. All candidates ran unopposed in those years.
Jodie Wagner is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at jwagner@pbdailynews.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach cancels March election as three incumbents face no challengers