Help us improve in just 2 minutes—share your thoughts in our reader survey.
Bob Lesh

Ballotpedia provides comprehensive election coverage of the 100 largest cities in America by population as well as mayoral, city council, and district attorney election coverage in state capitals outside of the 100 largest cities. This board member is outside of that coverage scope and does not receive scheduled updates.
Bob Lesh is an at-large member of the Scranton Board of Directors in Pennsylvania. The seat was up for general election on November 3, 2015. There was a primary election on May 19, 2015. He filed to run in the Democratic primary. Lesh won the Democratic nomination and advanced to the general election.[1][2] Bob Lesh won the general election on November 3, 2015.
Lesh was an at-large member of the Scranton Board of Education. He lost re-election to the board as a Republican candidate against five other candidates on November 5, 2013. Lesh first won election to the board in 1997. Lesh was listed on the general election ballot for two seats on the board. He sought election to another full term on the board as well as an unexpired two-year term against Democratic candidate Kyle Donahue.[3]
Scranton teachers went on strike after working under an expired contract for a month. The strike began on September 25, 2015, and ended on October 13, 2015.[4]
Biography
Lesh served in the U.S. Marine Corps. He is a driver for the County of Lackawanna Transit System (COLTS). He served on the school board for 16 years before he lost re-election in 2013.[5]
Elections
2015
Five of the nine seats on the Scranton school board were up for general election on November 3, 2015. There was a primary election on May 19, 2015.
Incumbents Paul Duffy (D/R) and Carol Owens Oleski (D/R) won re-election, while Democratic challengers Bob Lesh and James Timlin joined the board. Cross-filed candidate Tom Schuster also won a seat on the board. They defeated Republican candidates Larry Wynne and Marcel Lisi in the general election. No independent candidates filed to run in the general election.[2]
Joseph Matyjevich and Adam Swieciaszek were defeated in the primary election and, therefore, did not proceed to the general election. Greg Popil withdrew from the race after the primary election. The Republican Party used a substitute nomination certificate to nominate Lisi in the place of Popil.[6]
Results
Scranton School District, At-Large, General Election, 2015 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
Democratic/Republican | ![]() |
18.0% | 6,821 | |
Democratic/Republican | ![]() |
16.3% | 6,182 | |
Democratic/Republican | ![]() |
16.2% | 6,158 | |
Democratic | ![]() |
15.5% | 5,873 | |
Democratic | ![]() |
13.1% | 4,964 | |
Republican | Larry Wynne | 7.9% | 3,004 | |
Republican | Marcel Lisi | 6.5% | 2,451 | |
Write-in votes | 6.7% | 2,546 | ||
Total Votes | 37,999 | |||
Source: Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, "Summary Report, Certified Results," accessed December 21, 2015 |
Scranton School District, At-Large Democratic Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015 |
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
Democratic | ![]() |
15.9% | 4,600 | |
Democratic | ![]() |
14.5% | 4,187 | |
Democratic | ![]() |
13.2% | 3,811 | |
Democratic | ![]() |
12.4% | 3,600 | |
Democratic | ![]() |
12.1% | 3,512 | |
Democratic | Larry Wynne | 9.8% | 2,832 | |
Democratic | Joseph Matyjevich | 9.6% | 2,766 | |
Democratic | Greg Popil | 9.1% | 2,643 | |
Democratic | Adam Swieciaszek | 3% | 883 | |
Democratic | Write-in votes | 0.4% | 117 | |
Total Votes | 28,951 | |||
Source: Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, "Certified Results," accessed July 7, 2015 |
Scranton School District, At-Large Republican Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015 |
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
Republican | ![]() |
18.9% | 847 | |
Republican | ![]() |
18.5% | 833 | |
Republican | ![]() |
18.2% | 817 | |
Republican | ![]() |
15.5% | 697 | |
Republican | ![]() |
14.2% | 636 | |
Republican | Adam Swieciaszek | 8.8% | 397 | |
Republican | Write-in votes | 5.9% | 264 | |
Total Votes | 4,491 | |||
Source: Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, "Certified Results," accessed July 7, 2015 |
Funding
The Lackawanna County Department of Elections does not publish and freely disclose school board candidate campaign finance reports. If you have any information regarding the campaign finance disclosures in this race, please contact the school board elections team at editor@ballotpedia.org.
Endorsements
Lesh received an official endorsement from the Scranton City Democratic Committee.[7]
2013
Lesh ran for election to the board on November 5, 2013, against incumbents Cy Douaihy and Bob Sheridan, as well as challengers Carol Owens Oleski, Robert Casey and Mark McAndrew.
Results
Scranton School District, At-Large General Election, 4-year term, 2013 |
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
Democrat | ![]() |
19.9% | 9,014 | |
Democrat | ![]() |
19% | 8,627 | |
Cross filed | ![]() |
18.4% | 8,354 | |
Cross filed | ![]() |
16.9% | 7,648 | |
Republican | Bob Lesh Incumbent | 13.1% | 5,938 | |
Republican | Carol Owens Oleski | 12.2% | 5,546 | |
Nonpartisan | Write-in | 0.5% | 240 | |
Total Votes | 45,367 | |||
Source: Lackawanna County, "Certified Election Results," accessed December 14, 2013] |
Scranton School District, At-Large General Election, 2-year term, 2013 |
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
Democrat | ![]() |
62.2% | 8,977 | |
Republican | Bob Lesh Incumbent | 37.4% | 5,390 | |
Total Votes | 14,423 | |||
Source: Lackawanna County, "Certified Election Results," accessed December 14, 2013] |
Scranton School District, At-Large Republican Primary Election, 4-year term, 2013 |
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
Republican | ![]() |
14.4% | 907 | |
Republican | ![]() |
12.9% | 811 | |
Republican | ![]() |
11.5% | 724 | |
Republican | ![]() |
10.9% | 682 | |
Republican | Mark McAndrew | 10.5% | 659 | |
Republican | Robert Casey | 10.4% | 653 | |
Republican | Tom Borthwick | 9.6% | 604 | |
Republican | James J. Timlin | 8.8% | 550 | |
Republican | Tom Schuster | 8.7% | 546 | |
Republican | Write-in votes | 2.3% | 145 | |
Total Votes | 6,281 | |||
Source: Lackawanna County Board of Elections |
Scranton School District, Democratic Primary, 4-year term, 2013 |
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
Democratic | ![]() |
12% | 4,272 | |
Democratic | ![]() |
11% | 3,900 | |
Democratic | ![]() |
10.6% | 3,773 | |
Democratic | ![]() |
10.5% | 3,727 | |
Democratic | Bob Lesh Incumbent | 9.8% | 3,495 | |
Democratic | Carol Owens Oleski | 8.4% | 2,984 | |
Democratic | Tom Schuster | 8.2% | 2,925 | |
Democratic | Tom Borthwick | 8.1% | 2,872 | |
Democratic | James J. Timlin | 7% | 2,492 | |
Democratic | Kevin J. Manley | 5.6% | 1,980 | |
Democratic | Todd Hartman | 5.1% | 1,818 | |
Democratic | Douglas J. Miller | 3.5% | 1,234 | |
Democratic | Write-in votes | 0.3% | 92 | |
Total Votes | 35,564 | |||
Source: Lackawanna County Board of Elections |
Funding
Lesh did not report any campaign contributions or expenditures to the Pennsylvania Secretary of State for the election.
Endorsements
Lesh received no official endorsements for his campaign.
2009
Lesh won re-election to the board on November 3, 2009, by placing third out of four candidates up for four available seats.
Scranton School District, At-large General Election, 4-year term, 2009 |
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
Democratic | ![]() |
25.8% | 8,969 | |
Democratic | ![]() |
25.1% | 8,717 | |
Democratic | ![]() |
24.7% | 8,587 | |
Democratic | ![]() |
24.5% | 8,509 | |
Total Votes | 34,782 | |||
Source: Lackawanna County Board of Elections |
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Bob Lesh Scranton School District. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Scranton School District, Pennsylvania
- Scranton School District elections (2013)
- Scranton School District elections (2015)
- Embroiled incumbents see differing outcomes in May 19 school board elections across five states (May 21, 2015)
- Incumbency no guarantee of success in Nov. 3 school board elections (November 6, 2015)
- What happened in Nov.'s top board elections? (November 4, 2015)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Scranton School District, "Board of Directors," accessed March 16, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, "List of Candidates, Municipal Primary, May 19, 2015," accessed March 18, 2015 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>
tag; name "candidates" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ The Times-Tribune, "Fix School Election Law," September 21, 2013
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>
tag; no text was provided for refs namedrally
- ↑ Facebook, "Bob Lesh for Scranton School Director," accessed October 1, 2015
- ↑ The Times-Tribune, "Lisi best-known name on new candidates list," September 11, 2015
- ↑ Facebook, "Scranton City Democratic Committee," April 28, 2015
2015 Scranton School District Elections | |
Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania | |
Election date: | Primary election: May 19, 2015 General election: November 3, 2015 |
Candidates: | At-large: • Incumbent Paul Duffy (D/R) • Incumbent, Carol Owens Oleski (D/R) • Bob Lesh (D) • Marcel Lisi (R) • Joseph Matyjevich (D) • Greg Popil (D/R) • Tom Schuster (D/R) • Adam Swieciaszek (D/R) • James Timlin (D) • Larry Wynne (D/R) |
Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
![]() |
State of Pennsylvania Harrisburg (capital) |
---|---|
Elections |
What's on my ballot? | Elections in 2025 | How to vote | How to run for office | Ballot measures |
Government |
Who represents me? | U.S. President | U.S. Congress | Federal courts | State executives | State legislature | State and local courts | Counties | Cities | School districts | Public policy |