Whisper, internet campaigns fail as Jonynas, Roper, Fierman, Bailey win their Chester races Benelli, Ucci take school board seats, 18-year veteran Hance comes up short; school budget rejected

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2026 Telegraph Publishing LLC

With an unusually large number of contested races and two instances of controversial election shenanigans, Chester’s results for Select Board and school board campaigns have been highly anticipated. In the end, Democrats had a blowout night with all of their candidates victorious and most by substantial margins. Town clerks will note that all results are “unofficial” on election night, and so will The Telegraph.

Whisper campaign against Select Board trio fails

A few weeks before the election, a whisper campaign began to circulate saying that if the Democratic candidates – Arne Jonynas, Tim Roper and Lauren Fierman – were to win that they would fire Town Manager Julie Hance.  Jonynas spoke out in a letter to The Telegraph calling the allegations “simply a lie.”

Roper and Fierman also weighed in with comments on Jonynas’ letter saying that they had also been targets of the whispers and that the allegations were not true.

And it appears that the accusations backfired with Jonynas trouncing Jerry Ucci for a three-year seat 403 to 262. Fierman and Roper polled 350 and 373 votes respectively against 254 and 243 for Kelly Spaulding and Steve Mancuso in their races for one-year seats.

School board candidate who quit race wins 

And it appears that the efforts of internet trolls Hank Poitras and John Keller to shame Jesse Bailey out of the race for the remaining year of a three-year seat on the board of the Green Mountain Unified School District may have also backfired and cost Randy Miles his shot at sitting at the board table.

Last Thursday, Poitras and Keller exposed Bailey’s wife’s  OnlyFans account and repeatedly posted a sexual video of the couple. The apparent goal was to drive Bailey from the race. On Friday, Bailey announced he would drop out because of concerns for his wife’s safety.

But the public backlash at Poitras and Keller – including reminders that the latter has pled guilty to domestic abuse – seems to have galvanized the electorate to come out on Bailey’s side if only to cast a protest vote against the treatment of the couple.

Bailey beat Miles 287 to 259. Interviewed on Tuesday night, Bailey said, “I never really expected to win going into the race.” But he reiterated that he “pretty much made up” his mind and has to put his wife first. “I just have to figure out the next steps.” He added, “I am so appreciative to everyone who supported me.”

The other GM race saw Penny Benelli, Jeff Hance and Jerry Ucci vying for two three-year seats on the board.

Telegraph readers will remember that last year Keller put his name in to fulfill one-year of a three year seat after Tuck Wunderle resigned to return to grad school. That was about the same time that Keller was pleading guilty and beginning his one-year probation. Benelli – a retired family lawyer who started her career as a teacher – put her name in for the post while Keller pulled out.

The GM board rejected Benelli and put Ucci at the table in July. This year, Ucci decided not to run for the final year of the term he was serving but rather to go for one of two full three-year terms.

Yesterday saw Benelli besting Ucci 409 to 345 and, with 326 votes, narrowly ending Jeff Hance’s 18 years of service on local school boards.

CLARIFICATION: Benelli bested Ucci only in the number of votes. Because it was a three-person race for two seats, both Benelli and Ucci won board seats.

Voters narrowly reject GM budget

Made up of the towns of Andover, Baltimore, Cavendish and Chester, the Green Mountain Unified School District funds the operation of two elementary schools and one 7-12 school as well as a portion of the Two Rivers Supervisory Union.

Monday night, the combined vote of those four towns sent GM’s $19,341,997 budget down to defeat by a vote of 488 for to 525 opposed, by a slim margin of 37 votes.

The new GM board – with new members from Andover, Cavendish and Chester – will have to craft a new budget that they think will pass muster with voters in a month or so. Normally that means cutting enough to soothe those calling for reductions. But considering the usually low turnout of budget revotes, the cutting may not need to be deep to succeed.

Cynthia Prairie contributed to this article.