Newcomer David Stavropoulos leads in the race to become Lakewood village president, early voting results show

Newcomer David Stavropoulos was leading with 80.1% of the vote in the race for village president of Lakewood as of Tuesday night with some ballots still to be counted.

Stavropoulos was looking to unseat incumbent Philip Stephan in the election, which also saw a crowded field for the Village Board with six candidates vying for three seats.

Stephan was elected in a 2019 uncontested race to fill out the remainder of Village President Paul Serwatka’s term. Serwatka resigned in 2018 after an out-of-state move.

Stavropoulos worked for Kroeschell for nearly 30 years and is currently its chief operating officer, according to his campaign website. He has lived in Lakewood for 17 years.

As of 9:30 p.m., 956 votes had been counted and the results released online in the Lakewood village president race. The results do not include all mail-in or provisionally cast ballots.

Running for the three seats on the Lakewood Village Board were incumbent Pamela Eddy and challengers Michael E. Fischer, Tricia Babischkin, April Runge.

Incumbent Dan Alexander, as well as Marcus Andreopoulos, ran as write-in candidates. Alexander had his name removed from the ballot in January after the local electoral board found he failed to meet certain election law requirements in submitting his nominating papers.

As of 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Fischer led the race by 30.1% followed by both Runge and Babischkin with 29.9%, just one vote separating the two, and Eddy with 10.0%, according to unofficial results. The write-in votes for Alexander and Andreopoulose had not yet been tallied.

Eddy won her seat in the last election, carrying 67% of the vote. Alexander is seeking a second term. Andreopoulos is an insurance agent and broker in the village of Lakewood.

Fischer, Runge, and Babischkin ran, together with Stavropoulos, on a “United4Lakewood” slate.

One of Fischer’s ideas to run on was government reform. He supports putting a referendum on the ballot to adopt an Elected Official Recall provision in the Village of Lakewood and adopting a resolution to require quarterly Town Halls, according to Shaw Local’s voter guide.

Runge has lived in Lakewood for 19 years where she’s spent her professional career as a marketing research consultant helping companies make strategic business decisions, according to their campaign website.

According to the United4Lakewood website, Babischkin owns her own business, working in technology, communication, and retail and e-commerce fields.