Even though Mt. Lebanon residents couldn’t vote for the Pittsburgh mayoral race, there were still many important races at stake. Allegheny County saw a very high 45% turnout rate – impressive for an off-year election.
On the ballot locally, Mt. Lebanon had four uncontested school board candidates – Becki Campanaro, Joy Givens, Melinda Berdyk and Tim Clougherty. Wards 2 and 4 also had Mt. Lebanon Commissioner races with Margaret Izzo winning for Ward 2 and Nick Petti winning in Ward 4. Incumbent Treasurer Joe Senko was re-elected to his position, as was Allegheny County Sheriff Kevin Krause.
Labor Party candidate Alex Rose won the County Council At-Large race to complete the term that Republican Sam DeMarco vacated earlier this year when he resigned to work for Senator Dave McCormick.
Eight seats were up for grabs in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas race. Two Mt. Lebanon residents – State Rep. Dan Miller and Anthony DeLuca – were successful in their bid to win a seat on that court. (Rep. Miller will resign from the House in the coming months, which will generate a special election to fill the balance of his term which ends December 31, 2026. We’ll cover that process in a future article.) The other six candidates who won their Court of Common Pleas race are Amanda Green-Hawkins, Quita Bridges, Julie Capone, Heather Schmidt-Bresnahan, Jaime Hickton, and Matt Rudzki.
Brandon Neuman won an open seat for Judge of the Superior Court and Stella Tsai won an open seat for Judge of the Commonwealth Court.
The back page of this year’s lengthy ballot had the judicial retention vote questions which drew many voters to the polls. Traditionally, retention votes are almost a sure thing with judges rarely losing their seat. This year, there was a push by conservative groups to unseat the three Democratic Supreme Court justices, a story which garnered national attention. Millions of dollars were spent by both sides educating the public about what was at stake. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is often at the forefront of many important decisions and might eventually see cases related to election laws and redistricting in the state. At stake was whether the PA Supreme Court would maintain its 5-2 Democratic majority or fall to a 2-2 partisan deadlock for two years had the retention ballot measure’s “no” vote been successful. Voters chose to retain the three Justices – Donohue, Dougherty and Wecht – for another ten-year term.
Also winning retention for another ten-year term (though far less controversial) were Superior Court Judge Dubow and Commonwealth Court Judge Wojcik, as well as Court of Common Pleas Judges Borkowski, Hertzberg, Lazzara, McGrady, McGough, Regan and Woodruff.
