Jul 28, 2017 3 min read

It appears that the open seat in the magisterial district based in Peters Township on the Nov. 7 general election ballot will be a two-person race.

Jesse Pettit, 42, of Venetia, filed nomination papers as an independent candidate and challenger to Jacob Machel, 29, also of Peters Township, who captured both the Democratic and Republican nominations in the May primary.

Machel, a commercial real estate broker, was the sole candidate on both ballots after he challenged the nominating petitions of attorney Ryan Welsch on several counts. Welsch withdrew his name from the contest, but two candidates – Democrat Diane DiSalle and former Washington County Republican Party Chairman Bill Merrell – waged write-in campaigns in the primary that came up short.

Pettit, who has been practicing law for 16 years, said Thursday he watched events unfold last spring when incumbent James Ellis, who was elected to the minor judiciary in the 1980s, announced at the 11th hour that he would be leaving the office at the end of 2017 when his current term expired. Ellis had reportedly circulated nominating petitions but said on the final day to file that he did not intend to run this year for a sixth, six-year term.

“The voters of the district deserve to have a choice, and a choice of someone who has the qualifications to serve in that district,” said Pettit, who worked as both a deputy attorney general responsible for asset forfeiture and an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia.

Pettit said he was “somewhat shocked” when Ellis, 62, did not file for an additional term.

“I’m getting support among both Democrats and Republicans,” he said. Each of the unsuccessful write-in candidates was among the 610 signatures gathered on his behalf, and Pettit said he has additional nomination papers and forms to file before the Tuesday deadline.

A Democrat who changed his voter registration to independent, Pettit is the son of Sandra Hart Pettit and the late Washington County District Attorney John C. Pettit. He is a partner in the firm Pettit and Spontak PLLC in downtown Pittsburgh.

Machel, who has a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics, said he spent more than 400 hours in Ellis’ office.

Pettit is a graduate of Ohio University and the University of Pittsburgh law school, where he was a co-founder and president of the Family Law Society. The married father of four has lived in Peters for 2 1/2 years.

The magisterial district includes Peters, Nottingham and Union townships and Finleyville.