Washington County voters facing judicial elections on Tuesday ballot
Along with being asked to weigh in on several statewide judicial contests, voters in Washington County are being asked this election season to decide a handful of local judicial races, only one of which is competitive.
That’s because voters largely made up their minds in the May 18 primary, with a candidate for a seat on the county’s Court of Common Pleas and candidates in three of four magisterial districts winning on both the Republican and Democratic primary ballots.
Voters are also being asked whether to retain a county judge who has been on the bench for 10 years.
The one competitive magisterial district judge race is in District 27-1-01, and it pits Democrat Kelly Stewart against Republican Patrick Puskarich. Stewart has been employed in the Washington County District Attorney’s Office as an administrative and legal assistant, and Puskarich is a sergeant deputy in the Washington County Sheriff’s Department.
If the primary is anything to go by, the race between Stewart and Puskarich could be close. Between the Democratic and GOP ballots, Stewart received 1,007 votes, and Puskarich received 972 votes – a difference of just 35 votes.
District 27-1-01 includes the city of Washington, Gabby Heights and North Franklin Township. The seat is currently held by District Judge Robert Redlinger, who is retiring. Magisterial district judges handle, among other things, preliminary arraignments, traffic citations, minor criminal cases, and civil cases with amounts not exceeding $12,000.
Meanwhile, in District 27-3-02, incumbent District Judge Curtis Thompson will be running unopposed, as will Chartiers Valley School District police officer John Bruner in District 27-3-10 and Lou McQuillan, the police chief in Mt. Pleasant Township, in District 27-3-06.
Among the communities in District 27-3-02 are Bentleyville, Scenery Hill, Marianna, Cokeburg, Somerset Township. District 27-3-10 includes Amity, West Alexander, Buffalo, Independence and South Franklin townships and other areas in the western part of Washington County. The seat in District 27-3-10 has been held by Judge Ethan Ward, who did not seek reelection this year. District 27-3-06 includes Cecil and Mt. Pleasant townships, McDonald, Hickory and other communities. The seat in that district has been open since Traci McDonald won a spot on the county’s Court of Common Pleas in 2019.
Washington County voters will also be asked whether to retain Washington County Judge Gary Gilman, who was first elected to a 10-year term in 2011. In a poll of members of the Washington County Bar Association earlier this month, 90% said Gilman should be retained, and 10% said he should not be. Ballots were mailed to 312 eligible voting members, with 164 returning ballots.
“The Bar Association takes seriously its responsibility to play an active part in ensuring that judges and judicial candidates are persons of integrity, possess legal ability, are diligent, and have appropriate judicial temperament,” said Damon J. Faldowski, chair of the Bar Association’s Court Relations Committee.
When the general election wraps up on Tuesday, county voters will also ratify the choice of Jesse Pettit to serve a 10-year term on the Court of Common Pleas. A magistrate based in Peters Township and a one-time assistant district attorney in Philadelphia County, he handily defeated his opponent, Joyce Hatfield-Wise, in both the Republican and Democratic primaries. Pettit will be replacing Senior Judge Katherine Emery, who retired earlier this year as the president judge of the common pleas court.