May 16, 2015 4 min read

At first glance, the field of candidates vying for spots on Washington County’s Board of Commissioners looks mighty crowded, with a total of nine candidates among both Democrats and Republicans represented on Tuesday’s primary election ballot.

Does it reflect widespread discontent? Probably not. The number of candidates is actually about average for a primary race, and it’s likely many candidates entered the fray not with any serious hope of winning, but with the intention of building name recognition for future attempts at elected office or to inject certain issues into the debate. Voters from each party will be able to choose two candidates.

On the Democratic side, Commissioner Larry Maggi is running for his fourth term, and Harlan Shober is going for his second. Competing against them are A.J. Williams, a former member of Canonsburg Borough Council who is now a resident of North Strabane Township; Corey McConn, a former president of Avella School Board who continues to serve on that board; Randy Barli, a Coal Center resident and perennial candidate; and Judith Fisher, a former Democratic jury commissioner for Washington County who lives in South Strabane Township.

While some of the candidates would bring new energy and promise to slightly change the focus of county government, we believe the best candidates on the Democratic side are the experienced incumbents, Maggi and Shober.

A longtime fixture of county politics, Maggi believes the current board has done a good job managing the county’s growth in the wake of the Marcellus Shale gas boom. He also noted the Southern Beltway toll road that is due to loop from Pittsburgh International Airport to I-79 around the Southpointe office development could be a further spur for growth, along with the pending Cool Valley mixed-use development adjacent to Southpointe. Maggi and his fellow commissioners have taken a fair bit of heat for the long-delayed reassessment of property in the county, but Maggi countered that commissioners put up a good fight and were left with no other choice after exhausting all their legal options.

Shober is the board’s “happy warrior,” a genial onetime executive with Bell of Pennsylvania and AT&T, who “loves solving problems” and says being a commissioner is the best avenue for accomplishing that. His mastery of detail on a variety of issues will continue to serve the board well if he is returned to it. Shober also recognizes the county’s long and rich heritage could be a source of economic development through tourism.

The Republican field is smaller, with three candidates: veteran Commissioner Diana Irey Vaughan; Mike McCormick, a congressional candidate against Democrat Frank Mascara in the 1990s making his first bid for a seat on the Board of Commissioners; and Nick Sherman, a North Strabane resident who is making his first bid for elected office, though his résumé includes work in the offices of state Rep. Mark Mustio and U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy. Although all three candidates bring superior credentials to the contest, Irey Vaughan and McCormick earned our support.

The longest-serving commissioner, with a tenure that dates to 1996, Irey Vaughan brings a deep knowledge of Washington County issues to the table. Like Maggi and Shober, she says the county has done a good job managing development, and would like to lure more to the area. McCormick has an interesting blend of both political and private-sector experience, having worked as the CEO and chairman of a wealth-management firm. Of all the candidates, the Venetia resident offered the most detailed and comprehensive vision of how to revive the Mon Valley, and we believe he would bring a similar level of energy and insight to other issues facing the Board of Commissioners.