Category: Election 2023

No Surprises In The 35th District

By Bob Small

The last of the Feb 7  special elections held no surprises, except for just how poorly the GOP had done in them. The 35th State House District required a special election after Austin Davis resigned to become the first African-American lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania.

Matthew Gergely earned a whopping 88.6 percent of the vote (3,237 votes) to Republican Donald Nevills , who earned only 11.4 percent% (424 votes). When he ran in the 2022 election, Nevills secured 33.8 percent of the vote.

Gergely served as McKeesport’s city administrator and finance director. He also served as a McKeesport Area School District official. His brother Marc previously served as the House Rep but resigned due to his connections to illegal gambling operations.

Matthew said he will fight for fair funding for the public schools. It should be noted that taxes for Mckeesport School District were raised repeatedly during his tenure as city administrator and finance director. 

Nevills served 14 years in the US Navy. He’s been a small businessman in Pittsburgh, running a tattoo parlor, which he says closed due to covid restrictions.

After that happened, Nevills and his wife Paula opened Cotton Candy City in Clairton.

Don has served in many municipal positions, most recently on the Board of Directors of the Clairton Municipal Authority.

His externsive campaign web site lists 10 platform issues, including constitutional rights, covid mandates, infrastucture problems, and worker shortages. I suggest that you try to review this web site before he takes it down.

And this YouTube  interview.

There are 14 towns in the 35th District, including Duquesne and McKeesport. All the former representatives have been Democrats, with two serving almost 50 years (1979-2017) — namely, Marc Gergeley and Thomas A. Michlovic.

The February 7th election was the last scheduled special election, until the next ones are scheduled under the new State House Speaker Democrat Joanna McClinton.

No Surprises In The 35th District

34th District Is Safe For Dems

By Bob Small

When Democrat Abigail Salisbury won the special election for the 34th Pennsylvania State House District, previously held by Summer Lee (who is now in the U.S. Congress), she became the second openly bisexual candidate to be elected in Harrisburg. There are now six openly LGBTQ state representatives in Harrisburg, and they belong to the LGBTQ Equality Caucus.

Abigail Salisbury won 10,068 votes (87.7 % of the vote) to Robert Pagane’s 1,404 votes (12.3% of the total). This result had been expected. 

Born in Ohio, Abigail Salisbury attended Case Western Reserve University for her undergraduate degree and received her law degree from the University of Pittsburgh. She was endorsed by Clean Water Action, Planned Parenthood, and various labor unions.

Among other things, Salisbury initiated her own low-cost law practice for nonprofits and small businesses in Swissvale. One of her major priorities has been to reduce the time it takes for a new business to acquire its business license. (She says it takes 2.5 months.)

Robert Pagane graduated from the Allegheny County Police Academy in 1989. He has been affiliated with the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Police Work Dog Association.

Now retired, Pagane spent 30 years as a police officer, five of them in the city of Pittsburgh and 13 as a K-9 handler.

Three key messages of his campaign were to make the streets safe, to lessen the tax burden on the elderly, and to fight on behalf of his constituents to raise his district “from the ashes”. He believes that businesses will return when the streets are safe.

PA House District 34 is in Allegheny County and includes Braddock, 12 other towns, and sections of Pittsburgh.

Pennsylvania House of Representative

The two Democrats who served as state representatives prior to Summer Lee (Paul Costa and Ronald R. Cowell) served a total of almost 45 years, from 1975 to 2019.

34th District Is Safe For Dems

32nd District Race Went As Expected

By Bob Small

The Feb. 7 special election in the 32nd Pennsylvania House District went as was expected in the solidly Democratic district.

Democrat Joe McAndrew received 74.9% of the vote (9,515), while Republican Clay Walker received only 25.9% of the vote (3,185).

McAndrew is a former executive director of the Allegheny County Democratic Committee, and has served as chair of the Penn Hills Democratic Committee. A graduate of the University of Dayton, he was endorsed for this race by Clean Water Action and Planned Parenthood, among other organizations.

Walker, of Verona, works as a health-care customer representative. He is better known as the pastor of Monroeville’s Mustard Seed Church. He calls himself a conservative on criminal rights and gun rights. He is a University of Pittsburgh graduate and a US Army veteran, and this is his first run for office.

The 32nd District covers four areas of Allegheny County. Anthony M. Deluca was its longest serving representative (1983-2022). He died in office on Oct. 9

Create Your Own Independence Day; Run For Office

By Bob Small

Feb. 14 is Create Your Own Independence Day.

Besides being Valentine’s Day of course.

Tuesday is the first day this year to circulate petitions for Democrat or Republican candidates including those who are running independent of their  Party’s nominating process.

The petitions will be collected on March 7.

In municipal elections, the signature requirement can be minimal.  In our little borough of Swarthmore, only 10 signatures are required for Borough Council.  As always, one should collect three times as many for the expected challenge.

What it means is that there would be challenges in the May 16 Primary election.  There could possibly  even be debates, certainly social media discussions.  The alternative is one-party towns where the incumbents may not have any incentive to listen to the voice of the people.

One can get further information at one’s local county Board of Elections.

As a citizen, you have the right to create your own Independence by choosing candidates rather than having them chosen for you.