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.
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.
