Bar president hopes to ‘ignite passion’

NORRISTOWN»With a new role as president of the Montgomery Bar Association and a new granddaughter to spoil, the year is off to an exhilarating start for Mary Pugh.

The passing of the gavel from Eric Smith to Pugh, the executive director of Montgomery Child Advocacy Project, will take place at the organization’s annual business luncheon Jan. 19 at Blue Stone Country Club in Blue Bell.

Pugh, whose goal as president is to engage the membership and “ignite their passion,” follows on the heels of her husband, William Pugh V, and his father, William Pugh IV, who both served as president of the Montgomery Bar Association.

As noted on its website, montgomerybar.org, the Montgomery Bar Association is one of the country’s oldest, established in

Honor King’s dream every day of the year

As the music fades and the satisfaction of volunteer work sets in, the question remains: Now what?

nal districts as an unconstitutional gerrymander that unfairly favors Republicans.

To be sure, Republicans who controlled the Legislature and governor’s office following the 2010 census broke decades of geographical precedent when redrawing the map.

They shifted whole counties and cities into different districts and produced contorted boundaries in an effort to protect a Republican advantage in the congressional delegation. They succeeded, securing 13 of 18 seats in a state where registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans 5 to 4.

In Republican U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta’s 11th District in northeastern Pennsylvania, Republicans cut out Scranton and WilkesBarre and sent the district plunging more than 75 miles into south-central Pennsylvania.

Now, Steve Bloom, a Republican state representative from the Carlisle area, is campaigning to succeed Barletta, who is running instead for U.S. Senate. Bloom faces the possibility that, in a few weeks, he may no longer live in the district, even as he campaigns 100 miles from his home.

“All I can do is keep my head down and keep working hard,” Bloom said.

On Feb. 13, candidates can start circulating petitions to get on the primary ballot. The paperwork is due March 6 and the primary election is May 15.

In court filings, the plaintiffs — a group of Democratic voters — asked the state Supreme Court to redraw district boundaries if the Legislature and governor cannot do it within a two-week window.

The defendants — Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, and House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny — argue that the justices shouldn’t create a standard to determine when partisan bias in mapmaking goes too far, particularly when the U.S. Supreme

SUBMITTED PHOTO Montgomery Bar Association President-elect Mary Pugh with 2017 President Eric Smith, left, and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro at a meeting of past and present MBA leaders held in October.