Voters to decide 10 Common Pleas seats
Ten judges will join the Allegheny County Common Pleas Court for the next decade when voters select from a pool of 18 candidates on Election Day.
These openings will shape a sizable portion of the court for the next 10 years at a time when discussions around criminal justice are entering the public discourse in new ways after the outpouring of activism that followed the murder of George Floyd.
Since candidates filed as both Republican and Democrat in the primary elections, there is some crossover. Three candidates — Judge Bruce Beemer, as well as attorneys Sabrina
Korbel and Lisa Middleman — will appear on both ballots.
This year’s primaries saw candidates fighting for nine seats in each party, but that expanded to 10 open slots when Common Pleas Judge Guido DeAngelis announced in late August that he would not seek another term.
Judge DeAngelis’ decision not to seek retention — when voters decide whether to keep judges around for another 10 years — allowed the county Democrat and Republican parties to each pick one more candidate. The Allegheny County Democratic Committee picked Magistrate District Judge Tom Caulfield, and the Republicans picked attorney Richard Hosking.
With over 39,000 votes in the primary, Mr. Caulfield came close to snagging a spot on the Democratic ballot on his first go; had there been 10 open seats at the time, he would have been among the winners.
Mr. Hosking, a trial lawyer and former partner at K&L Gates with experience in business law, did not fare as well in the primaries, securing only 9,030 votes on the Democratic ballot. Despite being chosen by the Republican Committee of Allegheny County officials for the general election, he did not run on the Republican ticket in the spring.
Both men received praise from the Allegheny County Bar Association: Mr. Caulfield came highly recommended in the association’s judicial rankings, and Mr. Hosking was listed as recommended.
Among the winners in the primary were a number of progressive candidates backed by left-leaning organizations like the Alliance for Police Accountability, advocacy group 1Hood Power, UNITE PAC and Straight Ahead.
Pushing an alternative to the county Democrats’ “slate cards,” a list of approved candidates given to voters, the organizations endorsed a “Slate of Eight” candidates who they believed would focus on reformative justice from the bench.
Among those eight endorsements, five candidates will appear on the ballot in November: Ms. Middleman, Nicola Henry- Taylor, Wrenna Watson, Tiffany Sizemore and Chelsa Wagner.
Although they occupy a variety of spaces on the political spectrum, the group represents a continuing trend of progressive, female candidates rising to power in local offices in recent years, perhaps most notably represented by a growing progressive coalition among Pittsburgh-area state representatives.
One candidate who racked up one of the highest vote tallies in the primaries was Ms. Korbel, the legal director of the Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh. She was highly recommended by the ACBA and endorsed by a variety of the county’s Democratic organizations. With over 68,000 votes, she came in second in the Democratic contest, and she received enough votes to also secure a spot on the Republican ticket.
Two names on the ballot may be familiar to those who have spent time in a courtroom in recent years: Judges Elliot Howsie and Bruce Beemer each occupy a seat on the Common Pleas Court.
They were unelected, both assigned to fill vacancies, and this year represents an opportunity to secure those spots for the next 10 years. Both come highly rated by the ACBA.
The full list of candidates for Common Pleas Court is:
Bruce Beemer (Democrat, Republican)
Thomas P. Caulfield (D) William “Bill” Caye (R) Jessel Costa III (D) Anthony DeLuca (R) Mark Patrick Flaherty (R) Nicola Henry-Taylor (D) Rick Hosking (R) Elliot Howsie (D) Daniel J. Konieczka, Jr. (R)
Sabrina Korbel (D, R) Lisa Middleman (D, R) Joseph Patrick Murphy (R)
Chuck Porter (R) Tiffany Sizemore (D) Chelsa Wagner (D) Wrenna Watson (D) Richard L. Weiss (Green) There are two Common Pleas judges up for retention: Judges Alexander T. Bicket and Randy Todd. Voters will have the option to choose “yes or no” on whether they want to keep the judges for another 10year term.
Magistrate candidates
Four seats on the Magisterial District Court are also up for grabs. A magistrate, often the first step in the justice system, serves a sixyear term. They handle arraignments and preliminary hearings, as well as municipal code violations, landlordtenant actions and traffic citations in their respective districts.
District 05-02-04 in Aspinwall has three candidates vying for a vacant seat: Democrat Matthew Rudzki, Republican Dave Turner and Independent Jennifer Evashavik. All three are attorneys.
In District 05-02-19 in Dormont, residents of that South Hills neighborhood and Mount Lebanon will choose between Democrat Hilary Wheatley, Republican Duane Fisher and Independent Olga Salvatori-Manning. While Ms. Wheatley and Ms. Salvatori-Manning have experience as lawyers, Mr. Fisher is a Mount Lebanon police officer of more than 20 years.
Pittsburgh’s Perry North neighborhood, home to Magisterial District 05-02-42, will see Democrat Leah Williams going against Republican Mark Scorpion. Both candidates have decades of legal experience, with Ms. Williams working as a hearing officer in the Allegheny County Common Pleas Court’s family division. Mr. Scorpion has over 30 years of experience as trial attorney in both civil and criminal court.
District 05-03-13, situated in Pittsburgh’s West End, has Nicholas Martini on both the Democrat and Republican ballot facing Independent Holly Hickling. Neither candidate has a law degree, with Mr. Martini boasting experience as a city of Pittsburgh Democratic Committee treasurer, and Ms. Hickling working in the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Pharmacy.