Nash, Flaherty, Marcinkiewicz, lead district judge primaries
There were three contested races for district judge seats in Butler County during Tuesday's primary elections.
Also, District Judge William Fullerton appears primed to retain his seat as Butler City's district judge, as he will move forward unopposed in the general election. The position, like the other district judges, carries a term of six years.
A total of 1,354 voters cast a ballot for Fullerton, whose seat was not nearly threatened by the 20 write-in votes cast for the position.
Based on unofficial election returns posted by the county, which did not appear to include mail-in ballots, the other races panned out in the following fashions:
If election night totals stand, candidate Joe Nash will be the sole candidate for the judge's seat covering the Slippery Rock area.“There wasn't a secret sauce,” Nash said on his preliminary success. “It was just hard work and knocking on doors.”According to unofficial election night returns, Nash won the Republican nomination by nearly 500 votes, while the Democratic nomination came by a slimmer margin of 44.Nash ended up with 1,364 votes by Republicans and 370 votes by Democrats.“I'm grateful to all my volunteers,” he said. “I worked 60 hours a week on this in addition to my job. I trusted my process.”Candidate Russ Karl garnered the second most votes in mere total with 1,179, including 869 Republican votes and 310 Democratic votes.“I would like to thank all those who supported us, and I wish the winner well,” Karl said.While Karl had the second most votes total, candidate Jeffrey Steele snuck away with second in the race for the Democratic nomination by a 16-vote margin.Steele finished with 326 Democratic votes and 378 Republican votes.Steele was unavailable for comment Tuesday night.
Cranberry Township residents may only see one candidate on the general election ballot for the local judge's seat.Candidate Kevin Flaherty led in both Republican and Democratic nominations.According to unofficial election-night returns, Flaherty received 2,066 votes from Republicans and 800 votes from Democrats.Flaherty could not be reached on election night.Bob Andrews came second in the Republican primary with 896 votes, but he finished last in the Democratic category with 539 votes.Andrews also couldn't be reached on election night.Russell Zangrilli lost by a large margin in the Republican race with only 550 votes, but he finished second on the Democratic side with 479 votes.“I want to thank my voters for coming out,” Zangrilli said. “They showed their support for the candidate they wanted to win, and I congratulate that candidate.”
Amy Marcinkiewicz won both party nomintions for the Evans City judge's seat according to unofficial returns.Marcinkiewicz received 3,183 Republican votes and 1,628 Democratic votes to defeat Joe McCombs, who received 3,141 Republican votes and 979 votes from Democratic voters, according to unofficial results.“I'm very proud of the campaign, the clean, honest and dedicated campaign that I ran,” Marcinkiewicz said. “I gave it everything I had. I hit 6,500 houses. I met a lot of people. I'm so proud to be here from Butler County. It was just a joy and a pleasure.” McCombs said he had felt a “good vibe” while meeting people at the polls during the day.“I met with great people at all the polls today, all day long,” McCombs said.
