Election category, Page 122

The unprecedented, multimillion-dollar campaign to pass a referendum to include victims’ rights in the Pennsylvania Constitution is hanging by a legal thread, even before voters head to the polls Tuesday. The amendment, known as Marsy’s Law, has percolated through the General Assembly for two years. It passed the Legislature by...

Four candidates are running for two open seats on Pennsylvania’s Superior Court, one of the state’s two intermediate appellate courts. The Superior Court hears all appeals from the Court of Common Pleas and is made up of 15 judges. Appeals are generally heard by a three-judge panel. Only one candidate,...

Three Pittsburgh City Council seats are up for grabs during Tuesday’s general election with independent candidates challenging two incumbents and vying for an open seat in the North Side’s District 1. Two council representatives – Democrats Corey O’Connor of Swisshelm Park and Deb Gross of Highland Park – are running...

The race for Westmoreland County register of wills pits the incumbent against one of the office’s longtime staff members. Democrat Katie Pecarchik, 51, is challenging Sherry Magretti Hamilton, 42, a Republican who is in her first four-year term. Pecarchik, a Hempfield resident, questions how much time Magretti Hamilton spends at...

Michael O’Barto has spent two years on the Greater Latrobe School Board, but he hopes Unity voters will return him to his previous longtime role of township supervisor. Doug Murphy, who fell short in a 2017 bid to join the three-member board of supervisors, is vying again for the position....

A state appellate court will hear arguments Wednesday in Harrisburg in a suit seeking to bar Pennsylvania from counting votes in the Nov. 5 referendum on a crime victims’ rights amendment. Civil liberties advocates say Marsy’s Law, the proposed amendment that has attracted widespread support from victims’ rights groups and...

DENVER — John Hickenlooper has refused to yield to pressure from his team to scrap his presidential campaign and instead run for a Senate seat in Colorado. The former two-term Colorado governor is struggling to break through a crowded field of Democratic presidential candidates. He’s in the bottom tier of...

While the top 20 Democratic presidential contenders prepared for last week’s debates, retired Navy admiral and former two-term Pennsylvania congressman Joe Sestak traveled the road less taken as a long-shot presidential hopeful. This time, it was a series of meet-and-greet events in Iowa. It’s not the first time the maverick...

At least two incumbents of the New Kensington-Arnold School Board are on their way out, and another’s tenure appears to be hanging in the balance, according to Westmoreland County’s unofficial election results. In the Democratic Party race for Region I, two candidates received the same number of votes for one...

Tuesday’s primary did nothing to thin the ranks of candidates seeking the five seats on the North Allegheny and North Hills school boards that will become vacant at the end of the year. All the candidates in both districts who ran in the May 21 primary were nominated to run...

Attorney Steve Yakopec Jr. squeaked by in the 11th hour — literally — of election night Tuesday to win a Democratic nomination for one of two city council seats up for grabs in November. Yakopec edged out incumbent Democrat Christopher Koziarski by just five votes, but only after absentee ballots...

Several incumbents went into Tuesday’s primary election facing strong criticism or controversy over decisions they made in office. Some won, some lost. Here’s a look at how the embattled candidates fared. Bobby Wilson topples Darlene Harris for Pittsburgh City Council District 1 Unofficial vote tallies show Wilson taking more than...

A number of candidates in North Hills municipalities with seats up for re-election faced no competition for their party’s nomination in Tuesday’s primary. A candidate who runs unchallenged in the primary automatically receives their party’s nomination unless a write-in candidate gets more votes. A minimum of 10 write-in votes are...

The race for Cheswick Council appears to have still come up two people short after Tuesday’s primary election. Republican incumbents Michael Girardi and Brad Yaksich were the only two running for three open four-year seats and one open two-year seat. Girardi got the nomination for both the two-year seat and...

Two incumbent Tarentum council members lost their seats in Tuesday’s primary, according to unofficial election results. In the Democratic race for a four-year, at-large seat, Councilman Tim Cornuet lost his bid for re-election to 3rd Ward Councilwoman Carrie Fox, who also won her party’s nomination for her four-year seat in...

Two first-term McCandless council members who were propelled into office amid community outrage over plans to build a Walmart supercenter, failed to win party nominations in Tuesday’s primary to run for a second term. Ward 1 Council President Kim Zachary lost the Ward 1 Republican nomination to Greg Martin, who...

First-time political candidate John Andrejcik clinched a victory over incumbent Lower Burrell Mayor Richard Callender in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, preliminary vote tallies show. Andrejcik, 60, a Navy veteran and retired Allegheny County Common Pleas court reporter, secured 55% of the vote to Callender’s 45%, with all nine precincts reporting, according...

The husband of a district judge edged out an incumbent Harrison commissioner in Tuesday’s Democratic Party primary, while another incumbent on the ballot cruised to victory. In Harrison’s 3rd Ward, challenger Eric S. Bengel defeated incumbent Robin Bergstrom by 18 votes, 182-164, according to unofficial results. Bengel, who had never...

There will likely be some new faces on the Gateway school board as two political newcomers were among the top five vote-getters in Tuesday’s primaries, according to unofficial results. Seven candidates cross-filed to seek five nominations up for grabs in the Republican and Democratic primaries. On the Democratic ticket, challenger...

Penn Hills voters picked Pauline Calabrese as their Democratic nominee for the municipality’s next mayor during the May 21 primary election. Calabrese, 56, earned 53% of the votes in Penn Hills with all precincts reporting unofficial results. Her opponent, current Councilman John Petrucci, had 47% of the votes. Current Mayor...

Challengers Frank Pecora and Jim Getsy won the two Democratic nominations for Penn Hills Council May 21 in a crowded race with seven candidates, including an incumbent. With all precincts reporting unofficial results, Pecora had collected 19% of the votes counted followed by Getsy’s 18%. Incumbent Mark Brodnicki finished second-to-last...

Plum School District’s packed primary race resulted in Republican committee-endorsed candidates sweeping their party nods with several Democratic newcomers on the November ballot, ensuring a contested general election for six seats. Incumbents Steve Schlauch (14.13 %), Sue Caldwell (13.18 %) and Karin Acquaviva (11.92 %), along with fellow Republicans Jacqueline...

The challenger who defeated incumbent Arnold Mayor Karen Peconi in Tuesday’s primary called her actions last summer “an embarrassment” to the city, and it appears many Democratic voters agreed based on Joe Bia II’s victory by a three-to-one margin. Bia, an Arnold councilman with two years left in his first...

With 100% of the relevant precincts reporting, primary results in the Star’s coverage area are as follows as of 10 p.m.: DELMONT COUNCIL Dennis Urban (R, 48%) and Becky Matesevac (R, 43%), 79 total write-in votes (45 Democrat, 34 Republican). Write-in votes are a factor in this race because there...

Two challengers sent an incumbent packing Tuesday in primary races for Highlands School Board, according to unofficial results. All three candidates cross-filed to seek two nominations up for grabs in the Republican and Democratic primaries in Highlands’ Region 3. Kristie J. Babinsack, 46, won the GOP and Democratic races, collecting...