A Plum councilman and a Riverview School Board member have their eyes on a new office they each want to hold.
Republican Mike Doyle and Democrat Melanie Pallone are vying in the general election to succeed Linda Zucco as the district judge serving Plum and Oakmont.
In making their argument to voters, Doyle points to his track record as a public servant, while Pallone highlights her professional qualifications.
Pallone, 62, of Oakmont is nearing the end of her first four-year term on the Riverview School Board and not seeking reelection. She is an attorney and criminal justice professor.
Doyle, 58, of Plum was elected to the borough’s council in 2005 and has been president for 15 years. His council seat is not among the three up for election this year. He is a licensed insurance agent and a senior vice president and branch manager with Excalibur Insurance Management Services.
Pallone and Doyle were endorsed by their respective parties and emerged as the winners from a field of five candidates in the May primary.
District judges are elected to six-year terms. If elected, Doyle and Pallone each said, they plan to be full-time judges and have no plans to seek other or higher offices.
Doyle said he wanted to run for the office before, but did not want to challenge Zucco after a referendum was approved in 2016 increasing the mandatory retirement age from 70 to 75. Last elected in 2017, Zucco retired in October 2021 and became a senior judge in February.
“I’ve been on council for 17 years. It’s time for me to step down from there and let other people have an opportunity to do so,” Doyle said. “It’s the next step in my career and my life. Serving my community and serving Plum is something I’ve loved doing, and I look forward to continuing to do it with the addition of Oakmont.”
Since the primary, Pallone has highlighted that she was the only attorney seeking the office. As an attorney, she already is qualified to take the job; Doyle would need to complete a training and education program.
“I do feel that my qualifications exceed my opponent’s,” Pallone said. “I’m experienced in the relevant areas of the law that the district judge is responsible for. I am the only candidate who has experience applying the law to the facts of a case to come up with an objective resolution.”
Doyle noted that a majority of district judges, or magistrates, in Pennsylvania are not lawyers.
“You don’t need a law background in order to be a judge,” he said. “I’ve spoken with several magistrates I’ve known over the years who said they’ve all seen me run council meetings and how I dealt with the public. Even if it was a contentious issue, they’ve all said to me I have the perfect demeanor to be a judge.”
Pallone has worked as a prosecutor in Allegheny County and as a defense attorney. She has been a criminal justice professor for about 10 years.
“I am confident that I have really experienced and examined the law from all sides,” she said. “You come to the point where you have an overview of what is happening and you feel that you can fit in a judicial seat. I could not have done it as a young attorney, just like I could not have taught effectively.”
Pallone said she has enforced the law as a prosecutor and defended constitutional rights as a defense attorney.
“In the role of the district justice, you are the closest piece of the legal system to the community. It’s most important that you understand what the community needs and that you’re able to see that justice is distributed fairly to all people,” she said. “I want to see that everyone gets a fair shake. I can be impartial and objective, and I can be compassionate for everyone.”
While waiting to run for district judge, Doyle said he could not pass up a chance to run for Congress. He lost the race for the 12th Congressional District in 2022 to Democrat Summer Lee.
Doyle said he has sat in on Zucco’s court. As a senior judge, Zucco has been among those rotating through her former office.
“It was very, very interesting,” he said. “There’s parts of me that wish I went to law school.”
He points to his public service record as why voters should support him.
“I have a reputation of being fair. I have a reputation of being a guy that doesn’t knee-jerk react,” Doyle said. “I’ve had several employees who are staunch Democrats come up to me and say they are voting for me because they got to know me behind the scenes. That’s a high compliment.”
