Cross-filing backfires for some Allegheny County judicial candidates

Call it the curse of cross-filing.

As election results were pouring in Tuesday night, political pundit Joseph Sabino Mistick noticed a trend emerging in the Allegheny County Common Pleas Court race.

While all 13 candidates for judge were Democrats, those who were cross-filed — listed on the ballot as both Democrats and Republicans as a way to appeal to voters from both parties — received fewer votes than those who ran only as Democrats.

The biggest losers — those who attracted the fewest votes — were the five candidates who didn’t make the cut during the primary to be listed as a Democrat on the ballot.

Instead, their names appeared in the general election solely as Republican nominees despite their Democratic Party registrations.

None was among the eight candidates elected to the bench.

Cross-filing, Mistick said, used to be a sure path to victory, but not this year.

“People saw the R next to the D and said, ‘I’m not voting for an R,’” Mistick said. “What always was an advantage became a detriment.”

Abigail Gardner, the communications director for Allegheny County and a former campaign manager, saw the trend, too.

“The cross-filing really explicitly now is an anchor around your neck,” she said.

Punished by voters

Under straight-party voting, which ended in 2019 in Pennsylvania, a person who cross-filed was almost guaranteed a win.

That’s no longer the case.

“This is two Common Pleas races in a row where you see voters punish you because they don’t know what party you represent,” Gardner said.

She suspects the races locally are reflecting national trends.

“It’s a change in the partisan nature of off-year elections,” Gardner said.

Jason Richey, the chair of the Republican Committee of Allegheny County, said he doesn’t think what happened is a result of cross-filing.

Instead, he cited the federal government shutdown and the government’s failure to provide subsidies for Obamacare and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“People across the country wanted to send a message to Washington, D.C. that they weren’t happy with what’s happened,” Richey said. “The election Tuesday wasn’t about our local issues. It wasn’t about local candidates. It’s about what’s happening in Washington.

“In this case, they were just looking for a party label.”

Allegheny County Democratic Committee Chair Sam Hens-Greco agreed.

“There’s a divide in only voting for Democrats and only voting for Republicans,” he said.

Still, Hens-Greco said, all of the Democratic nominees and those who were cross-filed won.

“I don’t know that it has such a detrimental effect that I would advise not to cross-file,” he said.

Party loyalty

But Anthony DeLuca, who finished sixth on Tuesday and won a seat on the court, isn’t so sure.

DeLuca chose not to cross-file during the spring primary. But he still earned a Republican nomination for the general election anyway through write-in votes.

As a result, his name appeared on the ballot with “D/R.”

DeLuca said he contemplated whether to accept the GOP nod, concerned it could hamper his appeal to Democratic voters.

But the county Democratic party asked him to stay on the Republican ticket so Republicans couldn’t appoint a person to fill that spot in the general election.

So DeLuca did.

“I did that to be loyal to the party,” DeLuca said.

But he thinks it’s clear what happened on Tuesday.

Elections now, DeLuca said, are so polarized that if a voter sees someone cross-filed on their ballot, they think, ‘I don’t know what that is, so I’m not voting for it.’”

“I think in the future, candidates will be (reluctant) to do that,” DeLuca said.

He believes ballots ought to be changed to make it clear to voters with which party the candidate is affiliated.

“I do believe it would make sense,” he said, though, “I don’t know how you’d do it.”

But Gardner said she doesn’t believe it’s a ballot design issue.

“If you’re a candidate who has chosen you want to run under both parties, you’ve made a decision that’s how you want to appear on a ballot,” she said. “You know what you’re doing when you make those decisions.”

Mistick said the county’s Elections Division has decided that candidates will be listed under the banner of the party that nominates them.

Taking a knee

Michele Santicola, a district judge in Moon, cross-filed in the May primary and won only the Republican nomination.

There were 22 candidates, but only the top eight vote-getters in each party could claim to be on that party’s ticket.

Santicola finished 12th among the Democrats, but second on the Republican ticket. So on Tuesday’s ballot she was listed only as a Republican nominee.

As with DeLuca, the Democratic Party asked her not to drop off the ballot so the GOP could not appoint a new candidate.

“As the party likes you to do,” Santicola said, “I took a knee.”

The Allegheny County Republican Party supported Santicola, but she did not actively campaign for the bench.

Still, she said Tuesday’s results “were really surprising to me.”

Santicola, who was rated highly recommended by the Allegheny County Bar Association, finished ninth — nearly 100,000 votes behind the eighth-place winner.

Santicola isn’t sure whether the result stemmed from dissatisfaction with the government shutdown or the fervor among Democrats to vote yes in the state Supreme Court retention race.

But a judicial race, she continued, should be apolitical.

Santicola was surprised that candidates who cross-filed received fewer votes than those who earned only a Democratic nomination.

“It’s a lot of work to get on both ballots,” Santicola said.

She said she’s unsure if she’ll run again.

But if she does, Santicola said, she would likely not cross-file based on Tuesday’s results.

Mistick said he expects what happened to be studied.

“Beyond this election, I’m not sure what the lesson is,” he said. “I think it should give you pause, at least, whether to cross-file.”