Why are Democratic candidates for Allegheny County judge listed as Republican nominees on the ballot?

In the upcoming election for Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, all 13 candidates are registered Democrats.

But it’s impossible to tell by looking at the ballot.

Five of the candidates vying for eight positions on the bench are listed as Republicans, five are listed as Democrats and three are listed as being cross-filed with both parties.

“I think that is confusing,” said Sarra Terry, one of the five Democrats who won on the Republican ticket — but not on the Democratic ticket — in May’s primary and is listed on the ballot for the Nov. 4 election only as a Republican.

“Unless a candidate explains it, I don’t know how else that information gets out there,” Terry said.

Judicial races, said Alison Dagnes, chair of the political science department at Shippensburg University, were originally intended to be nonpartisan. That’s why candidates for the bench are allowed to gather nominations from both major parties.

“We allowed people to cross-file and take partisanship out of it back in the day. For local elections, party didn’t matter,” Dagnes said. “Now, things have changed, and it is deeply confusing.”

In November 2019, reforms to Pennsylvania’s Election Code eliminated straight-party voting.

Prior to that, said Allegheny County Democratic Committee Chair Sam Hens-Greco, it was easier to distinguish the actual party of a candidate on the ballot.

Because of the potential for confusion, Hens-Greco said his group and Democratic committee members, broadly, have spent months trying to inform voters about the upcoming race.

“The Democrats who won the Democratic nomination — we try to make that clear in literature and meetings,” he said.

For example, in a Facebook post on Oct. 7, North Hills Progressives wrote: “You’ll be electing 8 new Common Pleas judges on this ballot. You’ll see the party next to each name, but interestingly, all of the candidates on your ballot are Democrats! It gets tricky because of how they cross-filed in the primary election.”

“Therefore, all 13 candidates on your ballot are Democrats, and you get to pick your favorite 8!”

Off-year elections, Hens-Greco said, are “low-turnout, low-information races.”

While there’s potential confusion for Democratic voters, he said: “I do think it’s a lot harder on the Republican side because none of the candidates are Republicans.”

Jason Richey, chair of the Republican Committee of Allegheny County, said without any Republicans in the race, his group researched the candidates and chose one person to back: Michele Santicola, a district judge in Moon who previously worked as both a prosecutor and defense attorney.

“I wouldn’t call it campaigning, but informing committee people,” Richey said. “We’re telling them an option is called ‘plunking,’ which is just to vote for her.”

Santicola said she hasn’t been actively campaigning and doesn’t want to run afoul of the county’s Democratic party.

“If we run against the party’s candidates, that could be potentially detrimental in the future,” Santicola said.

But still, Santicola continued, she has accepted the support from the county’s Republican party.

“I worked really hard to get on the ballot,” she said.

Santicola is hoping to keep enough Democratic votes and earn some additional Republican ones to give her a chance.

“I know it’s a tall order,” she said. “My hope is that people do their research and understand why we cross-file.”

‘Still a Democrat’

In Pennsylvania, candidates for school board and Common Pleas Court races are permitted to cross-file, allowing them to appear on the primary election ballot for both major parties.

In this year’s primary, only six of the 22 candidates for the bench cross-filed.

Terry said she sought the nomination on both tickets because judges are supposed to be impartial.

“I think, especially with local politics, everything is so divisive right now,” Terry said. “Judicial races are such a different type of political race.”

“You make decisions based on the law.”

Santicola agreed.

“Politics today has really, unfortunately, turned into an ugly thing,” Santicola said. “The judicial race should be separate, apart and above all that.”

“Whether you have a D or R beside your name shouldn’t matter.”

She noted it’s hard to run as a Republican in Allegheny County.

Of the five candidates nominated on the Republican ballot, four of them said Friday they were not actively campaigning.

Bryan Neft, who ran as a Democrat, ended up on the Republican ticket as a write-in.

He said he didn’t pull his name off the ballot, but he’s not pursuing the seat, either.

“I think if people don’t understand how the system works, there’s a chance of the public misconstruing,” Neft said. “I’m still a Democrat at the end of the day.”

Alyssa Cowan, who was appointed earlier this year to fill a vacancy on the court as a Democrat, didn’t win a nomination with her own party. But she did get one on the Republican side.

She did not return a message seeking comment, but in a campaign update on her website, Cowan addresses the question head-on.

“Question: Does this mean Judge Cowan is now a Republican?” the website asks.

“Answer: No. While Judge Cowan will not be removing herself from being listed as a Republican nominee for judge, she personally remains a registered Democratic voter. She will not be campaigning with the Allegheny County GOP.”

Research helps

Dagnes, the political science professor, said voters in off-year elections are usually politically active and knowledgeable.

She believes they aren’t as likely to be confused with the way the ballot looks for the judicial candidates.

“I do think it’s a problem, but in these off-year elections, the turnout is tiny,” Dagnes said. “It’s not like this is going to affect a huge number of Pennsylvanians.

“Most of the people who go to vote are aware of who the candidates are.”

Neft said it’s important for voters to be well-informed.

“The better thing to do is to go out and research the candidates,” he said. “There are resources out there.”