Luzerne County Clerk of Courts

Today the CV had short article on the 3 candidates running for the Clerk of Courts position. The Democratic incumbent seeking his sixth term is Bob Reilly. He was a Wilkes-Barre city councilman before his elevation to the court house and a past 6th District Democratic chairman. Last year he ran for the 120th District House seat of retiring Kevin Blaum. Many say he split the vote with Brian O'Donnell of the old guard Democratic machine enabling Eddy Day Pashinski to win the nomination. Bob has always had ambition, not a bad thing, even threatening to run against Paul Kanjorski for Congress when people were mad at him for something that I can't remember. He is unopposed in the primary and will face either Butler Township Tax Collector Sue Rossi or Northwest Area School Board Member Randy Tomasacci.

It's good to see 2 Republican candidates trying for county office. Rossi says she's very organized and good with paperwork. Tomasacci is another fellow with ambition who also ran for the state house in the last election in the 117th District but lost the nomination to Karen Boback in a crowded field. In that race he was endorsed by PACleanSweep even though there was no incumbent running. Although it has no bearing on his administrative abilities the thing that bugs me about Randy is that he was advocating teaching intelligent design even after the Dover decision. It was a reckless idea that could have ended up with the school district being sued over nonsense. As the Judge in the Dover case said: The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources.