Luzerne County Judges

The headline election this year is the election of 2 new Judges for the Court of Common Pleas. After the revelations that the Juvie brothers, Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella, have taken public corruption to a level unseen anywhere in history of this country the choice is especially important. Taking a bribe to fix a case seems almost pedestrian (they did that too) but designing a scheme to conspire to build a private juvenile penal colony then railroading children through the court system to ensure the place makes money is beyond corrupt, it is evil. And they had lot's of help.


17 candidates ran in the primary and now we have the choice of 3 very qualified people to fill the 2 open seats. Wilkes-Barre district judge Bill Amesbury won both nominations which in past years would assure his election because his name would appear twice on the old lever machine ballots but with the new touch screens he will only be listed once. Tina Gartley has been running the most energetic campaign and has been all over the place and her online outreach has been impressive, I think John Dawe knows how to work the intertubes. Republican Dick Hughes has solid support from the local GOP and many Democrats and independents that I talk to also like him.

My prediction is that Gartley will be top vote getter with Amesbury and Hughes fighting it out for the second spot. Some Hughes supporters are urging a bullet vote for him. A bullet vote is casting a vote for just one candidate when you are allowed to vote for more than one. In this case you can vote for two.


You can cast a bullet vote in the Gort42 poll on the sidebar.