Lackawanna County commissioner races top primary election ballot

May 14—Lackawanna County Democrats and Republicans will settle hotly contested county commissioner nominating races when they vote in the primary election Tuesday.

Democrats will also choose someone new as a county treasurer nominee for the first time in 32 years.

They are the biggest races among the dozens of party nomination elections on the ballots for magisterial district justice, school board, borough and city councils, mayor, township boards of supervisors, tax collector and other county row offices — coroner, controller and clerk of judicial records.

Statewide, Democrats and Republicans will choose nominees for the state Supreme, Superior and Commonwealth courts.

In the commissioners race, incumbent Jerry Notarianni, charter school teacher and former Scranton City Council President Bill Gaughan and former NFL quarterback and sportscaster Matt McGloin have raised almost all of the more than $500,000 raised by Democratic candidates.

Abington Heights School Director Philip Robson, an information technology manager, and Dickson City Councilman Michael Fedorka, a cabinetry company owner, the other Democratic candidates, have only raised about $10,000 between them.

County Democratic Party Chairman Chris Patrick declined to predict who the party's two nominees will be, though he thinks the top vote-getters will be Gaughan, McGloin and Notarianni.

"It's really an interesting race," Patrick said. "I could not guess ... who our two nominees are. However, I think any two out of those three will make an excellent ticket in November. And I'm very confident that the Democrats will retain the majority in the commissioner's office, regardless of who the two nominees are."

Democrats aim to hold the majority on the three-person Board of Commissioners for a fifth straight, four-year term.

In November, their winners will face the two Republicans with the most votes Tuesday, some combination of Commissioner Chris Chermak, his running mate, piano teacher and Mayfield Council President Diana Campbell, nursing company owner and former Commissioner Laureen A. Cummings or former Scranton City Councilman Brian J. Reap, a retired corporate vice president. Combined, they have raised about $88,000, with Chermak, Campbell and Reap accounting for almost all of that.

County Republican chairman Dan Naylor expects the party's endorsed ticket — Campbell and Chermak — to win.

"I think that we've got the endorsed team that's running very strong," Naylor said. "They're a great team. I mean, Chris Chermak has done a great job over the past ... three and a half years. And Diana Campbell, she's a sleeping giant. She's just a sharp young lady that understands budgeting, understands how people have to work ... And I just think that people are going to be very pleased with her when she gets elected."

Naylor said the Republicans can win the majority "when we get the message out ... and (because of) the strengths of the two of them."

In the treasurer's race, state legislative aide Angela Rempe Jones, an accountant, faces J.R. Refice, an insurance agent, for the Democratic nomination. The winner will have a leg up on replacing the retiring Ed Karpovich come January because no Republican is on the ballot.

Voters from both parties will also likely nominate county solicitor Frank J. Ruggiero for common pleas court judge. Ruggiero is unopposed on both ballots, meaning he's the favorite to win in November and replace Judge Vito Geroulo. Geroulo stepped down from full-time duty at the end of last year and assumed senior status because he turned 75 years old, the mandatory retirement for a judge.

In the county row offices races, Clerk of Judicial Records Mauri Kelly, Coroner Tim Rowland and Controller Gary A. DiBileo are unopposed for Democratic nominations. No Republicans are on the ballot.

In local races, the most closely contested may be between incumbent Magisterial District Judge Paul J. Ware and Mariclare Lawless Hayes, both former county prosecutors.

Ware seeks a third six-year term while Hayes tries to pull off a rarity: defeating an incumbent magisterial district judge.

The last time an incumbent lost was 2005 and it happened twice. Attorney Laura Turlip defeated Magisterial District Judge Joe Toczydlowski to win both nominations in the primary for the upper Midvalley seat. Turlip won without opposition that November when attorney James Gibbons defeated longtime incumbent George Clark for the Abingtons seat.

Turlip is one of four magisterial district judges seeking re-nomination and unopposed on both ballots. The others are Judge Kipp E. Adcock in North Pocono, Judge George Seig in the Downvalley and Judge Joanne Corbett in South Scranton.

Attorney Christopher Szewczyk is the lone candidate on both ballots for lower Midvalley seat, where Judge John Pesota is retiring; attorney Sean Gallagher is the only candidate on both for the West Scranton/North Scranton seat, where his father, Judge Terrence V. Gallagher is retiring.

Many are watching the race for mayor in Carbondale where Justin Taylor decided against seeking a sixth term. Michele Bannon, Taylor's longtime city clerk, faces Maria A. Lawler, the owner of a cleaning business, for the Democratic nomination. No Republican is on the ballot.

In Scranton, 11 people seek nominations for school director. Incumbent directors Carol Cleary, Sarah E. Cruz, Catherine Fox, Ro Hume and Tara Yanni are seeking new terms against challengers Tom Borthwick, David A. Burgerhoff, Robert J. Casey, Mark Dennebaum, Chris Gaidos and Marie Merkel. Gaidos seeks only a Democratic nomination, the others seek both.

Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9147; @BorysBlogTT on Twitter.