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Wednesday, May 22, 2002

By Mike Bucsko and Jeffrey Cohan, Post-Gazette Staff Writers

First-time candidate Jake Wheatley shook up the local political scene last night, knocking off veteran state Rep. William Robinson in the 19th District Democratic primary.

	More Primary Coverage: State house race results

Culminating the hardest-fought state House primary in southwestern Pennsylvania, the 30-year-old Wheatley won 55 percent to 45 percent in unofficial results, ending Robinson's 14-year run in the Legislature.

The district lies within the city of Pittsburgh, stretching from the North Side to the South Side Slopes and taking in the Hill District.

The 19th District battle highlighted a day in which primary voting took place in all state House districts.

House Minority Leader H. William DeWeese withstood a challenge from two fellow Democrats in the 50th District, all but guaranteeing himself a 14th term in the lower house of the Legislature. The Republicans did not field a candidate in DeWeese's district, which encompasses Greene County and parts of Washington and Fayette counties.

DeWeese, D-Waynesburg, defeated Rev. Robert Spence Jr. and Lonnie L. Miller.

He said he will use his leadership position to continue pressing for prescription drug relief for the elderly, property tax reform and increased funding for school districts.

In the 51st District, incumbent Larry Roberts, D-Uniontown, defeated challenger Terry Janosek. In the November general election, Roberts, seeking a sixth term in Harrisburg, will face Republican Joe Sabatini, who ran unopposed in the GOP primary.

	Online Map House Districts: Southwestern Pennsylvania
	Allegheny County
	City of Pittsburgh

Robinson was the only incumbent to lose a contested race in Western Pennsylvania.

In the 41 districts in Western Pennsylvania, 32 incumbents ran unopposed yesterday. And in 15 of those 32, nobody ran from the opposing party either, virtually assuring those 15 of another term.

In winning yesterday, Wheatley ousted a longtime fixture on the local political scene. Robinson, of Schenley Heights, served on the Pittsburgh City Council before winning election to the state House in 1988.

Wheatley, 30, may have been running for elected office for the first time, but he wasn't running as a complete stranger to politics.

"Everyone said I was facing an impossible task, but we kept pounding our message home. My mission is getting results back to the district," Wheatley said last night at the Marriott City Center, where his supporters had gathered.

He has worked for City Councilman Sala Udin -- an archrival of Robinson -- and is engaged to Marimba Milliones, daughter of the late City Councilman Jake Milliones.

Much to Robinson's chagrin, Wheatley secured the endorsement of the county's Democratic Party. Mayor Tom Murphy personally supported the challenger.

A Detroit native who moved to Pittsburgh in 1997 after college at North Carolina A&T, Wheatley last worked as a training and education associate for the Coro Center for Civic Leadership.

During the Persian Gulf War, Wheatley served as a field radio operator for the Marines. He went on to earn a master's degree in public administration from Pitt.

Robinson ran afoul of organized labor and some party leaders in recent years as an outspoken critic of the PNC Park and Heinz Field projects. He complained that minority- and women-owned firms did not receive enough of the work.

He has also expressed concerns about cost overruns in the construction of the Petersen Events Center, the new home of the Pitt Panthers basketball team.

The campaign turned ugly when Robinson briefly tried to make an issue of Wheatley's criminal record.

Wheatley pleaded guilty to larceny and assault and battery when he was 19.

The challenger defused the issue, sending a mailer to voters stating that ever since that crime, his life has been an example to youths of "hope and hard work bringing success."

Veteran state Rep. Joseph Preston handily beat first time Democratic candidate Patrick Dowd, a teacher at Ellis School from Highland Park. Since no Republican candidate filed in the primary, Preston appears to be a lock to represent the 24th District for an eleventh term beginning in January.

"There's a lot to do, property tax reform, secure more equitable funding for education, increasing public transportation access," Preston said last night from the headquarters of the Rendell campaign at the Sheraton Station Square.

Current and former aides to retiring state legislators captured the Democratic nominations in three races.

Marc Gergely, 32, of White Oak, won among a field of three Democratic candidates to fill the District 35 seat being vacated by retiring Tom Michlovic, D-North Braddock.

No Republican filed for the seat.

The three candidates paced each other nearly all night, but Gergely, a McKeesport Area school board member and legislative assistant to state Sen. Sean Logan, D-Monroeville, pulled ahead.

"I'm excited," Gergely said from his victory party at the Versailles Volunteer Fire Hall.

Gergely defeated fellow school board member Lori Spando of McKeesport and Christopher Sean Terrick of Munhall.

Gergely credited his win to key victories in Duquesne, Elizabeth Township and Lincoln Borough.

In the 45th District, Nick Kotik, a former aide to retiring Rep. Fred Trello, easily beat Louis "Robin" Parilla, of Stowe, the chief deputy in Allegheny County's register of wills office. Kotik will face Republican Herb Ohliger, 42, a computer system consultant from Scott who ran unopposed.

"I'm feeling great," Kotik said last night. "I'm going to take a couple days off and digest the victory."

Kotik, 51, of Robinson, worked for Trello for 13 years before he left in July 2000 to become Robinson's township manager. He resigned that job earlier this year to campaign full-time for Trello's seat.

Kotik said he may take another job with Trello in a new office in Carnegie or Bridgeville until the general election in November. But he said he plans to continue to campaign.

Another aide to a retiring legislator was also victorious in Beaver County.

Democrat Vince Biancucci, 61, of Aliquippa, an aide to Rep. Nick Colafella, won a close race against Joseph Schafer, a Center commissioner, and Mario Leone, a Hopewell commissioner and US Airways flight attendant.

Biancucci worked for Colafella for 17 of Colafella's 22 years in the Legislature. Like Kotik, Biancucci credited his years with as an aide for his victory.

"I think the edge was the support I had," Biancucci said. "Seventeen years working for Rep. Colafella, plus I had the support of labor, the Beaver County Democratic Party and I had a group of people who kept bringing a lot more peole aboard."

Biancucci will face Republican Charles A. Camp in the November general election. Camp, 45, of Patterson, is a business owner and Beaver County commissioner who was unopposed in the primary.

In the 38th District, Rep. Kenneth W. Ruffing, D-West Mifflin, won with about 60 percent of the vote in unofficial results against challengers Samuel Baker and Diana Olasz.

Ruffing gave his victory speech to about 300 supporters shortly after 10 p.m. He thanked the voters, his campaign workers and God for returning him to the 38th District seat.

Baker, a West Mifflin chiropractor, came in second with 25 percent. Olasz, a West Mifflin nurse, was third with 15 percent. She is the wife of Richard "Danny" Olasz Jr. and the daughter-in-law of Richard D. Olasz Sr., who represented the 38th District for 18 years until he was defeated by Ruffing in 1998.

Baker said the campaign was a tough one.

"All I have to say after running for the first time is you have to have thick skin to do this," he said. "If we keep electing representatives who disseminate lies, this district will not flourish."

He said Ruffing's campaign mailed literature to voters accusing him of "not being a real doctor" and disseminating other slurs about his family.

Baker vowed that he will challenge Ruffing in the next election.

In the 8th District, Rep. Dick Stevenson defeated Stevie Mick for the Republican nomination. He will be facing Democrat Mark Lauer, director of public works in Center Township in Butler County, who ran unopposed for the Democratic nod.

Stevenson easily won the Mercer County portion of the district but lost Butler to Mick.

"I think Mr. Mick focused on fact he was a Butler County candidate and his numbers are bigger in Butler County," Stevenson said. "I think our showing for a new representative in that area was very respectable."

The newly-formed 8th District stretches from southeastern Mercer County, including Stevenson's home in Grove City, and into northern and central Butler County, down into Jackson and Zelienople.

Stevenson, a freshman representative who owns a real estate appraisal service in Grove City, has made tax reform and increased local control of schools the overriding priorities of his first term in office.

His district, which previously ran through Butler, Mercer and Armstrong counties, now takes up most of Butler, with an area around Grove City attached.

Staff writers Linda Wilson Fuoco, Laura Pace and Brian Lyman contributed to this report.