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Wednesday, May 21, 2003

By Jim McKinnon, Laura Pace and Karen Kane, Post-Gazette Staff Writers

Blaise Larotonda, a former Mt. Lebanon police officer, will now see the other side of the judicial bench, having won both the Democratic and Republican nominations by a large margin, guaranteeing him the title of district justice for Mt. Lebanon and Dormont.

	More Primary 2003 Coverage • Visit Allegheny County's election page for more details on county races. • Download a detailed .pdf file of unofficial primary voting results for Allegheny and Westmoreland counties published in the late edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this file. Tables with primary results for Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene and Washington counties will be published in Thursday print editions of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. • For more reports from around the region on yesterday's primary visit our Elections page.

Larotonda unseated current District Justice Geof Wright, who was appointed to fill the remaining year of the term of William J. Ivill III, who resigned last summer.

Larotonda, 46, of Mt. Lebanon, a police officer for the last 24 1/2 years, retired in February to seek the office but was faced with a crowded field of eight other candidates.

There were several other contested district justice races in yesterday's primary.

In Wilkinsburg, incumbent Alberta Thompson held a comfortable lead over challenger Peggy Galley on the Democratic ballot.

However, with Galley having cross-filed, she is all but assured of a spot on the November ballot as a Republican, unless Thompson's impromptu write-in campaign as a Republican was successful.

A slightly similar situation was brewing in the magisterial district covering Aspinwall, Blawnox, Fox Chapel, Indiana Township, O'Hara and Sharpsburg, where all four candidates cross-filed on both party ballots.

Seeking the post as district justice are Donald A. Ferraro, Elissa M. Lang, Susan D. Livingston and William C. Price.

Lang was the apparent winner on the Republican ballot. The race on the Democratic side, where Lang trailed Ferraro by fewer than 20 votes with more than 99 percent of the vote counted, was too close to call last night.

A Butler City attorney and a Jackson police officer are the heirs-apparent in Butler County's two most hotly contested primary races yesterday.

According to unofficial results, Peter Shaffer, a Butler City lawyer, won both the Democratic and Republican nods for the newly created Butler City district justice post.

In the southern end of the county, Jackson police Sgt. Wayne Seibel captured both parties' nominations for the county's other newly created district justice seat. The post will cover Evans City, Callery, Connoquenessing Borough, Harmony, Mars, Valencia, Zelienople, Adams, Connoquenessing Township, Forward, Jackson and Lancaster.