Three candidates already have joined the race for Butler County judge.

District Judge Kelley Streib, of Cranberry, former Sen. Tim Shaffer, of Prospect, and lawyer Cindy Dunlap Hinkle, of Muddy Creek, have announced their candidacies to replace retiring Common Pleas Judge George H. Hancher.

All three are Republicans who plan to cross-file and run on the GOP and Democratic ballots in the May 15th primary. Judge Hancher's successor will be selected from among successful primary candidates in November. Candidates have until March 6 to circulate and file nominating petitions.

Judge Streib, 41, is a former high school teacher. She has served 14 years on the first level of the state judicial system. She was re-elected to a third six-year term in November 2005

She estimated that she has heard more than 25,000 cases involving crime, traffic violations, civil disputes and landlord-tenant issues.

For the past 10 years she has taught part-time at her alma mater, Duquesne Law School, instructing students in trial advocacy and practices before magisterial district courts.

Last year the state Supreme Court appointed Judge Streib to the Court of Judicial Discipline. The eight-member agency hears cases brought against judges accused of misconduct.

She also has been honored by the United States Congress as an "Angel of Adoption" for her work with children and promotion of adoption education.

Judge Streib and her husband Michael have lived in Cranberry for 18 years.

Mr. Shaffer, 61, is a lawyer with the Butler firm Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter and Graham. He represented Butler County for four terms in the state Senate, leaving office in 1996. He also worked as county solicitor in the 1970s.

An Army veteran who served in Vietnam, Mr. Shaffer is a graduate of Penn State and Duquesne Law School. A longtime member of a dozen community organizations and a supporter of two dozen more, he was given a "distinguished citizen award" in 2004 by the Moraine Trails Council of the Boy Scouts.

Mr. Shaffer was one of five senators appointed in 1994 to an impeachment committee that took evidence in a misconduct case involving Supreme Court Justice Rolf Larsen. Mr. Larsen was convicted and removed from the bench.

Mr. Shaffer's family has been connected to Butler County for 10 generations. His late father, John, was a county commissioner in the 1960s.

Mrs. Hinkle, 30, is a senior associate in the Pittsburgh law firm of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney. A Mercer County native, she is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University's law school.

"This is something I have wanted to do since I was 18," she said of serving as a judge.

She had worked as a legal secretary, legal assistant, paralegal and law clerk before joining Buchanan Ingersoll.

Judicial temperament is not a function of age but of personality, she said. Desirable character traits needed by judges include fairness, impartiality, calmness and patience, she said.

She noted that Judge Streib was her age when she became what was then called a district justice.

Mrs. Hinkle is a member of the Portersville-Muddy Creek Volunteer Fire Co. and serves as secretary treasurer of its ladies auxiliary.

Her mother is Korean. If elected, she said she would become only the second woman of Asian ancestry to serve on a Pennsylvania Court.

She and her husband Gerald have a 3-year-old son.