They all hold law degrees and promise to be fair. They all believe in creative alternative sentencing of first-time, nonviolent offenders and incarceration of career criminals. They all will apply the law as written, whether they like the law or not.

The distinguishing characteristics among the seven judicial candidates for Butler County Common Pleas Court, a position that's being vacated by retiring Judge George Hancher, rest largely in their backgrounds.

Mark Lope

Mark Lope, 49, of Penn, a county prosecutor, says his broad experience as a prosecutor, criminal defender and civil lawyer has prepared him to handle any kind of case that would come before him as a Common Pleas judge.

He grew up in Johnstown and moved to the North Hills in the eighth grade, graduating in 1975 from Shaler High School. He got a political science degree in 1979 from Penn State, then a master's degree in public and international affairs in 1982. He worked as assistant finance director of McKeesport in 1982 and 1983, and served as a legislative assistant for state Sens. Doyle Corman and John Hopper from 1983 to 1986.

He got his law degree from Dickinson in 1989 and moved to Butler County to work with his brother, Phil, in a Zelienople law practice. He stayed there until 1997, when he and his wife, lawyer Susan Lope, bought a building in Butler and set up individual law practices there.

He became an assistant in the Butler County district attorney's office in January 2006 and he continues a limited general private practice.

He said he saw becoming a judge as a fitting way to conclude a legal career for someone with his experience and temperament.

"I think I have the broadest, most relevant experience for the job and I am fair-minded, even-handed and pretty practical," he said.

Mr. Lope promised to ensure that those involved with the legal system will have their day in court in as timely a way as possible.

"I think my ... experience gives me a good perspective on how to evaluate cases and parties so we can cut to the chase and resolve matters and problems," he said.

He said he believed the county's biggest issue was alcohol and drug abuse and that, as judge, he would make education a component of the sentences he orders.

Mr. Lope said he believed he was in touch with the community he wants to serve as judge. He coaches youth sports teams, is vice president of the Butler County Bar Association and has been active in the Paul Lawrence Dunbar Community Center, the Zelienople Lions Club, and the Zelienople-Harmony Chamber of Commerce.

He and his wife have three young sons.

Mr. Lope is a registered Democrat, though he has cross-filed.

Kelley Streib

Kelley Streib, 42, of Cranberry, has been serving as district judge since 1994. She was based in Evans City until Cranberry and Seven Fields were given their own district. Now her office is in Cranberry.

She grew up in Mississippi and came to Pittsburgh after graduating in 1986 from the Mississippi University for Women to study law at Duquesne University. She received her law degree in 1992. That's where she met her husband, lawyer and professor, Michael Streib. They have four children..

Though Judge Streib is a Republican, she has cross-filed and will appear on both primary ballots.

Most of her professional experience has been on the bench as a district judge, a position that involves cases that range from traffic citations to preliminary hearings and preliminary arraignments on the most serious felonies.

As a district justice, she has heard about 25,000 cases, she said. In practice, she focused on family law from 1992 to 1993 and clerked for Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Lee Mazur while in law school. Her current term as district judge will end in December 2011.

"I want to be the kind of judge I think I've been as a district judge. I will follow the law and allow the attorneys to present their case. I want people to feel they have gotten their fair day in court," she said.

Judge Streib believes drug addiction, which spawns other crimes, can't be solved by the courts alone. "Drug abusers have to be punished, but pure punishment for drug issues doesn't work. We need dual responses," she said, referring to education and rehabilitation.

To those who have pointed to her lack of experience as a lawyer, Judge Streib responds: "I may not be practicing as a lawyer, but I didn't stop being a lawyer," she said, noting that she had been teaching trial advocacy at Duquesne Law School for more than 10 years.

She has instituted as district judge several programs to expose students to the legal system, including Junior Judge and the Wise Up anti-drug programs, and Campus Court.

She has participated in Leadership Butler County, is active in the Victory Family Church, and was honored as a U.S. Angel in Adoption in 2003 for her work with families adopting children.

She was appointed in 2006 to the Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline.

Tim Shaffer

Tim Shaffer, 61, of Prospect, is a Vietnam War veteran, a former state senator and a "small-town lawyer." Now he wants to be judge.

He said he believed passionately that Butler County's next judge should be "an activist in combating juvenile crime and drug use."

"We're losing a generation of our kids to drugs," he said.

A central component to his strategy would be to plug juveniles into private sector organizations such as 4-H, the YMCA and the YWCA "to change their lifestyles." He said he'd convene a juvenile drug task force to get input from youth ministers and other experts.

He graduated from Penn State University in 1966 and received his law degree from Duquesne in 1974. In the interim, he served as a first lieutenant platoon leader in Vietnam. He went to law school at night and worked in various law-related internships during the day.

A Republican, he has cross-filed.

Mr. Shaffer said he has practiced all varieties of law. He served in the state Senate from 1981 through 1996, when he retired, choosing to return to the practice of local law. He has an office in Downtown Butler he shares with the Dillon McCandless King Coulter & Graham firm, though he is not in partnership with them.

He is accepting no contributions from lawyers. "I want the public to know that no attorney will have any leg up in my courtroom because he or she gave me a donation," he said.

He said he was a "law and order kind of guy," but that he recognized there was a cost to keeping people in jail "and, if for no other reason than financial, we have to try to keep people out of jail." He said he believed in alternatives to incarceration for the nonviolent, first-time offender but that repeat offenders "will find themselves in unfriendly territory before me."

He sees his age as a plus. "I think that there's something to be said for mature judgment," he said.

He is interested in pursuing electronic filing on the county court level.

In addition to being a lawyer, Mr. Shaffer is a small-business owner of Butler Indoor Records Storage on Main Street in Butler. "I'm not an ivory tower guy. I understand insurance, workers comp, people," he said.

Charles Nedz

Charles Nedz, 40, of Butler Township, is the only one of the seven candidates who didn't cross-file. He is a Republican. "I think cross-filing is misleading and I don't want to participate in that," he said.

Mr. Nedz, a county public defender, is all about clarity. He said he had tried every type of criminal case there is and had litigated every kind of issue that can be litigated. "I understand the thought processes and procedures of the law. I understand how important the issues are to the litigants. I know how important it is to make the right decision. And I'm equipped to make the right decision," he said.

He has never sought political office before.

He graduated from Dayton University in 1988 and Dayton School of Law in 1992, entering private practice immediately, dealing with family, civil, criminal, bankruptcy, wills and estates. He has been a full-time public defender for seven years.

Mr. Nedz said he would be fair, neutral and "will apply the law as it's written." He will not approach the bench with a "cookie-cutter way of handling issues. No two cases are the same. They should be dealt with individually."

He said such programs as work release and house arrest were important components to the criminal justice system and "can save the county a lot of money." And, while he believes that "hard-core criminals" should be locked up, alternatives to incarceration for some defendants can be the most effective way to reduce crime.

"I think my experience as a PD will help me discern the difference between those who need to be locked up for a long time and the person who, given a chance, you won't see in court again," he said.

He and his wife, Leeanne, have four children.

Terri Schultz

Terri Schultz, 44, of Center, a Butler County public defender, will bring to the bench a work ethic forged as a young single mother who put herself through law school at night.

She graduated Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1985 and received her law degree after four years of night school at Duquesne University while raising her son, Justin, now grown.

"I learned early on to be hard-working. I was never given anything. I had to work to pay for law school," she said.

After obtaining her law degree, she practiced family and juvenile law, then became a public defender. She has spent 13 years representing indigent clients accused of criminal offenses.

A registered Democrat, she has cross-filed, and has never sought political office before.

Ms. Schultz said she would consider each case on its merits, and will be fair, neutral and impartial.

She believes that her perspective -- "I'm in the courtroom every day" -- has helped her home in on what it takes to be a good judge.

Ms. Schultz sees herself as a team player and believes that improving the court system rests in "consulting with people who know the system and realizing that the judge is only one part of the team."

She sees the system straying by focusing on incarceration and rehabilitation as the answers to drug offenders. "Neither of these things are working on their own," she said. "I see people going through rehab two, three, four times and it hasn't worked. Jail isn't working," she said. She believes drug and alcohol education has to reach into the schools in a more energetic way.

"I would limit rehab. If it doesn't work the first time, that's it: incarceration. Rehab has become a crutch," she said.

She said she thought the state penal system's intensive drug rehabilitation program is a good model. The idea is to bring intensive drug rehabilitation within the prison setting to prisoners.

She has two sons and two daughters and is married to David Nading.

Cindy Dunlap Hinkle

Cindy Dunlap Hinkle, 31, of Muddycreek, a litigator for a Pittsburgh law firm, is the wife of a factory worker, the daughter of an over-the-road truck driver and a woman who struggled with English, and she's the first person in her family to attend college.

She believes her background puts her in touch with the people of Butler County she would serve, should she be elected.

"A vote for me is ultimately a vote for a public servant. I would be doing something at the closest level to the population," she said.

She grew up in West Middlesex, near the Ohio border, and graduated in 1997 from the University of Pennsylvania in three years while working the equivalent of a full-time job throughout. She got her law degree from Temple Law School in 2000.

She said she believed her mom's stories about working in a courthouse in Korea planted the seed of desire for a law career. "I've known since I was about 8 years old that I wanted to be a lawyer and, someday, a judge," she said.

Her parents, Tom and Kim Dunlap, met while her father was serving in the Army in Korea.

"I think I got my work ethic and my drive from my parents. My mom worked hard to learn English," said Ms. Hinkle, who said she began working when she 13 at an ice cream shop.

Ms. Hinkle worked as a clerk for a Hermitage law firm beginning at the age of 18 and continued in similar work throughout college. She interned for U.S. Federal District Judge Thomas N. O'Neill Jr. in Philadelphia.

She's been working as a litigator since graduation, first in Philadelphia and now for the firm of Buchanan Ingersoll Rooney. She specializes in civil and commercial litigation.

Ms. Hinkle said she had experience with some petty criminal matters and one major criminal appeal to the federal third circuit.

She said she believed community service is important and volunteers as a firefighter for the Portersville/Muddycreek department and is a member of its ladies auxiliary.

"I'm proud of my working-class background because it reflects on my parents who taught me what it means to be a hard worker and a dedicated member of the community," she said.

She said she would treat all litigants with respect and would "apply the laws fairly and impartially. I'll approach each case individually."

She's lived in Butler County since 2003. She and her husband, Gerald, have a young son.

Ms. Hinkle is a Republican who is cross-filed, and hasn't sought elected office before.

Margaret C. Abersold

Margaret C. Abersold, 48, of Middlesex, a private-practice lawyer, said she would bring her life philosophy to the Butler County bench if elected judge: "Treat individuals the way I want to be treated."

A registered Republican, Ms. Abersold is cross-filed.

She said she had practiced an array of civil and juvenile law and was a legal intern at the Allegheny County district attorney's office during her last year of law school at Duquesne University.

She said she first thought about becoming an attorney during a social studies class at Baldwin High School. "It was fascinating, reviewing amendments to the Constitution. I knew I wanted to study the law," she said.

She finished her undergraduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh in three years, in 1979, then received her law degree from Temple University in 1982.

She delayed entry into practice until 1991 to stay home with her daughter, who is now grown. Her husband, Charles, is a retired law enforcement officer.

She worked with a Butler law firm from 1991 to 1994, then went into sole practice. She is not accepting any political contributions.

She pledged to be thorough, well-researched, and fair.

Though she has never been a judge on the county bench, she has been on the playing fields as a referee for the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletics Association. A couple of times a week, Ms. Abersold said, she officiates basketball and volleyball from elementary through high school for girls and boys.