Hugh McGough defeats councilman Doug Shields in district justice race
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Marty Childs of Squirrel Hill listens to Councilman Doug Shields as he campaigns at the Colfax Elementary School. Hugh McGough defeated him for the district judge seat in the city's East End.
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The political career of former Pittsburgh City Council president and mayoral thorn-in-the-side Doug Shields has suffered a knockout.
After a rather blistering campaign, Shadyside attorney Hugh McGough won the Democratic nomination for an open district judge seat in the city's East End, beating Mr. Shields and attorneys Dan Butler and Joe Weinroth. Mr. McGough won the Republican nomination too, meaning there will be no rematch Nov. 8.
This curious campaign gained immediate prominence when Mr. Shields, 57, a longtime council aide to late Mayor Bob O'Connor, decided to step down from council after two terms to go for the judicial position. The race was then cast as one between a political veteran without a legal degree against three experienced lawyers.
"It's really, really thrilling for me," Mr. McGough said from his campaign party in Shadyside.
Mr. McGough said the win grew out of "persistence and building a network of supporters who watched me over the last two or three election cycles, and were pleased with the type of law practice I developed, and confident I was prepared to handle these new responsibilities."
The race grew nasty in its final days -- with supporters of Mr. McGough tangling with Mr. Shields in the newspaper letters to the editor section -- which is all the more interesting because it almost didn't happen. The state's judicial system faces a budget crunch just like every other branch of Pennsylvania government, and when current District Judge Nathan Firestone reached mandatory retirement age, the seat was ripe for extinction. About 50 magisterial district seats are to be cut statewide this year.
But local district judges pleaded with judicial leaders to keep the seat, largely to help the revolving oversight of cases at City Court, Downtown, and the seat was saved.
Mr. McGough, 55, of Shadyside, is an attorney in private practice and court-appointed federal mediator whose firm represents the Citizen Police Review Board. He was an assistant solicitor for city government for nine years and has served on the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force and other charities. He ran unsuccessfully for the Allegheny County Common Pleas Court bench in 2009.
First Published May 18, 2011 12:53 am
