Washington County Election Results
Washington County Republicans won control of the Board of Commissioners and every row office on the general election ballot with unofficial results in from all 180 precincts late Tuesday night. Incumbent Commissioner Diana Irey Vaughan was elected to a seventh term with 23,489 votes, most among the four candidates. Democrat Larry Maggi was second with 21,662, followed by Republican Nick Sherman (20,342) and incumbent Harlan Shober, Jr. (17,845). Sherman passed Shober about one-third of the way through the evening and increased his margin over the two-term Democrat through the rest of the night.
District Attorney Gene Vittone easily turned back his Democrat challenger, Jacob Mihalov, 28,200 to 16,277, to win a third four-year term as the County’s chief prosecutor.
Republican James Roman edged Suzanne Archer, 22,468 to 21,709 to take over for the retiring Register of Wills Mary Jo Poknis.
Longtime Democrat Treasurer Francis King is also retiring. His office will be taken by Republican Tom Flickinger, a 23,142 to 21,075 winner over Deputy Treasurer Lisa Carpenter.
An audit outlining nearly $100,000 dollars in unaccounted for funds in the Clerk of Courts Office and an on-going State Police investigation into the matter, proved far too much for Democrat incumbent Frank Scandale to overcome, losing to former Washington City Mayor Brenda Davis, 24,158 to 18,618. Davis’ vote total was second only to Vittone.
A newcomer to the county political scene, two-term West Pike Run Township Supervisor Laura Hough defeated incumbent Democrat Prothonotary Joy Schury Ranko, 22,544 to 21,388. Hough trailed until the 120-precinct tally then put enough distance on the 17-year office veteran to win.
Jim Saieva will succeed David Mark as Magisterial District Judge (27-1-01) in Canonsburg, Chartiers, Houston and Canton, beating Chuckie Tenney, 3,029 to 2,905.
Incumbent County Coroner Tim Warco was unopposed, joining Maggi as the only Democrats to win county-wide races. Traci McDonald-Kemp was officially elected as the County’s newest Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Eric Porter and Michael Manfredi won unopposed elections to succeed retiring Magisterial District Judges and Joshua Kanalis was reelected to his magistrate post.
Greene County Election Results
Greene County results in contested races mirrored those in Washington County. Republicans Mike Belding and Betsy Rohanna-McClure finished 1-2 in the race, more than a thousand votes ahead of Democrat incumbent Blair Zimmerman. Fellow Democrat incumbent Dave Coder was a distant fourth.
In-fighting between rival Democrats opened the door for Republican David Russo to win the District Attorney’s race over Jessica Phillips and a hearty write-in campaign by Patrick Fitch. Phillips beat Fitch in the primary election to be listed on the ballot. Combined, the two Democrats garnered 5,700 votes, far more than Russo’s plurality of 3,371.
The other Greene County Row Offices were filled by unopposed candidates including Clerk of Courts, Treasurer, Controller, Register of Wills/Recorder of Deeds and Prothonotary. Incumbent Sheriff Marcus Simms was elected to vacancy left by the death of Brian Tennant. The Sheriff position will be on the ballot again in 2021 for a full, four-year term.