Republican objects to district judge’s activities in 37th Senatorial District
Republicans plan to convene this weekend to choose a candidate for the special election Nov. 3 to fill the 37th District State Senate seat recently vacated by the resignation of Matt Smith, but a GOP member from outside the district has filed objections to one potential candidate’s activities.
Mike McMullen, of Hampton Township in Pittsburgh’s North Hills, wrote in an email that District Judge Guy Reschenthaler, whose office is in Pleasant Hills, has been campaigning to become the candidate in the special election, which McMullen called the “conferee nomination.”
McMullen wrote July 1 to the Judicial Conduct Board in Harrisburg that Reschenthaler “has been pursuing non-judicial political interests, specifically concerning plans to run for Pennsylvania State Senate District 37.”
He forwarded to members of the media and the conduct board copies of emails that purported to have Reschenthaler meeting in May with members of the Veterans and Patriots United political action committee and last month with the Robinson Township Republican Committee. McMullen included information about a meeting in South Fayette Township that refers to a meet-and-greet with “three potential Republican candidates” in June, but the email does not name the candidates. According to the email, the district judge has discussed natural gas drilling, taxes and shrinking government.
Smith, a Democrat, resigned last month to become president of the Greater Pittsburgh Area Chamber of Commerce, and Lt. Gov. Mike Stack, as president of the Senate, scheduled a special election in the 37th District to coincide with the Nov. 3 election. The senatorial district includes parts of western Allegheny County and Pittsburgh’s South Hills, plus Peters Township in Washington County.
McMullen also included with his letter a 2005 Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline decision in which former Washington County President Judge Debbie O’Dell Seneca participated that dealt with a Lehigh County district judge promoting his wife’s candidacy for the office from which he was about to retire. The opinion from the Judicial Conduct Board cited rules that state a district justice shall not engage in partisan political activity or attend political gatherings.
McMullen said he was also sending the information to the state Ethics Commission and Allegheny County President Judge Jeffrey Manning, who oversees district judges.
“I’ve never met the guy,” McMullen said July 2 of Reschenthaler in a telephone conversation. “I don’t want to see us lose the seat. If this Republican is the candidate, the Democrats are going to have a field day with this.”
Republican conferees plan to meet the morning of July 11 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Pittsburgh South, Bethel Park, to choose a nominee to appear on the November ballot. Democrats are accepting letters of interest through the end of this month, and they expect to convene for nominee selection in August.
The candidate elected would hold office for the remainder of Smith’s term. In the predetermined election cycle, the 37th Senatorial District seat is also scheduled to appear on the ballot in both the primary and general elections in 2016.
Reschenthaler, 32, called the matters McMullen raised “bogus, politically motivated complaints.” He said when he learned of the impending vacancy in the 37th Senatorial District in May, he contacted the state Ethics Commission, which, through District Judge Lorinda Hinch of Mercer County, responded in a letter June 16 of more than two pages. She concluded that Reschenthaler is not required to resign his judicial office to participate in the conference process, a situation that is not specifically addressed in rules that forbid judges from making promises about how they might rule in a case or retaliating if defeated.
Hinch also wrote that “severe caution is warranted” and repeated that Reschenthaler cannot make any pledges, promises or commitments on issues that are likely to come before the court. “Of course, your immediate resignation is required if and when you are designated your party’s candidate,” she noted. She said the Ethics and Professionalism Committee of the Special Court Judges Association concurred with her opinion.
Reschenthaler, who was an attorney in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General Corps, cross-filed and received both parties’ nominations for the magisterial post in 2013. He took office in 2014.