Incoming Upper St. Clair commissioner bucks party trends
With a decided edge in voter registration, Republicans in Upper St. Clair make sure they have candidates in every race for local elected office.
“I thought, we should be doing the same,” registered Democrat Elise Logan said. “And I thought it was just really important that every election, people have a choice when they go to the polls in November.”
Her decision to make sure the “D” side of the ballot was filled in the township’s Ward 2 led to her winning a seat on the board of commissioners, defeating incumbent Rex Waller.
“I was probably more optimistic than people who had been here a long time,” Logan, who’s lived in Upper St. Clair for three-and-a-half years, will admit. “They had seen Democrats run and lose before. And since I was kind of fresh here, I didn’t fully understand how entrenched the Republican Party was.”
The two other Republican incumbents running Nov. 7, Mark Christie of Ward 4 and at-large Commissioner Daniel Paoly, were unopposed.
Cecilia E. Logan, as her given name appeared on the ballot, is a 34-year-old mother of two who researched voting trends from 2016 going into this year’s election.
“I noticed my ward was swinging Democratic,” she said. “More and more registered Democrats were coming into Ward 2, and I really thought that this year, they would be motivated to come to the polls if they had a choice. And it turned out that prediction was true.”
“I think it’s definitely time for my generation to step up more and take leadership.”
When she is sworn into office in January, Logan will serve on the seven-member board with six men. She said throughout Election Day, she made it a point to talk with women in her ward who came out to vote.
“They were women who, I think, are upset and a little bit angry about how they’re being treated,” she explained. “And it’s not just politics right now. It’s one sex scandal after another, powerful men abusing women. I think they’re ready to make their voices heard and say, enough. It’s time for us to have equal representation.”
A native of northern Florida, Logan grew up in a conservative family and actually was registered as a Republican while attending Lee University in Tennessee, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in political science. She had started to become disillusioned with the GOP, though, by the time she started working on her master’s in public policy at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
“I heard a very dynamic young senator come speak, and his name, of course, was Barack Obama. I was very impressed by the vision he was offering the country, the direction he wanted to go in,” she recalled.
A week after his inauguration in January 2009, she went to work for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington, D.C., for five years. During that time, she and her husband, Steven, had their first daughter, Hope.
Eventually her sister, to be named Naomi, was on the way, and the Logans started looking for a change of scenery.
“Of course, the city is very expensive,” Elise said about the nation’s capital. “It’s a high-pressure life, especially if you’re trying to raise a family, with long commutes and difficult hours of work.”
With Steven’s family rooted in Allegheny and Washington counties, the couple put Pittsburgh high on the list of places to move, which occurred when Elise was hired as a contractor at the National Energy Technology Laboratory in South Park Township.
Among the issues she has heard raised in the ward she represents is the amount of traffic being generated by new development along the Route 19 corridor near South Hills Village.
“One thing people want is more sidewalks on the busier streets,” she said. “So if there’s going to be development, at least those of us in our neighborhoods can easily walk or bike, and do that safely.”
She encourages others her age to get involved in their communities, whether running for office or simply volunteering for organizations.
“I think it’s definitely time for my generation to step up more and take leadership,” she said. “And of course, I would love to see more women in leadership positions.”