1 week Ago By Mike Jones
The race for Canonsburg area magistrate will be competitive for the upcoming primary election after an appellate court decided a candidate whose residency was being questioned should remain on the ballot. The state Commonwealth Court on Monday affirmed a lower court’s ruling allowing candidate Charles “Chuckie” Tenny to remain on the ballot in his bid to unseat incumbent District Judge James Saieva Jr. Three Democratic and three Republican voters challenged Tenny’s candidacy last month, alleging he lives at a Fayette County property with his wife, Stacey, and not at the Canonsburg Borough duplex where he’s claimed residency for the past 24 years and is registered to vote.
Senior Judge Katherine Emery listened to arguments from both sides during a March 21 hearing at the Washington County Courthouse and decided Tenny had proven he was a Canonsburg resident and that his financial disclosure filings were in order despite objections from the challengers. Attorney Chad Schneider, who represented the objectors during the hearing, filed an appeal March 31 to Commonwealth Court, but the three-judge panel rejected his request to overturn Emery’s decision. “The Trial Court did not err in determining that Objectors failed to carry their heavy burden of demonstrating that Candidate’s nomination petitions are false with regard to statements about Candidate’s residency,” Judge Christine Fizzano Cannon wrote in the panel’s opinion.
“On the contrary, the totality of the evidence presented illustrates the opposite – that Candidate continues to live for the majority of the time at the (Washington County) Property, a residence that he has long maintained in Canonsburg, and has only relatively recently acquired a second home that he visits on weekends as one would a beach home or cabin in the mountains.” Schneider could not be reached for comment Monday to discuss the Commonwealth Court’s decision or whether he planned to appeal that decision to the state Supreme Court, which could have serious ramifications on the timeline to send out mail-in ballots ahead of the May 20 primary. If no appeal is filed, the Washington County election’s office will now be able to prepare its mail-in and absentee ballots for all county voters since it has been delayed in finalizing those documents while awaiting a ruling on Tenny’s candidacy.
Washington County Elections Director Melanie Ostrander said her office has received about 10,500 mail-in ballot requests so far, with about 8,000 coming from Democrats and roughly 2,500 from Republicans. Despite only one race being in question – the magisterial district includes Canonsburg, Houston and North Strabane – all ballots were being delayed because the entire database of candidates must be finalized before being approved. But for the past two weeks, Ostrander and the elections office have been at a “standstill” waiting for a decision by the appellate court.
“I’m ready to go. I’m ready to make a (ballot) test deck and go,” Ostrander said of how Monday’s ruling will help her move forward. If the ruling had come later this week, Ostrander and some of her staff may have been forced to work over the Easter weekend to get the ballots ready to go.
Now, she hopes to get the ballots finished and send them to the printer today before picking them up Friday. That means all the ballots requested so far will be sent out to voters by the end of the month, giving them more than three weeks to fill out their choices and return them to the elections office before the 8 p.m.
deadline on Election Day, which is May 20. “Now that we got an order – barring an appeal – we’re on schedule now,” Ostrander said. Both Tenny and Saieva are cross-filed candidates running in both the Democratic and Republican primaries.
Tenny, who is a Canonsburg police detective and has been adamant that he’s a borough resident, said he was happy that he’ll be able to remain on the ballot. “I am very pleased with the Commonwealth Court’s decision to affirm Senior Judge Katherine Emery’s order allowing me to remain on the primary ballot,” Tenny said in a written statement. “I have been serving the people as a police officer for over 30 years on the federal and local level.
I will continue to fight to be able to continue to serve the people of Canonsburg, North Strabane and Houston as their next magisterial district judge.” Schneider represented Democrat James Spingola and Republican John Lombardo in the appeal to Commonwealth Court. The final day to register for the primary or change voter information is May 5, and the final day to request a mail-in ballot is May 13.
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