African American and veteran North Side Democratic Committee member Deloris Lewis is running to unseat District Justice Derwin Rushing for Magisterial District serving Pittsburgh Wards 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25. But she says if she had known more about such races, she might have been the only name on the ballot.
“I didn’t challenge any of the others (nominating) petitions, but I should have,” she said. “It’s too late now, but after they challenged me—and I won—I looked at their paperwork and there are several irregularities—dead people, people who’ve moved away.”
Lewis is a retired Port Authority Police officer and a graduate of the Allegheny County Police Academy, who subsequently worked as a private security guard. She also served as a deputy constable for 12 years, which she said gives her on-the-job knowledge of the workings of the magistrate’s office.
Even though the magisterial district stretches from Manchester, through the central North Side to parts of Troy Hill, Lewis says she will be walking the district from now through election day and “continually knock on doors to publicize her candidacy.”
“I come from a long line of law enforcement,” she said. “I have a passion and love for our neighborhood, and believe that catching situations before (people) fall through the cracks will, over time, reduce our prison population. It starts at the magistrate’s level. Sending low-level drug offenders to rehab and alternate (sentencing) programs will help. ”
In addition to Rushing, Lewis faces another candidate: the endorsed Democrat Daniel Styche. Styche is a constable and Democratic Committeeman who first ran for the seat in 2009, and who, in 2008, said he was kept from seeking Brenda Frazier’s District 10 county council seat when she resigned to run for the state legislature by a deal that would have reappointed her if she lost. Both Frazier and, then Council President, Rich Fitzgerald denied there was any deal.
District Judges serve six-year terms at an annual salary of $88,290. They summary offenses, traffic violations, landlord-tenant disputes, minor civil claims—up to $12,000, and also handle preliminary hearings and arraignments on greater misdemeanor and felony charges bound for higher court.
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