Maggi and Shober Win Democratic Nominations for Commissioner

Larry Maggi and Harlan Shober will be the Democratic candidates for Washington County commissioner in the general election.

They will face Republicans William Northrop and Diana Irey Vaughan in November—with the top three vote getters winning seats.

Vaughan and Northrop were unopposed in the Republican primary. With 100 percent of the precincts counted, Irey Vaughan had 53 percent of the vote, while Northrop, of Peters Township, captured 43.9 percent.

Maggi won the nomination with 34.9 percent of the Democratic vote. Shober, the chairman of the Chartiers Township Board of Supervisors, edged out City of Washington Councilman Joe Manning. They had 17.9 percent 15.6 percent respectively.

Other challengers (in order of finish) included John Petrisek, Wayne Watson, Greg Sulc and Randy Barli.

Maggi will be seeking his third term as commissioner, while it is Shober's second run for the post.

For Shober, who was defeated in his bid for commissioner four years ago, the win was extremely gratifying.

“It’s something that I wanted to do—to be able to use my experience and help the county,” Shober said. ”It’s really a different feeling, because the first time out I was just trying to get to know the people. I think that really helped me this time because I made a lot of friends in the last time out.”

Shober gave credit for the win to his volunteers, who he said were located all over the county.

“I had a good feeling all the way through the campaign knowing that I had a lot of support,” Shober said. "You could almost feel the buzz around you.”

He said he spoke briefly after his victory with Maggi, and that the two planned to meet in the upcoming days about the campaign and what needs to be accomplished in the county.

Maggi said he felt that his vote totals indicated that people around the county appreciated what he has accomplished as a commissioner over the years.

“We worked hard and it was a good campaign, and there were a lot of good candidates in the Democrat campaign,” he said. “I’m really excited about what we accomplished tonight.”

Maggi watched the results come in with many of his supporters and family members in the county office building.

“I’m looking forward to continuing with the progress we have made in the county,” he said.