After Primary Wins, Pa. Law Firm Candidates Look to November
Ballard Spahr's Mary Gay Scanlon and Susan Ellis Wild of Gross McGinley both faced competitive primary races in newly drawn congressional districts, and won.
May 16, 2018 at 05:07 PM
4 minute read
Susan Ellis Wild, left, of Gross McGinley and Mary Gay Scanlon, right, of Ballard Spahr.
In two of the most crowded primary races for Pennsylvania's seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, the head of Ballard Spahr's pro bono efforts and a partner at Lehigh Valley firm Gross McGinley emerged victorious.
Ballard Spahr's Mary Gay Scanlon and Gross McGinley's Susan Ellis Wild, both Democrats, will now compete for House seats in the November general election. Scanlon is running in the 5th District and Wild in the 7th District. Both are running in regions where the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's ruling earlier this year, which found the state's former district map to be unconstitutional, had a great impact on district lines.
Competing in a field of 10 Democratic candidates, Scanlon got the backing of nearly 17,000 voters, more than 28 percent of the vote, in the newly created 5th District, which includes Delaware County and parts of Philadelphia, Montgomery County and Chester County.
“I think last night's election and the excitement we saw … was people being energized by having fairly drawn districts in Pennsylvania now,” Scanlon said in an interview Wednesday. She said she took leave from her firm to run in the primary, and will have to figure out an arrangement as she runs in the general election.
Through her role as pro bono counsel, Scanlon said she has been involved daily with issues arising under President Donald Trump's administration, including the travel ban on certain countries, deportation issues and voter suppression. Scanlon said she was driven to run by a dedication to the U.S. Constitution and checks and balances in the federal government.
“We're tremendously proud of Mary Gay and all she's achieved,” said Ken Jarin, who leads Ballard Spahr's government relations, regulatory affairs and contracting group, in a statement Wednesday. ”Her lifelong dedication to public service has made her an incredibly effective leader of our pro bono program and will make her an equally effective member of Congress.”
To the north, Wild beat five other candidates for the Democratic nomination in the new 7th District, which includes Lehigh and Northampton counties and part of Monroe County. Wild, a former city solicitor for Allentown, got a third of the vote, about 15,000 votes total.
In a tweet Tuesday night, Wild thanked her supporters and said, “Now, let's get to work.” Her campaign and law firm did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
Scanlon is now set to run against Republican congressional candidate Pearl Kim, who ran unopposed in the primary. Kim is also a lawyer, having served as a senior deputy attorney general in the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, and as an assistant district attorney in Delaware County before that. Wild is set to run against Marty Nothstein, a small business owner who won the Republican nomination narrowly.
Another Big Law lawyer made an appearance on Pennsylvania's primary ballots, but will not be running in the general election. Laura Ellsworth of Jones Day, former partner-in-charge of the firm's Pittsburgh office, ran for the Republican nomination for governor, but lost to Scott Wagner.
Other Pennsylvania-licensed lawyers running for Congress are Democratic candidate Scott Wallace and Republican incumbent Brian Fitzpatrick in District 1; District 6 Republican candidate Greg McCauley, who has a solo practice in Chadds Ford; District 8 Democratic incumbent Matt Cartwright; District 12 Republican incumbent Tom Marino; Democratic candidate Ron DiNicola, a solo lawyer in Erie, in District 16; and Democrat Conor Lamb and Republican Keith Rothfus in District 17, who are both sitting representatives and must run against each other due to the new district lines.
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