- Voters on Tuesday will choose between Democrat Brian Panella and Republican Nancy Aaroe for Northampton County judge
- Aaroe said her 33 years practicing law as a prosecutor, public defender and private family law attorney makes her the better candidate
- Panella, an attorney of seven years, said his work running some courtroom-like proceedings means he's the experienced candidate
EASTON, Pa. — Northampton County voters will once again be asked to choose between Nancy Aaroe and Brian Panella for the county’s next judge, in a rerun of their May primary contest.
They are vying to fill the vacancy left when former judge Stephen Baratta resigned last year to run for Northampton County District Attorney, a position he is on track to assume in January.
County judges oversee the primary trial courts in Pennsylvania, responsible for hearing major civil and criminal cases, along with appeals from minor courts and matters involving children and families.
The judges serve 10-year terms.
Both candidates claim the mantle of experience.
Aaroe has spent the past 33 years practicing law, and said stints as a public defender, prosecutor, and private-practice family law attorney have given her a breadth of experience and expertise her opponent can't match.
Panella counters that, though he has only been a lawyer for about seven years, his work as a hearing officer deciding property tax appeals and child custody master overseeing settlement conferences in custody disputes offered judge-like experience running proceedings and making decisions that practicing law for longer can't outweigh.
The general election race has generally been a redux of the primary, when both candidates cross-filed and focused largely on each other’s experience.
Panella captured 57% of the vote in May’s Democratic primary, with 13,206 votes to Aaroe's 9,913. On the Republican ticket, Aaroe won 70% of the vote, with 10,950 votes to Panella's 4,730, according to official results.
33 years as an attorney
Aaroe completed law school in 1990, and soon after graduating took a job as a public defender in Monroe County. A few years later, she began working as a prosecutor with the Northampton County District Attorney’s office.
Gradually, she started working more for the practice she started with her husband, DUI defense attorney Paul Aaroe II, eventually practicing for private clients there full time and developing a specialty in family law.
In all, she said, she has spent 33 years as an attorney.
“That was one of the reasons that I really thought long and hard and decided to run for judge, because that is not the kind of experience and that's not the kind of longevity of career that makes for a good and qualified judge."Northampton County judge candidate Nancy Aaroe
When she saw less-seasoned Panella announce a run for the bench, Aaroe said she weighed her body of experience and concluded she would make a better judge.
“That was one of the reasons that I really thought long and hard and decided to run for judge, because that is not the kind of experience and that's not the kind of longevity of career that makes for a good and qualified judge,” Aaroe said.
'That's vital experience'
From law school, Panella said, “the bench was always an aspiration,” in large part because of his father, Jack Panella, who now is President Judge of the Pennsylvania Superior Court.
After Panella joined the state bar in 2016, he took a job with Easton law firm Goudsouzian and Associates — a “general practice firm,” Panella said.
“I sit as the individual arbiter in this case, controlling his own docket, making the legal determinations on his own. And I think that's vital experience, and that's not the type of experience that age or years of work as an attorney can teach you."Northampton County judge candidate Brian Panella
“I do a fair amount of civil work," he said. "That would include representing 501c3 organizations in their charitable actions. I do some private criminal defense work, and then I also do a fair amount of general civil work.”
His campaign, though, focuses less on his “day job,” as Panella put it, and more on his work as an appeals officer, hearing challenges to City of Bethlehem taxes and as a custody master in Lehigh and Northampton counties, overseeing settlement discussions and limited hearings in child custody disputes.
“I sit as the individual arbiter in this case, controlling his own docket, making the legal determinations on his own," Panella said. "And I think that's vital experience, and that's not the type of experience that age or years of work as an attorney can teach you."
Differing experiences
Aaroe has responded by underscoring the limited scope of a custody master’s powers: He or she can only work with the parties to a custody dispute to reach an agreement; if no agreement is possible, the matter goes before a judge.
Contrasting her experience with her opponent’s has been Aaroe’s chief objective on the campaign trail, in particular by attacking Panella’s never having tried a case before a jury, which she said is critical experience to preside over one.
"I think you need to learn the ropes to be able to handle that responsibility."Northampton County judge candidate Nancy Aaroe
“The first time someone participates in a jury trial, it would be very difficult for that person to be the one making the decisions," Aaroe said. "I think you need to learn the ropes to be able to handle that responsibility."
Panella conceded he has never overseen a jury trial, and argued that he doesn’t need to have tried a case before a jury to learn the well-defined rules and procedures for running a jury trial.
Overall, he said, his youth is an asset, not a liability.
He said that his professional experience, while shorter, is more relevant to being a judge.
“I'm the only candidate that's bringing that unique individual sitting controlling your own docket entry, controlling your own courtroom experience to this election,” he said.
“I've had to sit in that seat alone. I've had to make those decisions, and I've had to apply the law strictly, without the input of others.”
Social issues
Panella has hit back by invoking high-voltage social issues, as Aaroe distances herself.
“People want modern jurists," Panella said. "People want people with modern values holding office. Somebody who is affirmatively saying, without question, ‘I will protect the rights of the people of Northampton County as your next judge.’”
In particular, Panella said the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last year has made abortion access a live issue in the race for county judge.
“While my Republican counterparts may say, ‘Oh, the discussion of these items has nothing to do with the judicial race,’ I would strongly argue the opposite."Northampton County judge candidate Brian Panella
Without defining a position on abortion access, Aaroe said that, if elected, her political beliefs would not factor into her work as a judge.
“Clearly, my values are more conservative," she said. "But by the same token, I leave them at the door when I go into a courtroom, and I would hope that anybody who's running for judge says, ‘OK, I am now entering this courtroom, my responsibility is to make decisions based upon law.'"
Local judges are responsible for interpreting and applying existing law from legislators and higher courts, and lack the discretion to meaningfully stray from what they're given, lest appeals courts intervene.
“While my Republican counterparts may say, ‘Oh, the discussion of these items has nothing to do with the judicial race,’ I would strongly argue the opposite,” Panella said.
Still, in Pennsylvania, “As it stands right now, a person's medical privacy is firmly in their own hands, and so long as that's the case, I would argue that there is no opportunity for a state judge at this level to be able to argue with that.”
