Tuesday’s municipal election will feature competitive races for county row offices after a pair of Republican challengers won write-in nominations during the primary and the ballot gained a special election for an unexpired county clerk of judicial records term.
The race to fill the remainder of former Democratic Clerk Mauri Kelly’s unexpired term running into early January 2028 features three candidates: Democratic incumbent Lauren Bieber Mailen, Republican Susanne Preambo Green and independent Colleen Eagen Gerrity, a longtime aide to former Democratic U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright whose listed party is “An Independent Democrat.”
Lauren Bieber Mailen
Susanne Preambo Green
Colleen Eagen Gerrity
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Lauren Bieber Mailen
Mailen, then records lieutenant at the Lackawanna County Prison, and Gerrity both sought appointments to the vacant clerk position in late summer pursuant to a process established by the county’s Home Rule Charter involving the Lackawanna County Democratic Committee and the judges of the county Court of Common Pleas. The committee advanced three candidates — Mailen, Gerrity and Taylor Mayor Loni Kavulich — for consideration by the county judges, who appointed Mailen.
The county Democratic Committee also nominated Mailen as the Democratic candidate in the special election, with the county Republican Committee nominating Green as the GOP candidate. Gerrity, who casts herself as “the real Democrat” in the race, filed to run for clerk of judicial records as an independent candidate in mid-September.
Mailen recently touted efforts she’s undertaken since taking office in early September, including creating a packet of materials for property owners pursuing reassessment appeals in county court. She’s also looking to have the office’s paperwork translated into Spanish to accommodate Spanish-language speakers, describing it as a top priority.
“I am looking at this as a career,” she said. “I’m not looking at it to collect a paycheck. I want to come to work. My background within the court system, I know the areas that are weak, that the county needs to be brought up to speed on. I definitely believe that I’m the most qualified person for this position.”
Gerrity pointed to more than two decades of previous county government experience in the recorder of deeds office, where she served as deputy recorder of deeds. Helping administer that recording office and her tenure with Cartwright gives her “ready on day one experience,” she said.
“I have 30 years of effective management skills and I oversaw teams of employees, large budgets, running public offices,” she said. “I think people know who I am (and) what I have done for Democrats, not only across this county but through the state. It wasn’t easy to resign from the Democratic state party, because I was an elected Lackawanna County state committeewoman, and it wasn’t easy to run as an independent, but it was the right thing to do.”
Green, also a candidate for a Lackawanna Trail School Board seat, pointed to previous administrative experience as chief financial officer for the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, where she said she worked from about 2001 to 2013. She’s also a founder of the Northern Lackawanna County Food Share.
“Working together in a team that gets along and can actually do things and move forward together is an important goal, but also an important goal is to bring that office into the 21st century,” she said. “It’s not being used effectively and efficiently. … There needs to be more effective use of resources. Right now it’s being run in an archaic fashion.”
Mailen, Gerrity and Green all said they want to implement an electronic filing option for civil court filings, among other goals.
Other contested county row office races feature longtime Democratic incumbents hoping to hold their positions for another four years.
Sheriff
In the race for county sheriff, incumbent Democratic Sheriff Mark P. McAndrew faces another GOP challenge from Glenn Capman, a lieutenant at the Lackawanna County Prison and a former sheriff’s deputy who won the Republican nomination via write-in votes. It’s a rematch of 2021, when McAndrew defeated Capman by earning more than 66% of the vote to win a third four-year term.
Mark P. McAndrew
Glenn Capman
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Mark P. McAndrew
McAndrew, who seeks a fourth term, touted his office’s performance and said it has taken on new duties during his tenure, including providing security at new county facilities and magistrate offices, transporting juvenile offenders to out-of-county facilities and serving domestic warrants for unpaid child support.
“Everything that has been asked of me and more has been done,” he said.
Capman contends he’d bring more budget accountability to the sheriff’s office and more effectively tackle the issue of high overtime costs. He said he wants to start a program for concealed carry permit holders providing safety training and information. He also wants to help facilitate opportunities for young people pursuing careers in law enforcement.
“I feel it’s time for change,” he said. “I tell everybody ask yourself what the current sheriff has done in the past 12 years of his tenure as the sheriff. What has he done for the community? What has he done for the county? What has he done for the sheriff’s office?”
Register of wills
The Republican candidate for county register of wills, Vanessa Lienert of Benton Twp., also secured a GOP nomination via write-in votes. She faces incumbent Democratic Register of Wills Fran Kovaleski, who, like McAndrew, seeks a fourth four-year term.
Fran Kovaleski
Vanessa Lienert
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Fran Kovaleski
Lienert, owner of the Flora Meadow cut flower farm, previously worked as a notary and loan signing agent and brings a background in bank-fraud prevention to the race. She said the county’s reassessment process opened her eyes to local government and inspired her to run for the row office.
“I really just want to bring a fresh, compassionate service to the office,” Lienert said. “I won the write-in and then I’ve been talking to voters out there and they just want transparency and ease.”
She said she recently offered a free “wills made simple workshop,” articulating a broader goal of helping the community.
Kovaleski highlighted her experience and touted her work ethic, pointing to projects completed under her leadership. For example, an in-house project saw staff open, index, scan, box and store more than 10,500 adoption files from 1925 through the present day — an effort Kovaleski said likely would have cost close to $1 million with an outside vendor.
She also touted her office’s handling of guardianships designed to safeguard the assets of incapacitated individuals. It manages files and maintains records related to more than 500 guardianships, overseeing more than $200 million in assets, she said.
“Experience definitely counts,” Kovaleski said. “We have a great team.”
Recorder of deeds
Longtime Democratic incumbent Recorder of Deeds Evie Rafalko McNulty, first elected to the office in 1997, seeks an eighth four-year term. She faces a challenge from Republican Sharon Soltis Sparano of La Plume Twp., a retired pharmacist who ran unopposed and won the GOP nomination for recorder of deeds in the May primary.
Evie Rafalko McNulty
Sharon Soltis Sparano
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Evie Rafalko McNulty
McNulty said she wants to continue the work she’s done for more than a quarter century.
“When I started off this job in 1998 we had a half of the courthouse first floor that we were using, because we had so many books,” she said. “There’s 4,000 books that we’ve scanned and digitized, 7 million pages, we’ve done electronic recording. … Everything is available online.”
Her long tenure “speaks for itself,” she said. “I’m doing the right thing.
Sparano, previously elected in 1989 as Throop’s first borough councilwoman, said she’s not a politician. Her decision to run was prompted in part by the county’s nearly 33% 2025 property tax hike and frustration with the reassessment process that she contends was difficult and confusing, particularly for the elderly.
“My motivation is community really,” she said, arguing the recorder of deeds office can be more “people-oriented” and efficient. “With my background as a pharmacist for 40 years that’s exactly what I dealt with. You had to be precise. You had to be efficient. You had to document. … I feel I can bring a lot of that to the department because I was in a profession that required such efficiency.”
District attorney
Incumbent Democratic District Attorney Brian Gallagher is uncontested Tuesday. He seeks a full four-year term as DA after taking office in early February, when former District Attorney Mark Powell filled a judicial vacancy and became a county judge.
Powell, who seeks a full 10-year term as a county judge, is also running unopposed.
The 2025 salaries for clerk of judicial records, sheriff and recorder of deeds are $77,414. The register of wills, who also serves as clerk of the orphans’ court, earns an annual salary of $79,414.
The district attorney’s salary of $226,411 is paid by the state, county officials said.