Democrats didn’t just win big in Pennsylvania statewide judicial races in Tuesday’s elections. They also swept the two county judge races on the ballot in the Lehigh Valley.
In Lehigh County, Allentown attorney Mark Stanziola defeated prosecutor Patricia Mulqueen to win a newly-created judicial seat. Stanziola led Mulqueen by a margin of 59% to 41%, according to unofficial returns.
Stanziola is an attorney with Fitzpatrick Lentz and Bubba, specializing in family law, though he has handled criminal and personal injury cases. Mulqueen, the chief of prosecutions for the county district attorney’s office, has been a prosecutor in both Lehigh and Northampton counties for more than 20 years. Before that she was a public defender for several years.
The new judicial seat was created to handle an increase of criminal cases before the court, Mulqueen said in a Q&A with Armchair Lehigh Valley before the election.
In Northampton County, attorney and Army veteran Jeremy Clark defeated prosecutor James Fuller, according to unofficial returns.
Clark, an attorney and Army veteran who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, has been Easton’s city solicitor since 2020. Fuller is an assistant district attorney in Monroe County, where he previously served as a public defender.