Erie Attorney Pete Sala will be the newest judge on the bench of the Erie County Court of Common Pleas.  

Sala watched the returns come in at Calamari's.  Sala, on the democratic ticket faced a robust challenge from Attorney Eric Mikovch on the republican ticket. Sala won by a more than 9,000 vote margin, taking 58% of the vote to 42% for Mikovch. This was Sala's second run for the bench -- and this time the verdict was in his favor. "It also has to do with who you're running against - Dave Ridge, Erin Connelly, Ed Smith had something to do with it last time. But it's also name recognition, and you have to learn. The last time in 2019, we learned a lot from that run, where to go and what to do and we took those lessons from 2019 and applied it to 2023."

Sala says his work as a solo practitioner will serve him well on the bench. "Being a solo practitioner you're dealing with people, the common person who's coming into your office with a problem. And that's what I've done my whole career. I've been in private practice since 1995, representing people from all walks of life - and when you understand people from the county you're better able to understand and judge the circumstances that bring them before the court and then find hopefully the best resolution you can."

This race was really won with the early mail in ballots.  More than 14,000 of those went Sala's way to about 3,800 for Mikovch. Sala will now go through a period of judge's training.  He's expected to assume his seat on the bench January 2nd.