GOP jury commissioner faces challenge

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April 25, 2009

By SANDRA K. REABUCK The Tribune-Democrat Sat Apr 25, 2009, 10:50 PM EDT

EBENSBURG — Richard D. Speicher, the incumbent Republican Cambria County jury commissioner, is being challenged by an Ebensburg area woman for the GOP nomination for the office in the primary election.

Thomas Chernisky of Geistown, the incumbent Democratic jury commissioner, has no opposition for his party’s nomination.

In Pennsylvania counties, each party nominates only one candidate for jury commissioner, but two are elected to ensure bipartisan representation. In Cambria County, the position is part time, and each commissioner is paid just more than $11,000 a year.

The challenger in the GOP race is Vickie Long, 51, a Cambria Township resident who is property business manager for Graystone Court in Ebensburg and a former per-diem county employee.

Speicher, 56, a Vinco resident, has been the GOP jury commissioner since 1998. He formerly was employed as Ferndale Borough secretary and in the security department at Laurel Crest, the county’s nursing home. He is active in area athletic circles as a referee in school games and is a radio sports broadcaster for WCRO-AM.

Long said she feels qualified for the job through her work with jurors on court days and has spent time in the past eight months researching the jury selection process and duties of the position.

Speicher said he hopes “to continue serving the citizens of the county and to impanel knowledgeable yet impartial jurors as the system requires.”

Chernisky, 44, who has been a jury commissioner since 2002, is a past president of the Pennsylvania Association of Jury Commissioners and has been active in promoting a better understanding of the jury system by speaking before civic groups and at conferences.

He worked with Ebensburg officials to create a jurors club that provides incentives for jurors to eat and shop while in the borough.

Chernisky is a financial service representative with Met Life in Johnstown.

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