Politics & Government

Hugh McGough Wins Bid for District Judge in East End

McGough was happy with the results of the primary Tuesday night.

Hugh McGough won the bid for district judge in the East End Tuesday night.

“It was a long time coming,” McGough said. “I’m a third time candidate and honored that the more people got to know me, voters had the confidence to select me for this wonderful judicial position. There were great candidates here and I am honored to have been selected among the four candidates.”

The race for district judge in the East End area, which covers portions of Regent Square and Park Place, had four different candidates, including Doug Shields, McGough, Joe Weinroth and Dan Butler.

Find out what's happening in Forest Hills-Regent Squarewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

ran for the position on the Democratic ticket only while the other three candidates cross-filed. A Squirrel Hill resident, the president of City Council has years of experience in local government, but said it all started in his early days as a litigation paralegal, where he worked on cases ranging from bankruptcies to nuclear power plant issues. In 2004, Shields became a Pittsburgh City Councilman, representing the 5th Council District. In 2006, he became council president and was reelected to that position in 2008.

Butler spent 11 years as Pittsburgh Municipal Judge and 33 years as an attorney. He said he wished more people had come out to vote Tuesday.

Find out what's happening in Forest Hills-Regent Squarewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"It was an incredibly hard fought campaign in an area where a fraction of the people understand the importance of the position," Butler said. "I'm thrilled that a highly qualified attorney won the job. He won fair and square and I have nothing bad to say about him."

A lawyer who got his start representing people with HIV/AIDS during the height of the epidemic, laid the foundation of his career helping a community of people whose civil rights were quickly diminished.

“I was very motivated to go to law school because of the AIDS epidemic,” McGough said. “How a whole class of people had been out on the outside of the law in such rapid fashion. The public health epidemic was bewildering and people didn’t know what the cause or cure was – people were stripped of so many of their rights – not to mention their dignity.”

McGough, 55, of Shadyside has worked for the City of Pittsburgh and now has his own practice.

“I want to continue a tradition of caring, smart and competent judicial service that Judge Firestone and his predecessor, Bob Tucker, provided to people in the East End,” McGough said before the primary. “Both of them are attorneys of considerable reputation who have brought dignity, impartiality and ethical standard to their work that I am committed to continuing.”

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Weinroth of Squirrel Hill is a lawyer who previously ran in the race for mayor in 2005 and Common Pleas bench in 2007.

For all other local election results


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Forest Hills-Regent Square