Republican Clerk of Courts candidate Nicky Woods handily defeated incumbent Mary Anater in the May primary.
Though history strongly suggests the relative political newcomer will defeat her Democratic opponent next month, it may not be a runaway victory.
No Democrat has held the position, at least not in modern times. Still, Tom O’Brien, chair of the Lancaster County Democratic Committee, sees a chance for Tara Ruby, albeit an uphill one, given the voter registration advantage Republicans hold in the county.
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As of Oct. 3, about 51% of the county’s eligible voters were registered Republicans; Democrats, about 31%.
“We have an opportunity because of the people we’re running against,” O’Brien said, labeling GOP candidates a “MAGA group” that voters will reject at the polls.
“I think a lot of people are tired of the extremism,” he said.
Despite how conservative or liberal a candidate may be, it has little bearing on the clerk’s office, which is in charge of managing files for Lancaster County’s criminal court and providing administrative support during trials.
As with all other row offices, except district attorney, the salary is $86,527.
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Career in law enforcement
Both Woods and Ruby acknowledge the clerk’s office is administrative and say they are qualified to run it.
Woods, 48, of Mount Joy Township, describes herself as a conservative Christian who got involved in politics after refusing to close her business during COVID-related lockdowns. Within two years, she had been elected Republican committee chair in Elizabethtown.
Woods runs The Bark Park, a dog daycare, just outside of Elizabethtown. She also worked part-time with the Northwest Regional Police Department until the end of 2022, when part-time officer positions were cut for budget reasons. Before that, she was an officer with Lancaster city police.
Woods, who graduated from Manheim Central High School and got an accounting degree from Bloomsburg State University before joining the city police in 1987, said her interest in serving as clerk of courts “stems from a career spent in law enforcement protecting the citizens of Lancaster County by serving in that capacity. And I have the energy and willingness to be an effective clerk of courts and I have the skills necessary to effectively and efficiently maintain criminal records for both the courts and citizens of Lancaster County. I know what the office does and I understand the criminal justice system.”
Woods said her law enforcement background would help “prepare me to better understand the inner workings of the clerk of courts office and be able to operate it in an efficient and effective manner.”
The office has served as a springboard to higher office for Republicans.
Former clerks include state Sen. Ryan Aument; and Josh Parsons, the county commissioner who’s seeking a third term this year. Another former clerk, Dave Hickernell, went on to serve in the state House of Representatives for 10 terms.
Woods said she has no future political aspirations.
“I enjoy my role as the chair of the Elizabethtown Area Republican Committee and will continue to work hard serving in that role and getting conservative Republicans elected here locally,” she said.
Defeated the incumbent
The November election for the clerk’s office lacks the drama leading up to the primary in which Woods beat incumbent Mary Anater.
Though the county Republican Party did not endorse either candidate, Woods benefited from the endorsements of county Commissioners Parsons and Ray D’Agostino. Anater, meanwhile, battled criticism and controversy during her tenure.
After Anater took office, having won a special election to replace Jackie Pfursich, who left the office to become county solicitor, she said she found Pfursich’s personal and political files on an office computer. Pfursich said it was an accident.
Anater later feuded with D’Agostino and Parsons over damage she caused to a freshly paved exit ramp at the courthouse in August 2022. Anater said she had worked late and the ramp was blocked off and she thought there was no other way to leave, forcing her to try to maneuver around barricades with the help of a facilities employee. County officials turned the matter over to police, which Anater called retribution, but D’Agostino said a police report was needed for an insurance claim.
Anater, an attorney who previously worked for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, maintained that she brought the office up to full staff and said she instituted procedures to make sure required filings don’t fall through the cracks.
That’s a reference to another issue where Anater butted heads with Parsons and D’Agostino and involved the failure to report drunk driving arrests to PennDOT, which carries out license suspensions. A fatal DUI in 2022 was caused by a man who had been arrested weeks earlier for driving under the influence, but his license had yet to be suspended.
Anater was criticized for failing to report the man. She, in turn, alleged that the same failure to report DUI arrests had been occurring for years, dating back to Parsons’ tenure as clerk, an allegation he denied.
Wants to give voters a choice
Like Woods, Ruby herself is a newcomer to politics. A Berks County native who settled in Lancaster city, Ruby, 37, is a contract grant writer for an early literacy/family engagement intervention program and The Service Employees International Union Education and Support Fund.
She has a master’s degree in teaching from Notre Dame of Maryland University and her undergraduate degree in international affairs from Northeastern University.
Ruby said she decided to run in part through exposure to politics when her husband was considering a run for district judge in the city. Ultimately, he did not run. But her friend, Catherina Celosse, who is running for register of wills on the Democratic ticket, suggested she run for clerk of courts.
“It was kind of an ongoing conversation that we had been having about the need for folks to be involved locally and in local offices,” Ruby said.
And, she said, “in a healthy democracy, there should be choices for voters.”
In some recent elections, Democrats didn’t field a candidate for clerk. They did in the last one, but Anater defeated Michelle Batt. Though Democrats ran a candidate against Pfursich in her first run for the office in 2015, they didn’t run anyone against her in her reelection bid in 2019. Democrats did not field a candidate in the 2011 and 2007 elections.
Ruby said she wasn’t sure if there had been a sense of defeatism in the past, but “it’s just worth making choices available to voters, especially in a seat like this where the more I come to understand it’s not a decision making office per se. It is more about management, paperwork and pieces like that, but it’s still so integral to other offices of our government being able to function (and) party doesn’t seem to matter quite as much.”
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