Come Jan. 1, Northampton County will have a new district attorney for the first time in 28 years, and the incumbent leaving office and fixture of Democratic politics is all but certain to become the county’s newest judge of the Court of Common Pleas.

The legendary and sometimes controversial John Morganelli of Bethlehem announced earlier this year that his current seventh term as DA is his last; he has decided to cap his career as a county judge instead. And he is likely to get his wish since he is unopposed.

Judicial candidates, along with those running for school board, are allowed to cross-file, which means that if they get the required number of signatures on nominating petitions they can appear on both Republican and Democratic ballots regardless of their party registration. This gives the appearance that these offices are nonpartisan, when, in fact, they are not.

An outspoken proponent of the death penalty, Morganelli has prosecuted many high-profile cases. He has been enormously popular in the county, running without opposition from either party since 1992 and is well-known regionally, but he has been unable to parlay this strong local support into success as he has sought higher office. He lost four times seeking the state attorney general’s post. Last year, he was defeated by Susan Wild in the Democratic primary in a bid for the congressional seat in the 15th District (Lehigh, Northampton and southern Monroe counties).

Morganelli is not only the longest-serving district attorney in county history, but he has the longest tenure among current DAs in Pennsylvania.

While Morganelli is running unopposed, in neighboring Lehigh County there are seven candidates — four Democrats and three Republicans — vying for a single judicial seat.

It shows the power of name recognition. My sources at the courthouse in Easton told me that there were several well-connected attorneys who were interested in seeking the judicial seat, but when Morganelli announced his interest, he scared them off, because they knew he would be very difficult to beat in a countywide race.

During the past several years, it appears that Morganelli was laying the groundwork for this bid. He attended numerous municipal meetings in his role as district attorney and posted flattering commentaries about these officials and experiences he had at these meetings on his Facebook page.

A big question for Morganelli is whether he will be content to step out of the limelight. As DA, he frequently called news conferences was not afraid to take on numerous sacred cows, including the state police when he felt they deserved criticism. As a judicial candidate, he will be restrained by what he can say, especially if it involves an opinion on how he might rule on controversial issues, such as the death penalty.

Morganelli said he had toyed with the idea of running for judge before but said the time was just not right. Now, with an open seat on the nine-member bench — Emil Giordano left the court last year at the age of 59 — Morganelli believes it is his time. At 63, Morganelli will be able to complete a full 10-year term since retirement age for judges has been moved to 75.

Personally, I find this age restriction to be archaic when many public officials are fully capable of functioning extremely well deep into their 70s or even their 80s.

Up until the general election of 2016, judges in Pennsylvania were compelled to retire at age 70, but voters approved extending the retirement age by five years.

The annual salary of a judge of the Court of Common Pleas is $183,184. The annual salary of president judges varies, depending on how many judges make up the court. Roger N. Nanovic in Carbon County, for example, makes $183,984 because Carbon has fewer than six judges, while Schuylkill County President Judge William E. Baldwin, Monroe’s Margherita Patti Worthington, Lehigh’s Edward D. Reibman and Northampton’s Michael J. Koury make $184,781. These salaries went into effect Jan. 1 after an automatic cost of living increase that also raised legislators’ salaries.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com