{"id":8333,"date":"2014-12-01T15:20:36","date_gmt":"2014-12-01T20:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=8333"},"modified":"2014-12-01T15:20:36","modified_gmt":"2014-12-01T20:20:36","slug":"long-announces-run-for-district-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=8333","title":{"rendered":"Long announces run for District Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"JonLong\"<\/a>

Jon Long<\/p><\/div>\n

WEST CHESTER \u2014\u00a0\u00a0Democrat Jon Long announced last week he would run for District\u00a0Justice of District Court 15-01-04, which covers portions of the borough.<\/p>\n

The current Justice in that district is Gwenn Knapp, also a Democrat.<\/p>\n

Long, an attorney, cites his interest in dedicating his professional career to public service as his\u00a0motivation for running.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am running in order to put my experience as a prosecutor to work\u00a0serving the citizens of West Chester, Long said in a statement. “The neighborhoods of West Chester that District Court 15-\u00a01-04 serves are beset by many issues, especially those concerning the late night activities of\u00a0some West Chester University students. I am uniquely positioned not only as a prosecutor, but\u00a0also as a member of the WCU Alumni Association board of directors to make an impact on\u00a0University-Borough relations and best serve both the residents and students alike so they can live\u00a0side by side in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

A number of local Democratic party leaders expressed their support for Long, who has worked as a prosecutor in both the Chester and Bucks county District Attorney’s Office.<\/p>\n

\u201cJon Long has been an asset to our community since his undergraduate days at West\u00a0Chester University and has gone on to prove his merit as an Assistant District Attorney in a\u00a0neighboring county,” said Jim\u00a0Salvas, a long-time Democratic leader and retired Ward 1 resident.\u00a0“He is ready to take on the responsibilities of District Justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephanie Markstein, a small business owner and Democratic Zone Leader of the West\u00a0Chester Democrats expresee her support for Long, saying \u201cJon Long as been an active\u00a0Democrat since we met many years ago. He is intelligent and compassionate. Jon goes out of his\u00a0way to help others, and his easygoing temperament gives him a unique ability to engage people\u00a0around him. I trust Jon’s honesty and integrity and fully support his candidacy for this important\u00a0role in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nathaniel Smith, a former ward 2 resident for 22 years, long-time Democratic leader and\u00a0retired professor endorsed Long saying, “I have known Jon Long for years now through his\u00a0involvement in various organizations and issues concerning the Borough. He has the\u00a0combination of integrity, fairness, compassion, and strictness, as well as professional familiarity\u00a0with the law, to become the ideal district justice.”<\/p>\n

Having been part of the justice system already, Long said he wants to use his experience to the benefit of the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an Assistant District Attorney I see an opportunity to continue developing my\u00a0interest in the law at a higher level,\u201d Long said. \u201cI want to make this important local court the\u00a0best it can be for the citizens of West Chester.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long notes that despite being one of the smallest districts in the county, this court has the highest number\u00a0of non-traffic filings in Chester County, with the majority of complaints being quality of life crimes.<\/p>\n

He said it was his hope to, \u201ccontinue running this District Court with the highest\u00a0integrity in order to best serve the citizens of West Chester. All cases, no matter the subject\u00a0matter, will be heard and decided on the merits with the law to be applied strictly and fairly.\u201d<\/p>\n

As many citizens’ first encounter with the judicial system, Long said he believes that \u201cthose citizens\u00a0should walk away with the feeling that the system is tough when it needs to be, but ultimately\u00a0fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long\u00a0is a graduate of West Chester University and Temple University Beasley School of Law. A\u00a0resident of the borough for the past 16 years, he has been an active citizen serving on both the University-\u00a0Neighborhood Task Force and, most recently, the Borough’s Comprehensive Plan Task Force. Besides\u00a0his career as a prosecutor, Jon has worked for local small businesses, the Chester County government,\u00a0and the State Legislature.<\/p>\n

He and his wife, Jennifer, have been residents of Ward 1 for the past nine years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WEST CHESTER \u2014\u00a0\u00a0Democrat Jon Long announced last week he would run for District\u00a0Justice of District Court 15-01-04, which covers portions of the borough. The current Justice in that district is Gwenn Knapp, also a Democrat. Long, an attorney, cites his interest in dedicating his professional career to public service as his\u00a0motivation for running. \u201cI am […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5044,4984,5043,637],"class_list":["post-8333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-district-justice","tag-election-2015","tag-jon-long","tag-west-chester"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}