state Candidates
2025 Statewide Judicial Candidates
Maria Battista has more than 15 years of legal experience in civil, criminal, and administrative law and is a former Assistant District Attorney. She is also a skilled mediator and public speaker.
As a Commonwealth attorney, Battista was counsel in the Departments of Health and State. For three years, Battista was a hearing examiner where she presided over hundreds of cases, including for the Department of Corrections.
Those who know her best have found her to have a strong legal mind, while still showing compassion. Battista has been a presenter for continuing legal education courses in mediation, oral arguments before appellate courts, and health care matters.
She plans to use her diverse legal and educational background to establish an office that is efficient, accountable, and transparent.
Matt Wolford is a proven legal expert with a deep understanding of government and the law. Throughout his career, he has litigated cases in State and Federal courts, as well as quasi-judicial State agencies, many of which were argued before the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court.
Matt is a small business owner who practices law as a solo practitioner in Erie, PA, where he concentrates on environmental law. Before going into private practice, he
served as an Assistant Counsel and Regional Counsel for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (“DEP”). Prior to joining the DEP, he served as a prosecutor with the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General (“OAG”), Environmental
Crimes Section in Meadville, PA; and as a civil litigation attorney for the OAG’s Torts Litigation Section in Philadelphia, PA. He also served as a special prosecutor of environmental crimes for both the OAG and the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Matt lectures regularly for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute (now part of the Pennsylvania Bar Association) and has lectured for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Enforcement Training Institute, the DEP, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, Pennsylvania’s Minor Judiciary, the Erie County Bar Association, and various other county bar associations and organizations. He also authored a chapter in
the Pennsylvania Bar Institute’s The Law of Oil & Gas in Pennsylvania focusing on oil and gas development on public lands and was an Adjunct Professor at Gannon University in Erie, PA, where he taught a course on environmental law.
Matt is a longtime member of the Presque Isle State Park Complex Advisory Committee and the Presque Isle Partnership. He received his undergraduate degree from Penn State and his Juris Doctorate degree from the Temple University School of Law and is a member of the Erie County and Pennsylvania Bar Associations. He and his wife, Marian, are the proud parents of four children.
