Election Coverage: Run-up to the General Election, Pennsylvania 2011
October 26, 2011
Pennsylvania: Election season is heating up in Pennsylvania, and besides repeated commercial interruption of your favorite fall sports there are a number of interesting races and developments to consider in the final weeks before the general election November 8th.
Campaign finance has been a hot button issue at all levels of government for the better part of a decade. Judicial elections, especially retention elections were considered to be an office that would never be affected by this issue, but this has changed in recent years. J. Michael Eakin who is running for retention on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has raised close to $427,000 for his campaign. This is not an isolated incident, and was something we investigated in early February in our Supreme Weekly: The cost of running for a Supreme Court article. Many judges prepare for the possibility of late negative campaign ads from opposition groups who did not like a judge's ruling on certain cases, such as those faced by Alaska Supreme Court Justice Dana Fabe in her 2010 retention campaign which she talked about at the Evaluating Appellate Judges: Preserving Integrity, Maintaining Accountability conference (2011).[1]
The Philidelphia Democratic Party has also come under fire after asking 27 judges who attended a party brunch to donate $10,000 each to the party. U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, who is the party chair was not in attendance at the time of the request, which was made by former State Rep. Frank Oliver. The cost of judicial elections is not lost on the judges, who have seen the cost of having party support double since 2009. Some judges have been asked to contribute as much as $35,000 for crowded judicial elections.[2]
Halloween has come early for the Philadelphia Bar Association who is handing out tricks and treats in the form of a recommendation list for candidates running in the November election.
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judges James Murray Lynn, Robert J. Rebstock, Jim Divergilis, and Ted J. Vigilante as well as Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge James M. DeLeon were the only ones not recommended for retention.[3]
Court of Common Pleas races are heating up, particularly in strongly contested areas like the Allegheny Court of Common Pleas race between David N. Wecht and Vic Stabile. Wecht has been rated as Highly Recommended by the Pennsylvania Bar Association, in part because of his role in creating the "One family, one judge" system for the family courts. Stabile has been rated as Recommended by the Bar Association and considers himself a strict constructionist.[4][5][6]
Another race to watch is for the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas. There are five open seats which will be contested by Republicans Christine F. Cannon, John P. Capuzzi, Sr., G. Michael Green, Spiros E. Angelos, and Nathaniel C. Nichols against Democrats Michael F. Schleigh, G. Lawrence DeMarco and Sally Ann H. Bikin.[7]
For full elections coverage from Judgepedia be sure to check out Pennsylvania judicial elections, 2011!
Footnotes
- ↑ Reuters Legal News "Pennsylvania judge raises $427,000 for uncontested race," October 4, 2011
- ↑ The Daily News "Campaigning Philadelphia judges say Democrats sought $10,000 donations," September 30, 2011
- ↑ Philadelphia Bar Association "PHILADELPHIA BAR ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES JUDICIAL RATINGS, RELEASES POLL RESULTS," October 19, 2011
- ↑ The Times Leader "Wecht cites trial experience for Superior Court," October 17, 2011
- ↑ Pennsylvania Bar Association, Judicial Evaluation Commission
- ↑ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "State judicial races often exercises in anonymity," October 23, 2011
- ↑ Delco Times "Five judicial openings on Delco bench to be contested," October 23, 2011
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