Hi everyone. I've been staying off Daily Kos entirely for well over two months, a much-needed break (not because of anything you did, of course!). I'm not going to reappear here regularly for some time. I am breaking my silence for this one diary, addressing the 2017 elections, in particular those in Pennsylvania. While protest and such is necessary and emotionally satisfying, it ultimately accomplishes little if we can't win some damn elections for a change. Because we have seen this movie before. Conservative leader assumes office, immediately embarks on aggressively conservative agenda that triggers huge protests and passionate opposition. That describes Scott Walker as well as Donald Trump. People on the left and in the political establishment underestimated what Walker was capable of, just as with Trump. People may have protested Walker, and still hate him, but the fact remains, Walker has been massively successful at implementing his agenda, he has the Wisconsin judiciary and media in his back pocket, he has won three elections, and the left and the Democratic Party are disorganized, impotent messes that have no shot to oust Walker as governor. This is going national unless we change, and fast. And also, please don't bother with the "if we were just more unapologetically progressive" spiel. Russ Feingold is like that. He's pretty much a clone of Bernie Sanders. He lost. I agree that Democrats should be more unapologetic and less squishy and compromising (join Jeff Merkley's filibuster, wimps!) but that alone is not enough to win an election. There are some people who I think understand what is necessary, Van Jones first and foremost. I highly recommend listening to pretty much anything he has to say.
Warning over. The rest of this is largely an informational diary, aimed at fighting liberals with far more mental strength than I have.
The most prominent 2017 elections will be the open-seat gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, both of which pit progressive Democrats against bipartisan corporate centrists who always accommodate the GOP, like we see Joe Manchin, Mark Warner, etc. doing with Trump. The contrast is particularly stark in New Jersey, where progressive legislator John Wisniewski, who led the charge to expose Chris Christie's corruption and who endorsed Bernie Sanders, is running against a Goldman Sachs executive, Phil Murphy, who represents everything wrong with the Democratic Party. Needless to say, the party establishment, with its bipartisan delusions and captivity to corporate cash and thought, is backing Murphy to the hilt. In Virginia, our old friend Tom Perriello is running against the centrist/establishment choice, Ralph Northam. I am endorsing Wisniewski and Perriello and hope that the progressive community will strongly support both. Tepid establishment politics breathe with soul so dead, they cannot ever get us ahead (I'm ripping off Sir Walter Scott there). But in prose, history demonstrates over and over that authoritarianism cannot be effectively met with centrist establishment politics.
Those elections are not the main point of this diary, however. I'm going to discuss some lower-profile races that are just as important, in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is electing a new justice to the state Supreme Court, and is electing a total of SEVEN new judges to the statewide courts this year. That's tied for the most in the past couple decades, and 25% of the bench. We need a lot of pro-democracy judges on the bench to oppose Trump's unconstitutional and illegal actions and policies. In PA, we can get some this year (and possibly make some history--we can elect only the second racial minority to PA's highest court). But to do this, we will need to fight from behind and get all hands on deck.
To provide the proper context, I've structured the diary as follows: first, an overview of how judicial elections work in PA. After that, a discussion of recent judicial elections, from 2001 to 2015. I finally assess our chances for the elections this year, and introduce the candidates.
More below the fold.
Judicial Elections and Structure
Pennsylvania elects all judges, trial and appellate. For open seats, PA holds partisan elections. Incumbents running for reelection face only a nonpartisan yes-no retention vote, which they ALWAYS win (with one notable exception discussed below). PA judicial elections are always held in odd-numbered years. When vacancies arise, the governor, with state senate approval, can appoint an interim judge who serves until the next election. And in PA, all judges must retire upon reaching age 75 ( it had been 70, but was raised this year). When multiple seats are open, all candidates appear on one ballot, and the top vote-getters win (e.g. if there are three seats open, both parties nominate three candidates, then all six appear on one ballot in the fall, and the top three win.)
Pennsylvania elects trial judges at the county level, to the Courts of Common Pleas (I'll hereafter refer simply to trial courts and trial judges). Appellate judges are elected statewide, and there are three appellate courts--Supreme, Superior, Commonwealth (yes, the names can be confusing). Candidates for the trial courts are permitted to cross-file and run for both parties' nominations, but candidates for the appellate courts are not. Appeals from the trial courts go to Superior or Commonwealth Courts, and appeals from either of those courts go to Supreme Court. The Superior Court is often called PA's 'second highest court' because it hears more cases than Commonwealth Court and because it often serves as a stepping stone to Supreme Court--fully 5 of 7 current justices served on Superior Court before the Supreme Court (the other 2 made the jump directly from trial court). Many recently retired justices, such as Ronald Castille, and the disgraced Joan Orie Melvin, Seamus McCaffery, and Michael Eakin all served on Superior Court as well.
The Superior Court hears most civil and criminal appeals. The Commonwealth Court hears cases involving state agencies or regulations, as well as tax and benefit cases. Thus, the voter ID law went to Commonwealth Court, and was upheld by the GOP judges. The Supreme Court blocked it, though, as the Republican Castille voted with Democratic colleagues.
One other power the state Supreme Court has is over redistricting. In PA, that's done by a 5-member commission. Democrats and Republicans each choose two members, and the state Supreme Court chooses the fifth, tiebreaking member. PA is absurdly gerrymandered because the GOP majority on the Court appointed a Republican tiebreaker. That's why the 2015 elections (see below) were so critical--they give us a chance to break the gerrymander.
2001
1 Supreme Court, 3 Superior Court, 3 Commonwealth Court seats. Held in the shadow of 9/11, this election was an unmitigated disaster, as Republicans won all 7 seats. Worst was the election of Michael Eakin to the Supreme Court, just in time for redistricting. Eakin resurfaced in a much more unfavorable light recently, as he had sent pornographic and sexist emails and had to resign.
Republicans: Castille, Eakin, Saylor, Newman
Democrats: Zappala Sr., Cappy, Nigro (Nye-gro, be careful how you say it)
2003
1 Supreme, 3 Superior Court seats. Democrats did much better this time, winning 3 of 4 seats. Max Baer, Pittsburgh trial judge, defeated none other than the since-disgraced Joan Orie Melvin for Supreme Court, and Seamus McCaffery and Jack Panella were the top two finishers for Superior Court. Unfortunately, Republican Susan Gantman edged out Democrat John Driscoll to place third and capture a seat--by 28 votes. Both of them received over 1.1 million total votes. Your vote doesn't matter?
Note: This is the highest turnout in an odd-numbered year in recent times, due to the competitive Philadelphia mayor's race that year.
Republicans: Castille, Eakin, Saylor, Newman
Democrats: Baer, Cappy, Nigro
2005
Only a retention election this year, but an important one. This marks the only time in PA history that a justice has lost retention, as voters registered their anger over the legislature voting itself a pay raise (and giving the judges one as well) by ousting Russell Nigro. Sandra Schultz Newman narrowly survived, and retired of her own accord a few months later. In 2008, she attracted attention for endorsing the idea that Obama would lead to a second Holocaust. www.cbsnews.com/...
The legislature repealed the pay raise shortly after Nigro's defeat, but it was too late for a lot of them. In 2006, a total of 55 legislators (of 253 total) either retired or were defeated for reelection. In many cases, that was a well-deserved fate. And that's unheard-of turnover for a single election. (To give you an idea of how things were going, the House speaker then was John Perzel, while the minority whip was Mike Veon. Both of them wound up in jail for corruption.)
A final coda came when the state Supreme Court accepted most of the repeal of the pay raise, but kept in place the raise for judges. Only one justice, Republican Thomas Saylor, ruled that the whole thing should be stricken.
Republicans: Castille, Eakin, Saylor
Democrats: Baer, Cappy
2007
2 Supreme Court, 3 Superior Court seats. Democrats performed decently, winning 3/5 seats, including both Supreme Court seats, which Debra Todd and Seamus McCaffery won with relative ease. For Superior Court, Democrat Christine Donohue received the most overall votes to win, but the other two seats went to Republicans Jackie Shogan and Cheryl Allen. Donohue massively outperformed her two Democratic ticket mates in the Scranton/Lehigh area and in central PA, which made the difference. She did far better as well in the Philly suburbs, where she finished first in two counties but her ticket-mates finished out of the money in all four.
Of note: 3 women defeated 3 men in the Superior Court race. Also, Cheryl Allen is something of a political oddball. She was a Democrat most of her life, even running for Supreme Court as a Democrat in 2003--when she lost the primary to Max Baer. After that, she and Baer became mortal enemies. She often feuded with Democratic Party leaders, and felt they treated her unfairly (she may have had a point). She switched parties in 2005, saying she did so because Democrats were becoming too secular and too intolerant of anti-abortion views. Once suspects political opportunism played a role, too. If this questionnaire is any indication, Allen eventually went completely over to the dark side: afaofpa.org/...
I could only find one Democrat, Robert Colville, who replied, and he essentially said nothing: afaofpa.org/...
Republicans: Castille, Eakin, Saylor
Democrats: Baer, Cappy, Todd, McCaffery
2009
1 Supreme, 4 Superior, 2 Commonwealth Court seats. The Democrats' majority, sadly, was short-lived, as Ralph Cappy decided to retire, a few years before he would have had to. Cappy died of a heart attack a few months after he retired, unfortunately. His seat went to the arch-conservative Superior Court Judge Joan Orie Melvin, who defeated Jack Panella. Overall, this was another Democratic debacle, as the GOP won 6/7 seats. Both seats on Commonwealth Court went to Republicans, including religious/tea party fanatic Patricia McCullough. Only an overperformance in Montgomery County, largest of the Philly suburbs, by Democrat Anne Lazarus prevented this from being a clean sweep for the GOP. While Judy Olson, Sallie Mundy, and Paula Ott got the most votes statewide, Anne Lazarus narrowly came in fourth, edging out two other Democrats and a Republican to capture the last seat on Superior Court. The biggest reason was Montgomery County, where Lazarus came in first but Republicans took the 2-4 slots.
A good part of the reason for this disaster was the collapse of Democratic turnout, which owes a lot to the fact that at that time, Obama was being bipartisan and selling out to Republicans on health care, had already done so on economic stimulus and Wall Street reform, was making noises about cutting Social Security benefits and implementing austerity, and hadn't lifted a finger to pass climate change legislation. This was one of the rare third-party votes I cast. Marakay Rogers, running on the Libertarian line and backed by the Green Party too (she'd previously run on their line, but this time Libertarian, probably for ballot access reasons), on the Superior Court ballot, and I voted for her. (I also voted for Jack Panella and Anne Lazarus.)
One thing that still sticks in my craw from this race is how effective the GOP and political/media establishment were at convincing people that Jack Panella's contributions from labor would make him biased, but Joan Orie Melvin's contributions from business would not bias her.
Republicans: Castille, Eakin, Saylor, Orie Melvin
Democrats: Baer, Todd, McCaffery
2011
1 Superior, 1 Commonwealth Court. These seats split, as Democratic turnout, especially in Philadelphia, crept back up. David Wecht defeated Vic Stabile for Superior Court by 9, but Anne Covey defeated Kathy Boockvar for Commonwealth Court by 4. Boockvar performed okay in southwestern PA, but Wecht absolutely dominated in the region, which made a big difference. Boockvar lost in central PA by 30, while Wecht kept his loss to 19 points. Philly and suburbs were the only region where Wecht did not outperform Boockvar by a significant margin.
2013
1 Superior Court seat. Vic Stabile came back for another shot, and this time won, defeating Jack McVay by 3%, or about 40,000 votes. If Philly had turned out at 2011 levels, McVay would have made up 30,000 of those votes right there. Had Philly turned out at 2015 levels (see below), McVay would have won.
2015
3 Supreme Court, 1 Superior Court, 1 Commonwealth Court seat. Joan Orie Melvin (public corruption) and Seamus McCaffery (pornographic emails) resigned in disgrace, while Ronald Castille aged out. Thus, 3 Supreme Court seats opened up simultaneously, for the first time since 1704. That alone meant this race would attract a lot of attention. And that's before you factor in that the state Supreme Court appoints the tiebreaking member of the redistricting commission. 12 candidates, 6 per party, sought the 3 nominations, and the race shattered all spending records for a judicial race. Democrats did great, winning every seat open. Wecht, Donohue, and Philadelphia trial Judge Kevin Dougherty won the Supreme Court seats, while another Philly trial judge, Alice Beck Dubow, captured the Superior Court seat. Pittsburgh attorney Michael Wojcik got elected to Commonwealth Court by just under 6 points, the closest race of the lot.
Multiple factors worked in Democrats' favor. An open-seat, albeit uncompetitive, race for Philly mayor drove turnout in the city, which essentially matched the 2007 turnout, second-highest turnout on the list besides 2003. Democrats had the edge in money, as Republican donors inexplicably dropped the ball, while unions and trial lawyers put a lot of money into the Democratic campaigns. Democratic officials also conveyed the stakes of the race better than the GOP. At the confluence of money and Philly was Dougherty, brother of one of the city's most powerful labor leaders and a key player in the Democratic political machine there, namely John Dougherty. That guaranteed that Kevin Dougherty would have a lot of money while also having enthusiastic backing from the Philadelphia Democratic machine, a necessary ingredient for a Democratic statewide victory in PA.
Furthermore, Wecht and Donohue had a lot of crossover appeal. Wecht is a very well-known and popular name in PA, especially in the southwest, where people sometimes still vote for Democrats. Wecht is one such Democrat, as he again cleaned up in SW PA. (David Wecht is the son of Cyril Wecht.) Donohue, meanwhile, is the daughter of a coal miner and factory seamstress, a blue-collar background very appealing in this coal-producing, white blue-collar state. Both of them received the highest rating from the state bar association--Highly Recommended. Only one of the Republicans got that rating, and in fact one Republican, Anne Covey, got slapped with a Not Recommended rating, over the sleazy, dishonest campaign she ran for Commonwealth Court in 2011. (And what's the lesson? Covey won that 2011 race, so as always, sleazy and dishonest campaigns very frequently succeed.) Dougherty, btw, got a rating of Recommended. And lastly, the race featured a bunch of attack ads by both parties--but I never saw even one that went after Wecht or Donohue. There were a couple that said the Democratic ticket is a tool of labor unions and trial lawyers, but that was it. That's how good those two are.
Also of note--Wojcik's Commonwealth Court win was the first by a Democrat in 20 years. A Democrat won a Commonwealth Court seat in 1995, and then Republicans went on a tear, winning *seven* elections in a row--one in 1997, three in 2001, two in 2009, and one in 2011. Wojcik finally broke that string, and let's hope a new one doesn't start this year. He is, as of now, the only Democrat on Commonwealth Court.
Republicans: Saylor, Eakin
Democrats: Baer, Todd, Wecht, Donohue, Dougherty
The Democratic path to victory
Like most Democrats, judicial candidates must get solid turnout in Philadelphia as well as avoid getting totally crushed in central PA--note the difference in the two 2011 races. Boockvar lost in central PA by 30 en route to losing statewide by 4. Wecht lost central PA by about 20 en route to winning statewide by 9.
What follows is the highest vote total from Philadelphia for all these statewide judicial races, year by year:
2001: 133,498 (Kate Ford Elliott for Supreme Court, lost by 5)
2003: 306,932 (Seamus McCaffery for Superior Court, won a 6-candidate race with the most votes. Max Baer got 302,687, won by 4).
2005: 55,666 (Yes votes to retain Sandra Schultz Newman, who was retained 54-46).
2007: 205,122 (Seamus McCaffery for Supreme Court, was leading vote-getter statewide in a 4-way race; 2 Dems got 56% combined).
2009: 95,707 (Jack Panella for Supreme Court, lost by 6).
2011: 134,753 (David Wecht for Superior Court, won by 9. Kathy Boockvar got 128,374 en route to losing by 4.).
2013: 85,549 (Jack McVay for Superior Court, lost by 3).
2015: 202,489 (Kevin Dougherty for Supreme Court, leading vote-getter statewide in 6-way race, Democratic sweep--Dems combined for 55% statewide).
In five of these cycles, Democrats got more raw votes from Allegheny County (Pittsburgh and its suburbs) than from Philadelphia, despite the latter being much larger and having many more registered Democrats. Contrast 2003, 2007, 2015 with 2001, 2009, 2013--Democrats took 11 of 14 seats in the former years, and came within 28 votes of a 12th. Democrats only got 1 of 15 in the latter years, coming within a couple thousand votes of losing all of them. In 2005, it's worth noting that the Democratic judge was defeated while the Republican judge was retained. Look at that horrible turnout in Philly. And in 2011, Wecht and Boockvar performed respectably, but Wecht's victory owes more to his performance elsewhere. He so thoroughly dominated western PA that even without *any* votes in Philadelphia, he would still have won. Boockvar could not come anywhere close to matching Wecht.
So here's where the judicial path to victory starts to differ from the legislative or executive one. Philadelphia is very flaky, and often only shows up in special circumstances--a competitive mayor's race (2003) or an open seat (2007, 2015). We need to find votes elsewhere too. Also, the regions of PA have been voting in judicial races the way they have voted historically and the way they still often do vote in local races. That means that although the Philly suburbs typically vote Democratic for president or senator or governor (Tom Wolf won all four suburban counties in 2014, e.g.), they still typically vote Republican for judge. Conversely, blue-collar southwestern PA typically still votes Democratic for judge. Consider: only 6 counties in PA have voted Democratic in every judicial race listed. Four are in the southwest--Allegheny, Greene, Fayette, Cambria (Johnstown). The other two are Philadelphia and Lackawanna (Scranton). Additionally, counties such as Beaver and Washington have gone GOP only once, for Joan Orie Melvin in 2009 (she's from a very prominent and then-popular western PA Republican family).
On the other side of the state, Montgomery County has backed a Democrat in the majority of these races--but only by narrow margins until 2015. Chester County has voted Republican in every race--but the Democratic Supreme Court ticket pulled within 0.06% of the GOP ticket in 2015. That's the closest result, by far, of all these races. Seamus McCaffery, a Philadelphia judge, finished second in the county in 2007, but no other Democrat has gone anywhere. Delaware County has voted Democratic in only one race--the 2015 Supreme Court ticket combined for 52% of the vote in Delaware County, but it voted Republican in the other two races that year, and voted Republican in every judicial race from 2001-2013. McCaffery, again, was the only Democrat to gain much traction in that time. Finally, Bucks County voted Democratic by a very narrow margin in all three 2015 races, and prior to that voted Republican in all races but the 2007 Supreme Court race--again due to the overperformance of McCaffery. Also in 2007, Christine Donohue got the most raw votes out of Bucks County, despite the Republican ticket outpolling the Democratic one for Superior Court.
Thus, to win a judicial race, Democrats still need to prevail in western PA; we can't rely on the Philly suburbs, although 2015 does offer hopeful signs. Even so, Democrats won western PA in 2015 as well.
2017
The makeup of the courts, not counting the appointed judges, is currently:
Supreme Court, 5-1 Democratic. 1 open seat
Superior Court, 7-4 Republican. 4 open seats
Commonwealth Court, 6-1 Republican. 2 open seats.
So we now come to the elections this year. The pornographic email scandal did not stop with Seamus McCaffery, as Michael Eakin was found to have sent similarly offensive emails. Like McCaffery, Eakin resigned, and it is his old seat being filled in this election. Tom Wolf, in yet another Democratic bipartisan "compromise," appointed a Republican as an interim justice, namely Sallie Mundy, elected to Superior Court in 2009 as mentioned above. Mundy was halfway acceptable to Democrats because she had ruled in favor of plaintiffs a number of times on Superior Court--much more than could be expected from a Republican judge. Some conservatives want Judy Olson, an extreme conservative on Superior Court, to run this year, but that may or may not happen. Olson ran in 2015, winning one of the three GOP nominations, but obviously the Democrats won the general election.
That won't be the only judicial election this year. Four seats on Superior Court are open--Wecht, Donohue, Mundy moved up to Supreme Court, and Allen retired, having made unsuccessful bids for Supreme Court in 2009 and 2015. And due to two retirements, two Commonwealth Court seats are open too.
All indications are that Republicans should be favored to win the majority of these seats, perhaps even all 7. Philadelphia turnout, we have discussed, and it's likely to be low with no mayor's race this year. Plus, Allegheny County doesn't have notable races to bring people out--only a countywide race for sheriff (where the incumbent Dem will be unopposed) and the mayor of Pittsburgh, where any action will be in the Democratic primary. Allegheny County tends to have a less pronounced turnout dropoff than Philadelphia anyway. And Montgomery County, the state's 3rd-largest county, elected all its row officers in 2015, so there won't be many races to bring people out there either.
Furthermore, in 2015 people had some sense of urgency with the election of 3 justices and the right to oversee redistricting. Democrats are likely to be complacent, figuring that 5-2 or 6-1 is still a majority, plus factor in fatigue and despair from 2016. Democratic turnout always suffers more in off years than Republican turnout--and of course, those deplorables are newly energized with the "election" of their fascist leader. (I'm not a politician; I can call them what they are.) Though I should note--Wecht and Dougherty will serve until 2037, and Todd until 2032 (assuming they win retention). If Democrats win one more seat, we can secure a majority to control redistricting for not one, but two cycles (2020 and 2030).
And please, spare me the bits about how we'll get out the vote like never before, or that people will finally see Republicans for the monsters they are. We've been saying that over and over for years. It has the feel of waiting for Godot.
With the right candidates, we could possibly capture some seats, so the PA state courts will be stocked with defenders of democracy as opposed to Trump-supporting fascists like the ones who will run on the GOP side. But remember--we run campaigns with the electorate we have, not the one we wish we had. We do need to GOTV, but we also need to recognize the limits of what that can accomplish. It doesn't cure problems with enthusiasm, weak candidates, and it's also not enough to change the fact that Democratic turnout is likely to drop more than Republican turnout. Because we can’t reach everyone and we can’t force them to vote when they don’t want to. We are fighting an uphill battle and we need candidates who are up to the task.
So, without further ado, let's meet the candidates!
For Supreme Court: Our candidate will be Dwayne Woodruff, currently a trial judge in Pittsburgh. Woodruff ran for the state Supreme Court in 2015 as well, but did not win a nomination, finishing fifth in the field of six candidates. Woodruff proved the weakest fundraiser, and ran well in the Pittsburgh region but nowhere else. Now, Woodruff is back for another shot, and no other Democrats have announced, so he will probably win the nomination unopposed.
Woodruff will be the underdog against Sallie Mundy (or Judy Olson), but he has some factors working in his favor, too. For one, he's based in Pittsburgh, and in recent times, a disproportionate number of statewide judges have come from Pittsburgh. (Mundy is from north-central PA, and Olson is also from Pittsburgh.) For another, he used to play football for the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers, giving a boost to his name recognition and popularity in southwestern PA. Steeler football is practically a religion in the region, one of the handful of bright spots to a run-down area whose best days are past (though in fairness, Pittsburgh is doing better than other Rust Belt towns.) While that did not help Lynn Swann in his ill-fated run for governor, these circumstances are different. Judicial races do not work the same way as gubernatorial races, plus Swann ran an inept campaign in a Democratic wave year. Woodruff is undoubtedly more competent than Swann. And if his ties to the black community slightly boost turnout there--well, every little bit helps in a low turnout race.
Woodruff is particularly interested in juvenile justice, specializing in that as both a lawyer and a judge, where he has heard family cases exclusively. I have to give props to anyone who can do that and still maintain a commitment to justice and decency, considering the amount of heartbreak, neglect, abuse, despair family court judges see every day. www.youtube.com/…
That clip is from Angels in the Outfield (1994)—Roger, who is in foster care, realizes he will never be reunited with his father, and cries as his foster mom tries to console him. (He's played by a 12- or 13-year-old Joseph Gordon-Levitt, of all people.) If you are a family court judge, you deal with these kinds of situations daily. I respect people who can do that job, and do it well.
Woodruff has also been heavily involved in charitable work, such as Do the Write Thing, described here: www.dtwt.org/…
The primary initiative of the NCSV is the "Do the Write Thing Challenge" Program ("Challenge"). The "Challenge" gives middle school students an opportunity to examine the impact of violence on their lives in classroom discussions and in written form by communicating what they have seen to be the causes of youth violence as well as solutions to help decrease the violence in their communities. By encouraging students to make personal commitments to do something about the problem, the program ultimately seeks to empower them to reduce violence in their homes, schools and neighborhoods.
Finally, Woodruff made the following astute observation about the role of the judiciary: twitter.com/... He appears to understand the crisis democracy faces, and would add needed diversity to a Court that has only once had a racial minority elected to it. Let's resist Trump and elect Dwayne Woodruff!
For Superior Court: There are several Democrats competing. Here they are:
Carolyn Nichols, Philadelphia trial judge. Recommended by the bar. She is a black woman, and helped file a lawsuit against a swimming pool that refused to allow minority children in. That in itself makes me think well of her. She, like Woodruff, retweeted Obama's warning that "democracy is threatened when we take it for granted." She appears to have been heavily involved with the black community, judging by her prior work, and this article: www.phillytrib.com/... I'm sure there are PA Kossacks who know more, but it seems like Carolyn Nichols would be a terrific addition to Superior Court. If she could get elected.
Geoff Moulton: Interim judge appointed by Wolf. Highly Recommended by the bar, which could improve his chances. Clerked for federal Judge Wilfred Feinberg, a liberal on the 2nd Circuit (New York) and then for the very conservative William Rehnquist. He credits Rehnquist with teaching him a lot, though he didn't always agree with Rehnquist (suggesting Moulton is a liberal). He was a prosecutor under now-GOP congressman Pat Meehan, and was also counsel to Ted Kaufman, former senator who bridged the gap from Joe Biden to Chris Coons. His background suggests he's competent and effective, though nothing I've seen suggests liberal firebrand. www.montgomerynews.com/... Worth considering.
Deborah Kunselman: Beaver County trial judge. That's a blue-collar county about an hour outside Pittsburgh. Highly Recommended by the bar. I did find a website dedicated to bashing her (www.crueljudge.com) but am not sure how substantial any of it is. Here's article about the guy behind it: beavercountian.com/... I did see she's the first woman to serve as judge in Beaver County. I can't find much else about her, but her PA bar questionnaire mentions that before she became a judge, she represented injured people and people mistreated on the job (as well as being a county solicitor). I like that. And given geography--she's the only viable Democrat from western PA--and her high bar rating, good chance she's worth putting on the ticket.
Lillian Harris Ransom: Interim judge appointed by Wolf. Highly Recommended by the bar. Like Nichols, she is a black woman. She was previously a Philadelphia trial judge before Wolf appointed her to the Superior Court. She tried criminal and juvenile cases. In private practice, she worked in bankruptcy, wills and estates, and criminal defense (from her PA bar questionnaire). Can anyone add more? I can find very little.
Bill Caye : Prosecutor and private practice, never served as a judge. Ran for trial judge in Pittsburgh two years ago, finishing fifth in a field of 8 (the top three were nominated), despite the party endorsing him over several better-qualified candidates. He is quite establishment; his endorsements read like a who's who of the Democratic establishment in Pittsburgh. He says on his site he's dedicated to keeping families safe, which I find off-putting given how often the GOP uses that phrase for power grabs. The real thing, though, is he got slapped with a Not Recommended rating by the PA bar. I do not advise a vote for Bill Caye.
Maria McLaughlin: Philadelphia trial judge, Recommended by the bar. Endorsed by Lt. Gov. Mike Stack and Auditor Eugene DePasquale, as well as Ed Rendell and Congressman Bob Brady, prime mover in the Philadelphia machine. Like Woodruff, involved with Do the Write Thing. She attended the holiday party hosted by the publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News, though I'm not sure how much we can read into that in terms of her support for LGBT rights. On the whole, appears to be a capable judge and definitely worthy of consideration.
Albert Flora: Public defender in Luzerne County (Wilkes-Barre, blue-collar area) for decades, which would give him a valuable perspective as a judge. Recommended by the bar. Defended some high-profile clients, such as the crooked judges in the "kids for cash" scandal. Was fired recently and he sued. citizensvoice.com/…
www.law360.com/…
On the whole, I'm not sure who the best candidates are yet. Apart from the case I made for Kunselman, there's a good case for nominating at least one of the black women--we need diversity on the bench especially now, they have good records, and the GOP is probably going to nominate an ultra-conservative black woman for this court. We need diversity, and we need someone who won’t turn her back on her community! And, probably we should nominate multiple Highly Recommended candidates as well.
For Commonwealth Court, we have seven candidates for two slots. They are:
Joe Cosgrove, interim judge appointed by Wolf. Highly Recommended by the bar. A staunch opponent of the the death penalty, Cosgrove once got Mother Teresa to testify in a sentencing hearing for his client. Yes, seriously. He has also taught constitutional law, and appears to be what I'll call a Pope Francis Catholic--the Jesuit, social justice-oriented version, not the type that who tries to subjugate women and LGBT citizens. He's also a friend of Martin Sheen, who endorsed him--while in character as Josiah Bartlet from West Wing.
timesleader.com/…
Ellen Ceisler, Philadelphia trial judge, Recommended by the bar. I found a site that suggested she could not be fair in the trial of Catholic priests due to her backing from LGBT and women's groups. That makes me think even more of her. www.themediareport.com/... On her website, she mentions she has been involved with the Anti-Defamation League (somehow this seems very relevant now) and New Leash on Life, dedicated to saving dogs from being euthanized and to providing prison inmates a shot to reintegrate into society. She seems very good.
Todd Eagen, Scranton labor lawyer, Recommended by the bar. He ran two years ago, but lost the primary to Michael Wojcik. He's now back for another shot. His Twitter feed suggests he's been heavily involved in Democratic politics. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Eagen told them: he would “apply the law honestly and as evenhandedly as possible, but I’m going to be looking out for working families.” He said that “government’s there to help the little guy” and that “corporations don’t need that help.”
They cited that as reason *not* to endorse him, but Eagen was absolutely right. And also, Republicans can declare who they're looking out for, and no one raises a peep.
Bryan Barbin, state representative from Johnstown, Recommended by the bar. Although his working-class support could help him, two things make me hesitate before backing him--he's an anti-abortion Blue Dog (so probably close to being a Republican) and electing him would almost certainly hand his House seat to the GOP, which is already perilously close to having the 2/3 vote needed to override Tom Wolf's vetoes.
Irene M. Clark, former Pittsburgh magistrate, currently in private practice, Not Recommended by the bar due to insufficient relevant experience. Given that we already have several solid candidates and only two seats available, I think we should probably skip nominating Irene Clark.
James Crumlish III, attorney in Montgomery County, Highly Recommended. His PA bar questionnaire indicates he's primarily a corporate lawyer. That's all I can find about him, other than his father, James Jr., served on Commonwealth Court too.
Timothy Barry, Allegheny County attorney, Recommended by the bar. Has many municipal clients, focuses on employment/benefit law. Is a labor arbitrator. Like Crumlish, I can find little about him outside of his PA bar questionnaire.
Initial impressions are that Cosgrove looks great with his background and high bar rating, Crumlish might have an edge with his Philly-area base and high rating, and it's hard to say no to Ceisler or Eagen.
The Democratic state committee meets this weekend (i.e. today) to make their endorsements. I do not, however, put much (read: any) stock in their judgement. But if any knowledgeable PA Kossacks have information about these candidates, or thoughts on whom you will back, please share it!
I will stick around to read and answer comments on this diary, which I will probably re-post in some form closer to the May primary. I wanted to make people aware of these races, which provide a concrete opportunity to #Resist, and I am interested in other progressives' takes on these candidates. Writing this was very trying, however, and I've got to look after my own mental health before I can contribute anything useful, so aside from this diary, my silence on this site will have to continue. Those who remain more involved, more power to you! And if you don't want to wait until 2018, let's work to elect Wisniewski, Perriello, and a Democratic slate of pro-democracy judges in PA.
EDIT: An earlier version of this diary said Dwayne Woodruff would be the first racial minority elected to PA Supreme Court, should he win. He would actually be the second. Robert Nix, elected in the early 1970s, was the first.
Also, I referred to Irene M. Clark as a Pittsburgh magistrate. She is a former magistrate, not a current one.