There is much rejoicing nationwide with regard to the election returns in Virginia, and with good reason. The easy statewide victories of Ralph Northam for Governor, Justin Fairfax for Lieutenant Governor, and Mark Herring for Attorney General came as something of a surprise, given recent polls, and the 15 (and possibly more) red-to-blue flips that occurred in the House of Delegates was something nobody expected in their wildest dreams. Democratic victories were not limited to Virginia, as elections in New Jersey, New Hampshire, Florida, North Carolina, Michigan, Washington, and even Montana brought good news.
While all of this was going on, there was also an election in Pennsylvania, where I live. There were 7 seats in appeals courts that had to be filled, as well as a few retention votes for judges who are already on these courts. Finally, Erie County, PA, holds its local elections in these odd-numbered years, so we voted for County Executive, County Council, Township offices and so on. The story here is overall positive, but not the great exultation that occurred in Virginia. There were some poignant losses along with some important wins. Make the jump for the details.
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The Pennsylvania appeals court system is a bit complicated, so I’m not going to describe it in any detail, except to say there are two parallel lower appeals courts with separate jurisdictions, the Superior Court and the Commonwealth Court, from which cases can then be appealed to the Supreme Court. Judges must run in statewide elections to obtain seats on these courts. There was one vacant seat on the Supreme Court, four on the Superior Court, and two on the Commonwealth Court. Kossack deadpan has written several diaries (e. g. this one) on the topic of the appeals courts and the candidates running for them, and if you want to learn more about the PA state court system, I recommend you read them.
The Democrats fielded a candidate for each seat. Along with Debra Todd, who is already on the Supreme Court and was on the ballot for retention to the court, there were eight candidates (the “Slate of Eight”). Unfortunately, for each court, one of the Democrats lost. The candidate for the one vacant seat on the Supreme Court was Dwayne Woodruff, a former player for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Unfortunately, he lost his bid. His early lead provided by votes from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh was swamped by votes from the later-reporting rural areas. I was surprised that he lost in rural western Pennsylvania because of how loyal people in this area are to the Steelers. He even lost Erie County, which surprised me. One has to wonder if the fact that he’s black has something to do with his loss.
For Superior Court, the Democratic candidates were Maria McLaughlin, Carolyn Nichols, Debbie Kunselman, and Geoff Moulton. The loser in this group was Moulton; the Republican who took the fourth seat on the court was Mary P. Murray. I found it interesting that of all the candidates, Moulton probably had the strongest resume, and Murray the weakest, but that’s how an election goes sometimes.
For Commonwealth Court, the Democrats were Ellen Ceisler and Irene Clark. Clark lost her bid, and the second seat was won by Republican Christine Fizzano Cannon.
So we won four of the seven open seats (McLaughlin, Nichols, Kunselman, and Ceisler) and Debra Todd was retained, as expected, but losing the open Supreme Court seat was very disappointing. If Woodruff had won it, the Democrats would have had a 6-1 majority on that court, but I suppose the 5-2 majority they have is good enough to strike down a new Republican gerrymander if it comes to them in the coming years. A couple more observations: Carolyn Nichols is the first woman of color ever elected to an appeals court in Pennsylvania, so that’s a good thing. Also, all of the newly elected judges, Democrats and Republicans, are women. I suppose maybe we’re on our way to making up for the couple centuries during which the winning judge candidates were all men.
Getting closer to home, let’s turn to the election results for Erie County. The county was made famous by the New York Times for flipping from blue to red for the first time in decades in 2016. Republicans were determined to prove that last year’s election was not a fluke, so they spent money on the Republican candidates running for Erie City Mayor and Erie County Executive. Democrats fought back hard. I even got a robocall from Senator Bob Casey urging me to vote for Kathy Dahlkemper for County Executive. Fortunately, Joe Schember, the Democratic candidate for Erie Mayor, won fairly handily (53.3-46.6). This was in serious doubt given that his opponent ran a surprisingly strong race, and Schember himself is a lackluster campaigner. Incumbent Kathy Dahlkemper manage to pull out a razor-thin lead in the County Executive race. She ended last night ahead of her opponent, Republican Art Oligeri, by 145 votes. Fortunately, the absentee votes broke in her favor, and now she leads by 307 votes. Oligeri has not yet conceded, but I have confidence that he will soon, once the vote is certified. This is the one county-wide elective office on the ballot this year, and the Democrats just managed to beat off a Republican takeover. Sorry (not sorry) GOP, but you won’t turn Erie County red this year.
Now to the comments!
Top Comments (November 8, 2017):
From Railfan:
angry marmot scores early and bigly in Crashing Vor's He "Spoke with his Accountant" with this pithy reply.
(And if Railfan hadn’t nominated it, I would have.)
From Crashing Vor:
ThePhlebob produces the stuff top comments are made of. From CV’s recommends post He “Spoke with His Accountant.”
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