Voters Give Democrats Control Of Pennsylvania Supreme Court
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Democrats on Tuesday won all three open seats on Pennsylvania's Supreme Court, securing a majority on the high court for at least a decade, after a campaign that drew a record $11.5 million in contributions.
The winners were Philadelphia Judge Kevin Dougherty and Superior Court judges David Wecht and Christine Donohue of Allegheny County.
It was the first time three seats were open in an election for the seven-member court.
When the new justices take their oaths in January, they will round out a 5-2 Democratic majority.
Democrats also Tuesday won two other appellate court races - seats on the Commonwealth Court and on the Superior Court.
Justice Debra Todd, a Democrat now on the Supreme Court, is all but guaranteed a second 10-year term in 2017, when she'll stand unopposed in a yes-or-no vote on whether to retain her through 2027. That would give the Democrats an opportunity to shape the legislative redistricting following the 2020 census.
Republicans have controlled the court for six years and have a 3-2 advantage with an interim justice filling one open seat until a new justice is seated in January.
But organized labor and Philadelphia trial lawyers helped the Democrats raise three times as much money as the Republicans in this year's election.
Democrats also won two other appellate court races.
Philadelphia Judge Alice Beck Dubow claimed a seat on the Superior Court. Pittsburgh lawyer Michael Wojcik won a spot on the Commonwealth Court.
On the high court, two seats opened because of the resignations of disgraced former justices: in 2013, a Republican convicted of using her taxpayer-paid staff to do political work and, in 2014, a Democrat implicated in a pornographic emails scandal. The other seat became open when former Chief Justice Ronald Castille was forced to step down last year after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70.
The turmoil on the high court has not let up. Republican Justice J. Michael Eakin is also the subject of an inquiry by the state Judicial Conduct Board. He was found to have been involved in the exchange of emails deemed offensive. He apologized for "insensitive" personal emails but said they didn't reflect his character or affect court business.
At a polling station in the Harrisburg suburb of Susquehanna Township, most voters interviewed indicated they did not know much about the candidates.
Earl Sweigard, 81, said he was motived by his views on gun control and taxes to vote the straight party line ticket for Republicans.
Democrats including Jeff McGaw, 53, said they voted the straight party ticket for Democrats because of their disgust at the GOP's increasingly conservative tone.
Many voters also said they were uncomfortable with the increasingly large political donations going into the campaign treasuries of the judicial candidates.
Supreme Court justices are elected to 10-year terms. After that, they face retention votes.
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