Pennsylvania voters were awarding a hotly contested open seat Tuesday on the state Supreme Court and filling a half-dozen vacancies on the Superior and Commonwealth courts.
The showdown between Republican Joan Orie Melvin and Democrat Jack Panella for the state's highest court followed a campaign that generated more than $3 million in contributions, largely from trial lawyers and organized labor, and was notable for dueling attack ads on TV and the Internet.
Both candidates are sitting judges on the Superior Court _ Panella in Bethlehem and Melvin in Pittsburgh.
Nine judges and lawyers were competing for four open seats on the Superior Court, which handles most appeals from criminal and civil cases in county courts.
The Democratic candidates were Philadelphia County judges Anne Lazarus and Teresa Sarmina, Allegheny County Judge Robert Colville and Allegheny County prosecutor Kevin McCarthy. The Republican slate included Allegheny County Judge Judy Olson, Chester County Judge Paula Ott, Tioga County lawyer Sallie Mundy and Pittsburgh lawyer Temp Smith. York lawyer Marakay Rogers was the Libertarian Party's nominee.
For Commonwealth Court, which hears lawsuits filed against state agencies and appeals of decisions by most state agencies, four candidates were vying for two openings.
The candidates were Barbara Behrend Ernsberger and Linda Judson, both Pittsburgh lawyers, and Republicans Kevin Brobson, a Harrisburg lawyer, and Patricia McCullough, a Pittsburgh lawyer.
Supreme Court justices currently receive an annual salary of $186,450, and judges on the Superior and Commonwealth courts get $175,923. The presiding judges are paid slightly more.
All of the judges serve 10-year terms. Once elected to their first term, they stand every 10 years _ without any opposition _ for a yes-no "retention" vote on whether they should serve another term.
In Luzerne County, one of many electing new judges Tuesday, three candidates were running for two open seats on the county bench: William Amesbury, a Wilkes-Barre district judge who won both the Republican and Democratic nominations, and Democrat Tina Polachek Gartley and Republican Richard Hughes, both lawyers.
All three candidates pledged to help restore public trust in the wake of a scandal involving two former Luzerne judges charged with accepting millions of dollars in kickbacks for sentencing juvenile offenders to private detention centers.
November 03, 2009