A flood seeks Pa. top court seats

HARRISBURG - An unprecedented number of vacancies on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has touched off a stampede of candidates for hotly contested races that will determine party control of the high court.

A recent count shows at least 16 prospects lining up for the May primary, all vying for three seats left open by retirement and scandal-tainted departures. Not since the court was created in the early 18th century have there been as many vacancies on the seven-member bench at one time.

Observers say the number of openings and the state's relaxed campaign finance laws will all but certainly lead to record levels of spending on judicial races - and open the floodgates to outside money.

"It should be a free-for-all in the fall," said Democratic strategist Mike Mikus, who is advising the Supreme Court campaign of Allegheny County Court Judge Dwayne Woodruff, a former defensive back for the Pittsburgh Steelers. "I see no way that national interest groups on both sides will sit it out. They are going to come in and spend a bunch of money."

The vacancies stem from seats held by Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, who stepped down at the start of the year after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70; Justice Joan Orie Melvin, who resigned after her conviction on political corruption charges; and Justice Seamus McCaffery, who retired following his suspension last fall in connection with the pornographic e-mail scandal.

The departures leave the court with five members - split 3-2 Republican - at the start of its 2015 session. Correale Stevens was named an interim justice by Gov. Corbett to fill Orie's seat.

It is unclear if Gov.-elect Tom Wolf will name interim judges who would serve through November.

The list of possible candidates includes six Democrats and 10 Republicans.

Stevens, breaking with tradition that holds that interim appointees do not seek election, is among the announced candidates. Together, they are a diverse group that includes five Superior Court judges, among them Democrats David Wecht, son of Pittsburgh forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht, and Philadelphian Anne Lazarus.

Also running are Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer, wife of former Senate President Robert Jubelirer, as well as Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Kevin Dougherty, whose older brother John is the leader of Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Ethics codes bar judicial candidates from making campaign promises or commenting about issues that could come before them - one reason Pennsylvania races for the bench are traditionally low-profile.

But the justices can affect millions of citizens. In recent years, for instance, the high court has been asked to decide when and where natural-gas companies can drill, how the state spends $200 million in tobacco settlement money, and whether voters should show ID at the polls.

And with the shake-up on the court connected to various scandals, ethics is likely to play a central role in this campaign.

"I'm running for one reason: because ethics matter this year," said Lazarus, who was among a number of high-court candidates working the halls of the Waldorf-Astoria at last month's Pennsylvania Society gathering in New York City.

"It's critically important for the public to have confidence in the judicial process," said Cohn Jubelirer.

Analysts say it is possible that groups with interests in issues likely to come before the justices, whether labor or business-oriented, will spend to try to ensure an ideological mix they consider favorable.

With control of the court at stake, candidates are jockeying for endorsements at winter meetings of the Republican and Democratic Parties.

The Republican State Committee's judicial endorsement panel hosted 11 Supreme Court candidates last month ahead of its endorsement vote Jan. 30.

"There is a lot of interest in these three Supreme Court seats," said Chairman Rob Gleason. "It's very important to Pennsylvania and to our party. January will be consumed with the selection."

Supreme Court justices are paid $200,205 a year and are elected to 10-year terms.

Party affiliation is not always a predictor of which way the court will come down, said Lynn Marks, executive director of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts.

"Whatever happens will have an impact on the political balance of the court," said Marks, whose group advocates for merit selection of judges instead of elections. "A lot of people like to talk about political balance, but you often can't predict how justices will vote - only look as far as Chief Justice Castille. Even though he's a Republican, he ruled against them in several big cases."

State Supreme Court elections across the country are getting more expensive, and outside interests and political committees have contributed an increasing share of the cost.

Senior state Democrats are already talking in general terms about the possibility of forming an independent-expenditure committee or super PAC to augment spending by the party's eventual nominees in the Supreme Court race.

One influential national group with ties to Charles and David Koch - the billionaire brothers who have become among the nation's most prominent and active conservative donors - has already entered Pennsylvania politics.

American Future Fund PAC announced this year it was launching a statewide multimedia campaign to pressure the Republican-controlled legislature into acting on liquor privatization, pension reform, and a "paycheck protection" law that would require unions to get written permission from members before using dues money for political purposes.

Those priorities stalled in the legislature last year. Nick Ryan, chairman of the PAC, did not respond to requests for comment.

American Future Fund is organized under Section 501(c)4 of the federal tax code, meaning it does not have to disclose the identity of donors and can accept unlimited funds. It spent $25 million nationwide in the 2012 elections, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, receiving more than 90 percent of its treasury from the Kochs.

National TV spending on Supreme Court races was $13.8 million last year, up from $12.2 million in the previous midterm elections, according to an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, a nonpartisan group that tracks judicial campaign spending.

Outside groups were responsible for about $4.9 million of the TV ad buys in 2014 Supreme Court races - a 51 percent increase over 2010.

The two biggest spenders: the Republican State Leadership Committee, a Washington-based group that usually gets involved in state legislative and row-office elections, and the Koch-affiliated Americans for Progress.

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