The left-leaning Pennsylvania Supreme Court has decided some politically charged issues in recent years. Back in 2012, the state Supreme Court ruled that requiring voters to provide identification before voting was unconstitutional. There was the controversial approval of last-minute changes to the state’s Congressional district map in a 2018 gerrymandering case.
In 2020, a state Supreme Court decision required ballots received up to three days after the election to be counted unless a ballot is clearly postmarked after 8 p.m. on Election Day. Other election-related cases have worked through the state’s courts, including questions about the legitimacy of ballot drop-boxes and questions about which mail-in ballots should be counted when the sender fails to sign and date the exterior envelope.
The finer details and larger implications of the election process have been litigated regularly in lower courts in the lead up to the 2024 election, and it is not a stretch to think that some of these issues will again land in the seven sets of hands of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Currently, the court has four Democratic justices, two Republicans, and one vacancy. Former Democratic Chief Justice Max Baer died in September 2022, just months shy of his birthday and reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.
The Candidates
Off-year elections get less attention and fewer voters than presidential years, and because of this, a small percentage of motivated, organized voters can move candidates of their choice into positions of power. That could happen this year in Pennsylvania where, despite a campaign of attack ads, voters are not sure who the candidates are. According to a Franklin and Marshall College’s October poll, more than seven in 10 registered voters said they don’t know enough about the candidates to form an opinion about them.
Republican candidate Carolyn Carluccio, currently the president judge of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas, has spent just over $742,000 and of that, $25,000 was a loan Ms. Carluccio made to her own campaign. In her most recent campaign finance documents Ms. Carluccio also reported just over $2.2 million of in-kind donations spent on her behalf by Commonwealth Leaders Fund PAC to promote her campaign with text messages, digital advertising, commercial production and media buys. The Commonwealth Leaders Fund is mostly funded by Pennsylvania billionaire Jeff Yass, co-founder of investment company Susquehanna International Group.
Ms. Carluccio started her career as a Federal Assistant U.S. Attorney, prosecuting large-scale drug dealers, bank robbers, and money launderers. Her work earned her recognition from the United States Secret Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, according to her campaign website. She was the first female chief public defender for Montgomery County, where she managed a team of 35 staff and attorneys. Ms. Carluccio also worked as Chief Deputy Solicitor for Montgomery County and as the acting director of Human Resources.
For the past 14 years, she has been a Court of Common Pleas Judge. She was elected president of the 2,000-member Montgomery Bar Association, and last year, she was unanimously chosen by her peers to serve as the court’s first female presidential judge in Montgomery County.
Democratic candidate Daniel McCaffery, currently a Superior Court judge, has spent $2 million. Mr. McCaffery has received large donations from many left-leaning groups, including $45,000 from the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state arm of the powerful National Education Association, plus $15,000 from the AFT Pennsylvania Committee to Support Public Education, another teacher’s union.
Mr. McCaffery received $50,000 from the Chicago, Illinois-based National Democratic Redistricting Committee which focuses on managing gerrymandering of state electoral maps.
He has high-dollar donations from many unions, including $100,000 from UA Union Plumbers & Pipefitters Vote! PAC; $100,000 from AFSCME People Payables; $25,000 from Sheet Metal Workers Union Local 19 PAC; $20,000 from Roofers Local 30 Political Action & Educational Fund; $10,000 from Mid-Atlantic Laborer’s Political League; $10,000 from Laborers District Council PAC Fund; $10,000 from Plumbers Union Local 690 Election Political Action Fund; $5,000 from SEIU Healthcare PA Cope; $5,000 from Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers Local 1 PA/DE, plus smaller donations from other unions.
Inside the law community, Mr. McCaffery received $300,000 from the Committee for a Better Tomorrow, a political action trust established by the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association; $2,500 from a similar group called North Central Pennsylvania for a Brighter Future; and $38,000 from the Pennsylvania Judicial PAC.
The money has been spent on campaign payroll, media buys and regular stops at Starbucks, almost always under $10 a visit.
Mr. McCaffery is a U.S. Army veteran. In 1991, he became an Assistant District Attorney in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office. In 1997, he joined Jaffe, Friedman, Schuman, Nemeroff and Applebaum in Montgomery County and was named partner in 2000. In 2013, he became a judge in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, and in 2019, McCaffery was elected as Judge of the Pennsylvania Superior Court.
