Current:Home > NewsExpensive judicial races might be here to stay in Pennsylvania after record high court campaign -AssetLink
Expensive judicial races might be here to stay in Pennsylvania after record high court campaign
View
Date:2025-04-27 14:53:50
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The race for an open seat on Pennsylvania’s highest court initially resembled the sleepy contests that had played out for decades: low turnout, little media coverage and just enough spending to afford some biographical TV ads on cable.
Then attack fliers began hitting mail boxes.
“Once that happened, it opened the flood gates up, because people were prepared to respond,” said Democrat Dan McCaffery, who ultimately beat Republican Carolyn Carluccio on Tuesday. “I think people came out of the woodwork ready to fight back.”
What happened next was a state Supreme Court election in Pennsylvania unlike any other. There was record-breaking spending, national media coverage and the highest turnout for an odd-year election in at least a quarter-century.
Such high-stakes, high-spending partisan campaigns could become standard for judicial elections in Pennsylvania, a premier presidential battleground state where the state Supreme Court has issued pivotal decisions on major election-related cases in recent years.
That includes rejecting a Republican attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania to keep then-President Donald Trump in power.
“Judicial elections used to be sleepy affairs, and that’s changed in recent years both in Pennsylvania and across the country,” said Shanin Specter, who helps lead the political arm of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association, a major donor to McCaffery. “And so the reality is the statewide elections cannot be won without spending a lot of money and putting a lot of human resources into the effort, as well.”
McCaffery also made a point of discussing issues on the campaign trail, something judicial candidates had generally avoided in the past.
He framed the election as an existential moment for basic rights, and painted state courts as the last line of defense against the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority.
Like Democrats did in the nationalized contest in Wisconsin a few months earlier where the party won the state high court’s majority, McCaffery and Democratic allies especially highlighted the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Democrats had held a 5-2 majority on Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court before Chief Justice Max Baer died last year. McCaffery’s victory preserves that majority for at least two years, including through next year’s presidential election.
Democrats and their allies learned a hard lesson in Pennsylvania’s 2021 race for Supreme Court, when Republicans outspent Democrats by more than $1 million. Republican Kevin Brobson won by a mere 25,000 votes, or 1 percentage point.
This time around, strategists say, Democratic donors and allied groups were far more prepared and motivated — particularly by the desire to defend abortion rights and their interests in 2024’s presidential election.
Their preparation included focus groups that found that undecided voters had a visceral reaction to the idea of an anti-abortion candidate trying to hide their anti-abortion position, they said.
It became a key avenue to attack Carluccio, who was endorsed by a pair of anti-abortion groups. And it seemed to work: turnout was highest in more left-leaning areas of Pennsylvania, including suburban Philadelphia and Allegheny County.
In the end, turnout topped 35% and spending exceeded $22 million. Those who spent heavily in 2021 — such as labor unions, trial lawyers and groups that distribute money from billionaire Jeffrey Yass — spent more.
Some Democratic Party allies that spent nothing or next-to-nothing in 2021 spent six- or seven-figures this time around.
“There’s nothing that concentrates the mind like defeat, especially after you lose by less than 1%,” Specter said.
Based on reports filed thus far to the state, McCaffery and Democratic allies spent more than $13 million, compared to more than $8 million by Carluccio and her allies. Some spending has yet to be disclosed, and some groups haven’t disclosed donors.
The total spent is likely to be roughly half of what was spent in Wisconsin — a race that hinted what was to come in Pennsylvania.
“We all saw what happened in Wisconsin,” said Eric Stern, a strategist for the admaker Technicolor Political, which made TV ads for McCaffery’s campaign.
Some partisans blame the other side for a high-spending, hyperpartisan race.
Matthew Brouillette, who helped direct millions of dollars in spending to help Carluccio, wrote a post-election memo that warned allies they will be outspent “until our side gets the same fire” to help their candidates.
“It is definitely the new normal for the Democrats,” Brouillette said. “They see the Supreme Court as a super legislature.”
Kadida Kenner, CEO of the left-leaning voter registration group New Pennsylvania Project, whose staff went door-knocking to help McCaffery, said such judicial races are the product of Republican-backed efforts to overturn elections.
“This is the future and I don’t think we’re going back from this,” Kenner said. “And I think our judicial races will be even more partisan in the future.”
___
Follow Marc Levy at twitter.com/timelywriter.
veryGood! (1)
Related
- Buckingham Palace staff under investigation for 'bar brawl'
- What is Brat Summer? Charli XCX’s Feral Summer Aesthetic Explained
- Caged outside for 4 years: This German Shepherd now has a loving home
- 2024 Paris Olympics golf format, explained: Is there a cut, scoring, how to watch
- South Korea's acting president moves to reassure allies, calm markets after Yoon impeachment
- Imane Khelif, ensnared in Olympic boxing controversy, had to hide soccer training
- Only one thing has slowed golf's Xander Schauffele at Paris Olympics: Ants
- 2026 Honda Passport first look: Two-row Pilot SUV no more?
- US wholesale inflation accelerated in November in sign that some price pressures remain elevated
- Babies R Us shops are rolling out in 200 Kohl's stores: See full list
Ranking
- NFL Week 15 picks straight up and against spread: Bills, Lions put No. 1 seed hopes on line
- Every M. Night Shyamalan movie (including 'Trap'), ranked from worst to best
- 2024 Olympics: Why Simone Biles Was Stressing While Competing Against Brazilian Gymnast Rebeca Andrade
- Aaron Taylor-Johnson Looks Unrecognizable After Shaving Off His Beard
- Nearly half of US teens are online ‘constantly,’ Pew report finds
- Georgia governor suspends Newton County commissioner accused of taking kickback
- Summer Music Festival Essentials to Pack if You’re the Mom of Your Friend Group
- Airline passenger gets 19-month sentence. US says he tried to enter cockpit and open an exit door
Recommendation
Trump invites nearly all federal workers to quit now, get paid through September
Saturn throws comet out of solar system at 6,700 mph: What astronomers think happened
Cardi B asks court to award her primary custody of her children with Offset, divorce records show
Vanderpump Rules' Lala Kent Details Terrifying Pregnancy Health Scare That Left Her Breathless
Megan Fox's ex Brian Austin Green tells Machine Gun Kelly to 'grow up'
2024 Olympics: Skateboarder Sky Brown Still Competing With Dislocated Shoulder
Nebraska, Ohio State, Alabama raise NIL funds at football practice through fan admission, autographs
General Hospital's Cameron Mathison Steps Out With Aubree Knight Hours After Announcing Divorce