Allegheny Co. judge gets a nod

If confirmed, she will serve only two years.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Gov. Ed Rendell announced Saturday he would nominate Allegheny County Judge Cynthia Baldwin to replace state Supreme Court Justice Russell Nigro.
Rendell said he would nominate Baldwin, 60, of White Oak, when Nigro's term ends in January.
Nigro lost a retention election last month and blamed what he called voters' misguided anger at a state legislative pay-raise package, later repealed, that also included judges.
"Judge Cynthia Baldwin is a widely respected jurist, and I am incredibly pleased that she has agreed to continue her service to Pennsylvanians in this important post," Rendell said at a news conference at the Allegheny County Courthouse.
"It's my belief that Judge Baldwin has all the characteristics necessary to make a great Supreme Court justice," Rendell said, citing her intellect, integrity and work ethic.
Two years
Rendell said Baldwin, if confirmed by the state's Republican-controlled Senate, would serve for only two years and would not be a candidate after that to run for a 10-year term.
The conditions were imposed by the Legislature, Rendell said. But Baldwin, a Democrat, noted that she had no intention of running, citing her age and 16 years as a judge.
"It's a privilege and an honor to serve the people of Pennsylvania as I have on the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas," she said.
"To listen well and to serve well are the best tools a jurist can possess," she said. "I am proud to put my experience and my dedication to the law to use for all Pennsylvanians."
Baldwin became the first black woman elected to the Allegheny County bench in 1989. She was first a family court judge and is now assigned to the civil division.
Baldwin would become the second black woman to serve on the state Supreme Court. Juanita Kidd Stout became the first when Gov. Robert P. Casey appointed her in 1988. Stout, a judge in Philadelphia since 1959, was appointed to finish out the term of Justice William D. Hutchinson, who left to take a seat on the federal bench.
Mandatory retirement
Stout served one year before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70.
Rendell said though it was noteworthy that Baldwin would be the court's second black woman, "I was intent on finding the very best person."
Baldwin is head of the board of trustees at Penn State University, where she got a bachelor's degree in English and a master's in American literature. She earned her law degree at Duquesne University.
Nigro became the first judge on any of the state's three appellate courts to lose a retention vote in the 36 years such votes have been taken in the state. In a retention election, citizens vote "yes" or "no" to keeping a judge for another 10-year-term.