PENNSYLVANIA Pay-raise uproar puts focus on judicial retention hopefuls

One justice says he's being attacked for something he can't control.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- In any other year, justices Russell M. Nigro and Sandra Schultz Newman might have walked into new, 10-year terms on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
In "retention" elections like those on Nov. 8 that feature Nigro and Newman, voters do not have the option of replacing the judges, only an up-or-down decision on whether to grant them another term.
Voter turnout is typically small for these off-year elections and no statewide judge in Pennsylvania has ever been ousted in a retention vote.
But this year, public furor lingers over the Legislature's handling of a pay-raise law that generously boosted salaries for its members, as well as judges, top executive-branch officials and district attorneys.
With no legislative election campaigns until next year, citizen groups and other critics of the law have filled the political void with an ad hoc campaign to oust Nigro and Newman.
Encouraging arrogance
Russ Diamond, chairman of PACleanSweep, a political-action committee committed to ousting every incumbent legislator, said the Supreme Court's rulings have created a legal environment that encourages legislative arrogance.
The justices "have made the Legislature feel safe in the things they do," the Annville businessman said.
The pay-raise law was approved at 2 a.m. July 7 without debate or public notice.
It boosted legislative salaries by 16 percent to 54 percent, pushing the base legislative salary to $81,050 -- higher than any other state but California.
More offensive to some people, most legislators began collecting their raises immediately in the form of payments known as "unvouchered expenses," in spite of a constitutional ban on lawmakers accepting raises during the term in which they are passed.
A citizen activist has challenged the legality of unvouchered expenses in Commonwealth Court, but the Supreme Court upheld the concept 19 years ago and legal observers say the state's highest court is unlikely to overturn its own precedent.
Chief Justice Ralph Cappy lobbied for higher judicial salaries and proposed the linkage that the law makes between the salaries of top state officials and salaries for similar federal jobs.
He initially lauded the law's approval and dismissed the criticism as "knee-jerk," but later acknowledged that he "probably used inappropriate words."
Defending their records
Nigro and Newman, both Philadelphia natives elected to the court in 1995, have not been outspoken about the pay-raise law that increased their annual salaries from $150,369 to $171,800. But both have defended their records on the court.
"If I were dishonest, if I were biased, if I were lazy, if I were incompetent ... someone would be saying that, and they're not saying that," Nigro said in a telephone interview Friday.
"I'm doing all the things that people want me to be in my position," he said, "yet I'm being attacked over something that I couldn't control."
If voters refuse to retain Nigro and Newman, they would finish their present terms, which end in January.
Gov. Ed Rendell would appoint temporary successors and they would serve through the 2007 judicial elections, when voters would elect new justices to full 10-year terms, said State Department spokesman Brian McDonald.
Nigro's campaign raised more than $350,000 through mid-September -- mostly from lawyers -- in what he described as a safeguard against unexpected attacks.
He has said he will return all the money to contributors if it is not needed. On Friday, he said he had not aired any radio or TV ads of his own and had no immediate plans to do so.
Newman, who had not raised any money for her campaign, declined to be interviewed.
The campaigns to oust Nigro and Newman are decidedly low-key and are being waged primarily through scattered public speeches and Internet postings.
This week, Gene Stilp -- the activist who has sued over the pay raise -- plans to embark on a statewide tour in a converted school bus painted with an illustration of the Capitol dome and urging voters to "Vote No on Newman and Nigro."
Tim Potts, of the group Democracy Rising PA, said he hopes publicity about the pay raises and the ongoing changes on the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington will spur voter interest in the Pennsylvania election.
"Our government is not going to behave differently until we behave differently," he said.