pa. primary election Parties choose endorsed candidates for high court

Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa.

Pennsylvania Democrats and Republicans demonstrated Tuesday that party endorsements count as they nominated four party-backed candidates for the state Supreme Court.

Democrats nominated both of their endorsees — Philadelphia Judge Kevin Dougherty and Superior Court Judge David Wecht — and Superior Court Judge Christine Donohue, although she had not been endorsed because the party could not muster enough votes for a third endorsement.

Republicans picked Superior Court Judge Judy Olson, Adams County Judge Mike George and Commonwealth Court Judge Anne Covey, all backed by the GOP state committee.

Dougherty waged an aggressive TV advertising campaign with $1.4 million raised mainly from labor organizations, lawyers and businesses. His brother is the business manager of the Philadelphia local of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, a generous supporter.

Wecht, who’s based in Pittsburgh, trailed Dougherty in fundraising with $900,000 in contributions. He’s a former Allegheny County judge and the son of pathologist Cyril Wecht, whose inquiries into the deaths of well-known figures such as Elvis Presley gained him national fame.

Donohue was elected to the Superior Court in 2007, after a 27-year career as a trial lawyer and litigator in Pittsburgh. Her campaign raised $339,000.

Olson, who’s from the Pittsburgh area, spent 24 years as a lawyer and had a brief stint as an Allegheny County judge before being elected to the Superior Court in 2009. Her campaign raised $119,000.

George, a former prosecutor before he was elected as judge in 2002, was the most-successful fundraiser among the Republicans, thanks to a $500,000 contribution from a businessman friend that pushed his total to $590,000.

Covey, whose public profile was boosted by her handling of a lawsuit stemming from the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal that was settled after the NCAA withdrew the last of its sanctions against Penn State, spent 24 years in private practice before she was elected to the appellate bench in 2011.

Voters were reducing a field of 12 state Supreme Court candidates by half, setting the stage for a high-stakes, big-spending showdown that could flip partisan control of the state’s highest court for the first time in six years.

The three top vote- getters in each party will compete as the nominees for an unprecedented three open seats in the Nov. 3 general election.

The nomination races for Supreme Court and one open seat each on the Superior and Commonwealth courts were the only statewide election contests this year, but voters also were choosing nominees for a large number of local judgeships, municipal offices and school-board seats.

The candidates’ campaigns raised about $5 million in the primary, and the general-election phase is expected to unleash a flood of cash from outside groups.