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Melvin wins seat on Pa.'s high court

PETER JACKSON, Associated Press Writer

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republican Joan Orie Melvin won an open seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday — reclaiming a GOP majority there and leading her party to victory in most of the other appellate court contests on the statewide ballot.

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FILE - In these May 6, 2009, file photos Pennsylvania Supreme Court candidates Joan Orie Melvin, left, and Jack Panella are seen as they participate in a debate at Harrisburg Area Community College in Harrisburg, Pa. Two Superior Court judges with sharply contrasting styles, Democrat Jack Panella and Republican Joan Orie-Melvin, are at the top of Pennsylvania's statewide election ballot in a contest for a single opening on the state's highest court.

AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

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With returns from 99 percent of the state's 9,310 precincts, Melvin had 938,272 votes or 53 percent to Democrat Jack Panella's 822,335 votes or 47 percent.

Republicans also won at least two of the four open seats on the Superior Court and both open seats on the Commonwealth Court.

Melvin did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment, but a Panella campaign spokesman blamed a low turnout in the Democratic hub of Philadelphia as a major factor in his defeat.

"Certainly, the local population is focused more on the Phillies than the Supreme Court" contest, said the spokesman, Dan Fee.

Both candidates are sitting judges on the Superior Court — Panella in Bethlehem and Melvin in Pittsburgh.

Melvin's victory will restore the 4-3 Republican majority on the state's highest court that the GOP lost in 2007.

Panella raised more than $2.5 million, largely from trial lawyers and organized labor — dwarfing Melvin's war chest — in a campaign that was notable for dueling attack ads on TV and the Internet.

On the bench, Melvin achieved notoriety when she refused to accept the judicial pay hike that emerged from the 2005 legislative pay-raise mess, and she continues to return to the state treasury the after-tax portion of all salary increases granted since then.

In the Superior Court contest, Allegheny County Judge Judy Olson, with 942,917 votes or 15 percent, and Tioga County lawyer Sallie Mundy, 859,895 votes or 14 percent, were clear winners.

The Associated Press has not called the other two races because the candidates are separated by less than 2 percentage points and uncounted provisional ballots could affect the outcome.

The other candidates who won more than 10 percent of the vote were Chester County Judge Paula Ott, a Republican; Philadelphia County Judge Anne Lazarus, a Democrat; Allegheny County Judge Robert Colville, a Democrat; Pittsburgh lawyer Temp Smith, a Republican; Allegheny County prosecutor Kevin McCarthy, a Democrat; and Philadelphia County Judge Teresa Sarmina, a Democrat.

For Commonwealth Court, which hears lawsuits filed against state agencies and appeals of decisions by most state agencies, Republicans Patricia McCullough, a Pittsburgh lawyer, and Kevin Brobson, a Harrisburg lawyer, won two open seats in another tight race. They outpolled Democrats Barbara Behrend Ernsberger and Linda Judson, both Pittsburgh lawyers.

Supreme Court justices currently receive an annual salary of $186,450, and judges on the Superior and Commonwealth courts get $175,923. The presiding judges are paid slightly more.

All of the judges serve 10-year terms. Once elected to their first term, they stand every 10 years — without any opposition — for a yes-no "retention" vote on whether they should serve another term.

In Luzerne County, one of many electing new judges Tuesday, Democrats William Amesbury, a Wilkes-Barre district judge, and Tina Polachek Gartley edged out Republican lawyer Richard Hughes for a pair of open seats.

All three candidates had pledged to help restore public trust in the wake of a scandal involving two former Luzerne judges charged with accepting millions of dollars in kickbacks for sentencing juvenile offenders to private detention centers.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.