FILE - Shown is the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania chamber at the Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. Primary elections are scheduled for May 16, 2023 for Democratic and Republican voters to determine their parties nominees in the general election for offices including the state Supreme Court.
Covering Pennsylvania politics, government & scandals for @AP. The wicked flee when none pursueth. @Colorado native. As honest as a Denver man can be.
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FILE - Shown is the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania chamber at the Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. Primary elections are scheduled for May 16, 2023 for Democratic and Republican voters to determine their parties nominees in the general election for offices including the state Supreme Court.
Pennsylvania voters will make a decision with implications for the future of voting and abortion rights in a presidential battleground state when they choose the winner in Tuesday’s election for an open state Supreme Court seat.
The race between Democrat Dan McCaffery and Republican Carolyn Carluccio will not change the fact that Democrats hold a majority on the seven-seat bench. Democrats currently hold a 4-2 majority with an open seat following the death last year of Chief Justice Max Baer, a Democrat.
Justices serve 10-year terms before they must run for retention to stay on the court.
McCaffery is a former Philadelphia prosecutor and judge who sits on a statewide appellate court, the Superior Court. Carolyn Carluccio is a Montgomery County judge and a former federal prosecutor and public defender.
The state’s highest court has issued pivotal decisions on major election-related cases in recent years, including throwing out GOP-drawn congressional districts as unconstitutionally gerrymandered and rejecting a Republican effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state after Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden.
Democrats injected the question of abortion rights into the campaign in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year to overturn Roe v. Wade and end nearly a half-century of federal abortion protections.
McCaffery positioned himself as a defender of abortion rights and other rights that he said Democrats had fought for but were under threat from the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority.
Democrats also made abortion rights a key avenue to attack Carluccio.
Carluccio has stressed her experience and aimed to appeal to moderate voters by pointing out that Montgomery County’s judges — some Democrats, some Republicans — elected her to become the county’s president judge, an administrative position.
Carluccio said a debate over abortion rights didn’t belong in the race since state law makes abortion legal through 24 weeks. She sought to avoid publicly expressing an opinion on the issue, though she was endorsed by anti-abortion groups.
More than $20 million has flowed into the race, much of it from billionaire Jeffrey Yass, who supported Carluccio, and labor unions and trial lawyers that backed McCaffery.
A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.