Choosing the right judge is no simple task
Given recent scandals involving Pennsylvania judges at the highest level, voters must be more careful in making judicial choices.
As usual, Pennsylvania voters are paying little attention to next week's judicial elections, providing more evidence that the state would be better off selecting jurists who didn't have to scrape up campaign money from sources who have more than a civic interest in the outcome.
Merit selection makes more sense in a state that has seen three elected Supreme Court justices exit in infamy in recent years: Joan Orie Melvin was convicted of using her judicial staff to perform campaign work. Seamus McCaffery and Michael Eakin retired after being implicated in the pornographic e-mails scandal.
But merit selection must wait. Tuesday, voters must make judicial choices in the primary. Some guidance is provided by the Pennsylvania Bar Association, which evaluated and ranked judicial candidates as "highly recommended," "recommended," or "not recommended." The bar's rankings were as follows:
State Supreme Court
Highly Recommended
Sallie Updyke Mundy, Tioga County
Recommended
Dwayne D. Woodruff, Allegheny County
Superior Court
Highly Recommended
Emil A. Giordano, Northampton County
Deborah A. Kunselman, Beaver County
H. Geoffrey Moulton Jr., Montgomery County
Paula A. Patrick, Philadelphia County
Craig W. Stedman, Lancaster County
Recommended
Maria C. McLaughlin, Philadelphia County
Carolyn H. Nichols, Philadelphia County
Not Recommended
William F. Caye II, Allegheny County
Jules Mermelstein, Montgomery County (didn't participate)
Mary P. Murray, Allegheny County (didn't participate)
Commonwealth Court
Highly Recommended
Joseph M. Cosgrove, Luzerne County
Recommended
Bryan E. Barbin, Cambria County
W. Timothy Barry, Allegheny County
Ellen H. Ceisler, Philadelphia County
R. Todd Eagen, Lackawanna County
Paul N. Lalley, Allegheny County
Not Recommended
Irene McLaughlin Clark, Allegheny County
Using its own criteria, the Philadelphia Bar Association rated judicial candidates for the city, including:
Court of Common Pleas
Recommended
Wendi Barish
Lawrence J. Bozzelli
Deborah Canty
Lucretia C. Clemons
David Conroy
Leonard Deutchman
Vincent Furlong
Leon Goodman
Vikki Kristiansson
John Macoretta
Jon Marshall
Brian McLaughlin
Mark J. Moore
Jennifer Schultz
Zac Shaffer
Henry McGregor Sias
Daniel R. Sulman
Stella Tsai
Not Recommended
Terri M. Booker
Deborah Cianfrani
Mark B. Cohen
Shanese Johnson
Rania Major
Vincent Melchiorre
Danyl S. Patterson
Crystal B. Powell
Bill Rice
Municipal Court
Recommended
Marissa Brumbach
Jon Marshall
George Twardy
Matt Wolf
Not Recommended:
Bill Rice
Sherman Toppin