PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Three of Pennsylvania’s seven Supreme Court justices — Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht — are up for retention. Judicial retention races are typically sleepy affairs, but this year’s has come with an abnormally hefty price tag.
Pennsylvania judges and justices are elected to 10-year terms. At the end of each term, voters decide whether to retain them for another 10 years.
“It’s yes or no,” said Republican political consultant Christopher Nicholas.
He said these races are generally a “snoozer.” Since the 1968 Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention created this system, only one justice has failed to secure retention. In 2005, Russell Nigro lost his retention election in the wake of the state Legislature’s middle-of-the-night pay raise vote.
But this cycle, a jaw-dropping $20-plus-million has been spent on the retention of three state Supreme Court justices and two lower state court judges.
“Twenty million dollars in any statewide race in Pennsylvania is a lot of money, but $20 million in a retention race — I just don’t think anybody would have had that on their bingo card in January or February,” Nicholas said.
All five justices and judges were originally elected as Democrats, which Nicholas said largely explains the price tag.
“I really think that’s what has led partially to this explosion in spending and activity,” he explained. “If a couple of the judges were Republicans and a couple Democrats, it would have made it much harder to message about something that is mostly an asterisk in Pennsylvania elections.
“Being able to easily distill it into ‘vote yes if you’re a Democrat’ or ‘vote no if you’re a Republican’ has enabled the messaging to blossom and balloon.”
If the three justices are not retained, they would be removed at the end of the year, and then the seats would go on the ballot in 2027. Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, could appoint temporary replacements before then, but they would have to be confirmed by the Republican-controlled state Senate.
Donahue’s Supreme Court seat will become available in 2027 regardless, as she will hit the mandatory retirement age of 75.