This is WESA Politics, a weekly newsletter by Chris Potter providing analysis about Pittsburgh and state politics. Sign up here to get it every Thursday afternoon.
Let’s start with the good news: If you’ve been waiting for your mail-in ballot here in Allegheny County, you need to be patient for only a little while longer. Elections staff say the ballots will start hitting mailboxes late next week.
The bad news? When the ballot does arrive, you’re expected to fill it out — including races in which you may struggle to recognize the candidates’ names.
That’s often a challenge in judicial races especially.
Allegheny County has one seat up for grabs on the Common Pleas bench this year, and three candidates are running for it: attorney Anthony DeLuca (who, yes, is a distant cousin of the late state House member of the same name), longtime public defender Patrick Sweeney, and former county solicitor Andy Szefi. And they all need to give the voters a reason to vote for them instead of the other two.
Which is how abortion has become an issue in the race, even though it’s a matter of pure speculation to think the winner will deal with the issue on the bench.
DeLuca in particular has raised the issue at campaign events, proudly announcing that he is pro-choice. Sweeney and Szefi have been less enthusiastic about the topic, with Sweeney especially seeming reluctant to discuss it.
That could stem from differing views of a judicial candidate’s ethical obligations. Pennsylvania’s ethics rules are a bit hazy: Candidates are advised that they “may make statements or announcements about personal views but may not make pledges or promises directly or inferentially about decision-making.” But candidates are also advised that “if you do announce your views on a particular issue, you may have to disqualify yourself” in a case that involves deciding that issue.
DeLuca said he cautions audiences that he won’t promise how to rule and pledges to hear any case fairly — and indeed I’ve heard him make such a disclosure. But he added that abortion is “the No. 1 issue in Democratic politics today.” Concern about abortion rights, for example, arguably drove a Democratic victory in a recent state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin.
Of course, the stakes at the Common Pleas level aren’t quite as high. DeLuca himself said, “It’s unlikely to come up before us. But it could.”
Sweeney, for his part, said that a lower-court judge “might be asked to rule on the constitutionality of a statute that comes before you,” especially now that the U.S. Supreme Court has tossed out the notion that there is a Constitutional right to an abortion. A history of statements on such topics, Sweeney said, “can get you into problematic territory. That’s why I’m not saying anything about this issue.”
But although these are judicial elections … they remain elections still. So whatever the legal arguments, politics, too, factor into how the issue plays out.
Sweeney is a public defender at a time when such attorneys are seen, at least by many Democrats, as a crucial bulwark against a criminal justice system beset by inequity. Raising the abortion issue “is a way of muddying that." Sweeney is also a Catholic whose campaign literature mentions his role in Catholic organizations, and he says that may make it easier to instill doubts in some voters’ minds about how he’d rule on an abortion matter.
Szefi, for his part, has mostly tried to stay out of the debate. At a recent forum hosted by the 14th Ward Independent Democratic Club, he indicated he supported abortion rights but said he had “sympathy” for Sweeney’s rationale for not discussing the issue.
Szefi already is serving as a judge, having been appointed to fill a vacancy on the local bench last year. But he’s running for a full term now, and he touts his work as the county’s top lawyer — notably during a time when its election processes were challenged by Republicans who sought to overturn the results in the past two presidential elections.
That history is well received when I’ve seen Szefi present it to Democratic audiences (though Donald Trump’s election challenges met with little success in any courtroom, anywhere). And Szefi, who currently serves in the Common Pleas civil division, says he is “in line” to handle election cases in the future.
Ultimately, judicial appointments are determined by the president judge and the judges who head each division. Two years ago, a slate of candidates campaigned on a platform of reforming the criminal justice system locally … but didn’t all end up being assigned to non-criminal courts.
Szefi likely wouldn’t have as much competition for the elections docket. But it all points up the challenge of judicial races, for voters and candidates alike.
The local Bar Association compiles ratings based on extensive candidate surveys and rigorous background reviews. But it tends to evaluate candidates for experience and competence and temperament — qualities that are, shall we say, not of universal interest these days. (For the record, though: Both Szefi and DeLuca received “highly recommended” ratings, while Sweeney was rated “recommended.”)
The candidates are left to cite their biographies or their beliefs, while cautioning that you can’t read too much into it beyond their ability to be fair.
Of course, you never know how much the campaign rhetoric will matter when the winners of conventional races are sworn in, either. But somehow, it’s more fun when they don’t keep reminding you of the fact.
