High court candidates face pay-raise fallout

Three candidates for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court yesterday called for more openness in the judicial branch to inspire greater public confidence in the wake of citizen anger over the 2005 legislative pay raise.

"The entire society of Pennsylvania has learned a lot from what happened with the pay raise," said candidate Maureen Lally-Green, a Republican and state Superior Court judge.

The candidates also bemoaned the burden of raising vast amounts of money in the statewide campaign for two seats on the state's highest court.

"I'd rather be raising money for charity than for a judicial campaign," said candidate Debra Todd, a Democrat from Butler County and another state Superior Court judge. "Each of us anticipates spending at least $1 million."

"It does take a lot of money," said Lally-Green, who also is from Butler County.

Candidate Michael Krancer, a great-nephew of the late philanthropist Walter Annenberg, said his candidacy has been funded largely by his family.

The three spoke at a forum at the Philadelphia Bar Association, which cosponsored the event with Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, the League of Women Voters, the Committee of Seventy, and the Philadelphia NAACP.

The fourth candidate, Seamus P. McCaffery, a Democrat and state Superior Court judge from Philadelphia, had other scheduled events and was not present.

According to the most recent campaign filings, the campaigns of McCaffery and Krancer had each raised more than $1 million. The Todd campaign had raised more than $716,000, and Lally-Green's campaign had taken in more than $838,000.

The four are running for two seats, including the one held by Justice Russell M. Nigro until he was ousted by voters in his bid for retention in 2005 - the first election that followed the pay-raise vote.

An interim appointee, Cynthia A. Baldwin, has been serving as justice in the meantime.

All three candidates spoke generally of the need for more openness - but offered few specifics - and said additional efforts are needed to help educate the public about the role of the courts.

Krancer said he would like to see Supreme Court oral argument sessions on PCN, the Pennsylvania Cable Network, which telecasts many government proceedings.

"I think the court needs to be more transparent. I want PCN in the courtroom. I want judges to do outreach," Krancer said.

All three also said the high court should hear more cases.

The pay-raise imbroglio started when the state legislature approved raises for lawmakers and state court judges in a July 2005, middle-of-the-night vote that ignited a storm of anger and spawned a number of grassroots activist groups.

The activists, in turn, targeted legislators and Nigro - even before the high court struck down the raises for legislators, but upheld those for the judiciary.

This election season, the anger is still festering in some of the state's 67 counties - and the candidates say they are hearing about it on the campaign trail.

"The pay raise is a big issue," Krancer said.

"I do believe it diminished the public's faith and trust," said Todd, who said she had returned her raise to the state treasury.