McLaughlin, meanwhile, rejected the premise that her Democratic affiliation would color her decisions. She became a Democrat, she said, because growing up her father told her that “Democrats put food on the table.”
“I want to be a judge. I don’t want to be a politician. It just so happens in Pennsylvania that’s how you get there,” she said. “Infer from me that you have a hardworking judge who knows where she came from.”
While the election won’t decide control of the Democratic-dominated court, it’s still a priority for Republicans. They lost control of the high court in 2015 during a tumultuous period, following revelations that several judges had been exchanging offensive emails.
Since then, Republicans have chafed at the Democratic justices’ decisions, which have included an order to redraw the commonwealth’s congressional districts that made Democrats more competitive, and a decision allowing emergency changes to voting laws ahead of the 2020 election.
With their chances of retaking the court virtually zero until at least 2025, when the Democratic justices face retention elections, Republicans in the state legislature have launched a plan to totally remake the court by electing judges by region. Their proposed constitutional amendment could force more than one Democrat off the court by requiring justices — who are currently concentrated in cities — to run in geographic districts drawn by the legislature.
Supporters say the plan would create more regional diversity. Democrats, who uniformly oppose it, say it’s an attempt to gerrymander the courts and ensure outsize GOP control. The measure has already passed the legislature once and would have to pass again before going to a voter referendum.
Barring a major constitutional change, however, the best Republicans can do in the near future is maintain their current minority. The party holds just two of the court’s seven seats, and one of those sitting Republicans, Chief Justice Thomas Saylor, has hit the court’s age limit of 75 and must retire. The next most senior judge, Allegheny County Democrat Max Baer, will take over as chief justice.
The other two appellate courts also have major elections this year. On the Superior Court, two justices are running in yes-or-no retention elections, and there will be a partisan election for one seat. The Commonwealth Court will have two retention elections and two partisan elections.
Judges on Pennsylvania’s three appellate courts all serve 10-year terms.