Candidate Endorsed by PAMPAC Wins Supreme Court Seat

Endorsed by the Pennsylvania Medical Political Action Committee (PAMPAC), Superior Court Judge Joan Orie Melvin defeated fellow judge Jack Panella by a margin of 53 percent to 47 percent to win a seat on the Commonwealth’s highest court.

The race had turned vicious recently, with the Superior Court colleagues spending the last few weeks of the contests attacking each other publicly and in campaign ads. Melvin’s victory puts control of the Supreme Court in the hands of the Republican party, with four Republicans and three Democrats.

Panella’s campaign received significant financial support from the Committee for a Better Tomorrow (Philadelphia Trial Lawyers) and organized labor—facts that became issues in the campaign.

PAMPAC mounted a significant grassroots campaign that included the distribution of 100,000 campaign brochures that physicians placed in their patient waiting rooms, along with several statewide communications to physicians. This clearly played an important role in this low turnout election. Only 1.69 million people, or 20 percent of registered voters, cast ballots.

Superior Court race

A PAMPAC-supported candidate, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Judy Olson, snagged one of four seats on the Superior Court that was up for grabs.

PAMPAC also supported Pittsburgh attorney Temp Smith, who came up short in yesterday's election.

Paula Ott and Sallie Mundy will join Olson on the bench, while the contest for the fourth seat remains too close to call.

Commonwealth Court race

Kevin Brobson, another candidate supported by PAMPAC, was elected to one of two vacancies on the Commonwealth Court.

This also was a pivotal election since the Commonwealth Court considers many issues that are important to medicine, including the Medical Society's legal challenges regarding Mcare.

Brobson will join the court in 2010 along with Patricia McCullough. Together, they defeated attorneys Linda Judson and Barbara Behrend Ernsberger.