Pennsylvania held statewide elections on November 8, 2011, to fill judicial positions and allow judicial retention votes. The necessary primary elections were held on May 17, 2011. [1]
| Elections in Pennsylvania |
|---|
 |
 Government |
Pennsylvania held statewide elections on November 8, 2011, to fill judicial positions and allow judicial retention votes. The necessary primary elections were held on May 17, 2011. [1]
 | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
There was one vacancy to fill on the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. The seat being vacated is currently held by Robert A. Freedberg, who decided not to run in the election because he would face mandatory retirement due to his age in three years. [2]
Vic Stabile, a partner in a Harrisburg law firm, and Paula A. Patrick, a judge on the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, faced off for the Republican nomination. [3] Both candidates received a rating of "recommended" from the Pennsylvania Bar Association. [4] Stabile won the endorsement of the Republican State Committee. [5] The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette also endorsed Stabile for the Republican nomination. [3] The Philadelphia Inquirer endorsed Patrick. [6]
On the Democratic side, David N. Wecht, currently a judge on the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, was the only candidate to file; therefore he ran unopposed in the Democratic primary election. [3] He received a rating of "highly recommended" from the Pennsylvania Bar Association. [4]
The election was held on May 17, 2011. Stabile won the Republican primary, receiving 378,566 votes (65.3%) against Patrick's 200,856 (34.7%). Wecht received 605,665 votes (100.0%). [7]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Vic Stabile | 379,829 | 65.32% | |
| Republican | Paula A. Patrick | 201,679 | 34.68% | |
| Total votes | 581,508 | 100.0% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | David Wecht | 606,793 | 100.0% | |
| Total votes | 606,793 | 100.0% | ||
Stabile and Wecht faced each other in the general election. Wecht was endorsed in the general election by The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which both cited his judicial experience. [8] [9] Stabile was endorsed by The Patriot-News , which cited his "down-to-earth approach". [10]
In the general election on November 8, Wecht won the seat with 1,029,560 votes (54.5%) against Stabile's 859,687 (45.5%). [11]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | David Wecht | 1,030,004 | 54.51% | ||
| Republican | Vic Stabile | 859,484 | 45.49% | ||
| Total votes | 1,889,488 | 100.0% | |||
| Democratic hold | |||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
There was one vacancy on the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. The seat to be vacated is currently held by Republican Johnny Butler, appointed after Judge Doris Smith-Ribner retired, [12] who decided not to run in the election. [5]
Anne Covey, a private labor attorney, and Paul P. Panepinto, a judge on the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, contended for the Republican nomination. [13] They received bar association ratings of "recommended" and "highly recommended", respectively. [14] Covey won the endorsement of the Republican State Committee. [5] Covey was also endorsed for the Republican nomination by both The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. [6] [13]
Kathryn Boockvar, an attorney who most recently worked for the Advancement Project and had previously spent 11 years in private practice, and Barbara Behrend Ernsberger, who has spent her career in private practice, competed for the Democratic nomination. [13] Boockvar received a rating of "recommended" from the Pennsylvania Bar Association; Ernsberger received a rating of "not recommended" because she did not participate in the bar association evaluation process. [14] Boockvar won the endorsement of the Democratic State Committee. [13] The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette also endorsed Boockvar for the Democratic nomination. [6] [13]
In the election on May 17, 2011, Covey received 406,764 votes (70.3%) and Panepinto received 171,996 (29.7%). [7] The Democratic race was much closer: the initial results showed that Boockvar had received 311,624 votes (50.2%) and Ernsberger had received 309,508 (49.8%). [7] Because the margin was less than half of a percent, these results triggered a recount, mandatory unless waived by the trailing candidate. [15] Ernsberger declined to waive her right to a recount. [15] On June 8, 2011, the Secretary of the Commonwealth announced that the recount had confirmed Boockvar's victory. [16] The figures were nearly the same; in the final tally, Boockvar had 311,732 votes (50.2%) and Ernsberger had 309,680 (49.8%). [16]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Anne Covey | 408,179 | 70.29% | |
| Republican | Paul Panepinto | 172,560 | 29.71% | |
| Total votes | 580,739 | 100.0% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Kathryn Boockvar | 311,732 | 50.17% | |
| Democratic | Barbara Behrend Ernsberger | 309,680 | 49.83% | |
| Total votes | 621,412 | 100.0% | ||
Covey and Boockvar faced each other in the general election. Covey was endorsed in the general election by The Philadelphia Inquirer, which noted her "quasi-judicial experience of having served on the state's labor relations board". [8] Boockvar was endorsed by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Patriot-News, which both praised her breadth of experience. [9] [17]
In the general election on November 8, Covey won with 978,634 votes (52.4%) against Boockvar's 890,701 (47.6%). [11]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Anne Covey | 968,796 | 52.10% | ||
| Democratic | Kathryn Boockvar | 890,831 | 47.90% | ||
| Total votes | 1,859,627 | 100.0% | |||
| Republican hold | |||||
The following judges were up for retention in the 2011 general election:
The Pennsylvania Bar Association recommended retention of all six judges. [18]
Eakin actively campaigned for retention, raising $526,000—more than any of the four candidates contending for the open seats on the Superior Court and the Commonwealth Court—and airing television advertisements. [19]
In the general election on November 8, voters elected to retain all six judges. All the judges won their retention elections by a wide margin; each of them was favored for retention by over 70% of voters. [11]
| Choice | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
 Yes | 1,097,368 | 73.59 |
| No | 393,728 | 26.41 |
| Total votes | 1,491,096 | 100.00 |
| Source: PA Department of State [11] | ||
| Choice | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 1,041,421 | 71.86 |
| No | 407,753 | 28.14 |
| Total votes | 1,449,174 | 100.00 |
| Source: PA Department of State [11] | ||
| Choice | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 1,067,446 | 73.56 |
| No | 383,594 | 26.44 |
| Total votes | 1,451,040 | 100.00 |
| Source: PA Department of State [11] | ||
| Choice | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 1,016,483 | 70.54 |
| No | 424,532 | 29.46 |
| Total votes | 1,441,015 | 100.00 |
| Source: PA Department of State [11] | ||
| Choice | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 1,029,890 | 71.93 |
| No | 401,926 | 28.07 |
| Total votes | 1,431,816 | 100.00 |
| Source: PA Department of State [11] | ||
| Choice | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 1,181,104 | 75.16 |
| No | 390,395 | 24.84 |
| Total votes | 1,571,499 | 100.00 |
| Source: PA Department of State [11] | ||
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania began in 1684 as the Provincial Court, and casual references to it as the "Supreme Court" of Pennsylvania were made official in 1722 upon its reorganization as an entity separate from the control of the colonial governor.
The 2006 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania was held on November 7, 2006. Incumbent Republican Rick Santorum ran for re-election to a third term, but was defeated by Democratic State Treasurer Bob Casey, Jr., the son of former Pennsylvania governor Bob Casey Sr. Casey was elected to serve between January 3, 2007, and January 3, 2013.
Russell M. Nigro is a former justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. He first ran on the Democratic ticket in 1995. He ran for retention in 2005 but lost, thus making him the first Supreme Court Justice to lose a retention vote since such elections were first held in 1968.
David Max Baer was an American judge who served as a justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court from the time of his election in 2003 until his death in 2022. He was elevated to the court's most senior position, chief justice, in 2021.
Statewide primary elections for various state offices were held in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on May 15, 2007. Pennsylvania's general elections were then held statewide on November 6, 2007.
Pennsylvania held statewide municipal elections on November 3, 2009, to fill a number of judicial positions and to allow judicial retention votes. The necessary primary elections were held on May 19, 2009.
John L. Musmanno is a senior judge of the Pennsylvania Superior Court.
The 2012 United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania were held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012, to elect the 18 U.S. representatives from the state of Pennsylvania, a loss of one seat following the 2010 United States census. The elections coincided with the elections of other federal and state offices, including a quadrennial presidential election and an election to the U.S. Senate. Primary elections were held Tuesday, April 24.
Mary Jane Bowes is a judge of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. She was elected in 2001 and began her term in January 2002.
James C. Crumlish Jr. was an American attorney and politician. He served as the District Attorney of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania between 1962 and 1966, and as a judge of the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania from 1970 until his death.
Kathryn Boockvar is an American attorney and politician who served as the secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from January 5, 2019 to February 5, 2021. She was appointed to the position by Governor Tom Wolf. Boockvar has previously served as Senior Advisor to the Governor on Election Modernization, beginning in March 2018. In August 2019, she was named co-chair of the Elections Committee of the National Association of Secretaries of State.
David Norman Wecht is an American attorney and jurist, who has served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania since 2016. Prior to his election in 2015, Wecht had served as a judge of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.
Kevin M. Dougherty is a justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Before his election in 2015, Dougherty had served on the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia since 2001, serving as an administrative judge of the trial division. His brother is convicted former labor leader John J. "Johnny Doc" Dougherty, who was the top fundraiser for his 2015 campaign.
Christine L. Donohue is a justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Prior to her election to that court in 2015, she was an elected member of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, a seat she had held since 2008. She had also performed nearly three decades of service as a trial lawyer and litigator in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania held statewide elections on November 3, 2015, to fill judicial positions, to fill a vacancy in the Pennsylvania State Senate, to allow judicial retention votes, and to fill numerous county, local and municipal offices.
In direct response to Pennsylvania Democratic Party v. Boockvar and the 2020 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania, the Donald Trump 2020 presidential campaign launched numerous lawsuits contesting the purview of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the election processes of Pennsylvania. All of these have either been dismissed or dropped. The last two remaining cases were dismissed without comment by the Supreme Court on February 22, 2021. On April 19, 2021, more than five months after the November 3, 2020 election, the Supreme Court declined to hear the outstanding case brought by former Republican congressional candidate Jim Bognet, dismissing it without comment.
Pennsylvania held statewide elections on November 7, 2017, to fill judicial positions on the Supreme Court, Superior Court, and the Commonwealth Court, to allow judicial retention votes, and to fill numerous county, local and municipal offices.
The 2019 Pennsylvania elections was held on November 5, 2019 to fill judicial positions on the Superior Court, allow judicial retention votes, and fill numerous county, local and municipal offices, the most prominent being the Mayor of Philadelphia.
The 2021 Pennsylvania elections were held on November 2, 2021, to fill judicial positions on the Supreme Court, Superior Court, and Commonwealth Court, to allow judicial retention votes, and to fill numerous county, local and municipal offices.
The 2023 Pennsylvania elections took place on November 7, 2023, to fill judicial positions, allow judicial retention votes, and fill numerous county, local and municipal offices, the most prominent being the Mayor of Philadelphia. The necessary primary elections were held on May 16, 2023. In addition, special elections for legislative vacancies could be held at various times in 2023.
