For New Pittsburgh Courier
Dear Editor:
When Pennsylvania voters head to the polls on Nov. 5, one of the key items on the ballot will be the judicial retention election.
Quick question…Do you know what a retention election is?
If not, that’s not uncommon. If you’re like many citizens, a ‘retention election’ may be something you never heard about. They’re generally not high-profile races and tend to slip by us without a great deal of attention.
However, it really is important to participate and vote in retention elections (and ALL elections, for that matter) because they play a critical role in our democracy. When there are experienced, qualified and diverse judges on the bench, the result is a judicial system that is fair for people of all races, religions, genders, backgrounds and beliefs.
However, before voting in a retention election, it’s important to understand how they work.
When a candidate runs for a position as a judge in any court that is a part of the Pennsylvania Unified Judicial System—the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Superior Court, Commonwealth Court, and, locally, the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas—he or she runs for an initial 10-year term. These initial judicial elections are much like other political elections in that they’re contested races against other candidates.
Once elected, these judges stay on the bench for an initial 10-year term. When that 10-year term is up, that’s when judicial retention elections kick in.
These judges don’t run in contested re-election races; instead, they run unopposed for the opportunity to retain their seats on the bench for another 10 years. Voters simply have to vote “yes” or “no” regarding whether they feel each of the judges should, in fact, remain judges.
Part of the goal of this system is to keep ‘politics’ out of retention elections, because these are sitting judges who should focus on their judicial duties, not on campaigning and TV ads. The idea is that, if a given judge is doing a good job, she or he will be retained by the electorate. If not, she or he will not be retained.
However, determining this can be challenging: most people are not in a position to know if a given judge is doing a good job or not. Most citizens do not interact with the judicial system regularly and may not be equipped to offer an opinion on a given judge.
So, who would know?
The lawyers who appear before these judges.
As a service to the public, the Allegheny County Bar Association— which is made up of nearly 6,000 Pittsburgh-area attorneys (the vast majority of our region’s lawyers)—has a mechanism in place to tap into lawyers’ insight on sitting judges, and then share that information with voters.
The ACBA surveys these lawyers and asks them to indicate whether they feel each of the judges up for retention should receive a “recommended” rating or a “not recommended” rating, based on his or her qualifications, performance and judicial temperament.
This year, there are 12 Allegheny County judges up for retention, and all 12 have been “recommended” for retention by the ACBA. Included in this group are two African-American judges, The Hon. Kim Berkeley Clark and The Hon. Joseph K. Williams III, both in the Court of Common Pleas.
The ACBA has launched a special website—www.JudicialVote19.org— specifically for this retention election. There you can find the names of all of these judges, news releases, media coverage and more.
Elizabeth L. Hughes, Esq.
President-Elect of the Allegheny County Bar Association
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