11/03/2025
ELECTION TUESDAY NOVEMBER 4TH!!!
Overall Message - State Retention:
MCRC is recommending to vote "no" to the three PA Supreme Court justices - Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty, and David Wecht. These three liberal activist judges locked us down during COVID, sided with Democrats to gerrymander several legislative districts, and not only extended the deadline to receive mail-in ballots in 2020, but also allowed mail-in-ballots lacking voter inserted dates on the envelope to be counted. The PA Supreme Court is currently 5 Democrats to 2 Republicans. By preventing the retention of three Democrat judges, Republicans have an opportunity to flip the state supreme court in its favor.
We are also recommending "no" for retention of Alice Debow on the PA Superior Court, as well as "no" to retention of Michael Wojcik of the PA Commonwealth Court.
The 15-member Pennsylvania Superior Court includes eight judges elected as Democrats and six elected as Republicans. A special general election will be held in November 2025 to fill one vacant seat. If Republicans win this seat and replace Deblow with a Republican, we can flip the majority to Republican.
The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court consists of five judges who were elected as Republicans and three who were elected as Democrats. Replacing Wojcik with a Republican helps us widen this lead.
Background:
After serving a 10-year term, judges on the PA Supreme Court, Superior Court and Commonwealth Court must seek reelection through retention elections.
Candidates for seats on the PA Supreme, Superior Court or Commonwealth Court initially run as members of political parties. Once elected, however, if they want to stay on the bench beyond their first decade, they must shed their political affiliation and run as themselves, unlinked to a party. This makes judicial retention elections officially nonpartisan.
Voters vote Yes or No to retain justices to the PA Supreme, Superior and Commonwealth Courts. If the majority votes yes, the judge stays on. But if they vote no, the governor appoints a temporary replacement that the PA State Senate must vote to approve. If the Senate approves the new judge, the judge serves until the next odd-numbered year, at which time an election is held to select a new (or the governor-appointed) judge to serve a 10-year term. If the Senate does not approve the governor's choice, however, the seat remains vacant until the next odd-numbered year.
Judges on all three courts can, if retained, serve an unlimited amount of 10-year terms, but must retire when they turn 75.
Justices Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty, and David Wecht, three members of the court's current 5-2 Democratic majority are standing in retention elections, meaning they will not have opponents but voters will vote yes or no as to whether the justices should receive an additional 10-year term on the bench. Should any justice fail to win the support of a majority of voters this November, that justice would be replaced temporarily by Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), subject to confirmation by a two-thirds vote of the state senate. Voters would then elect a justice to a full term in a competitive partisan election in 2027.
Message - County Retention
MCRC is recommending that voters vote "yes" to retain Dan Clifford, Todd Eisenberg, and Risa Ferman for the Court of Common Pleas.
Why vote "yes" to Clifford and Eisenberg if they are Democrats:
By publicly supporting the retention of Clifford and Eisenberg, we secure the bi-partisan support required to retain Republican Risa Ferman. Without bi-partisan support, Ferman is very susceptible to losing retention since Republicans are the minority in Montgomery County. This would result in a new election in 2027, in which the Republican party must field a new candidate and run against a Democrat candidate.
Given the Republican minority and Democrat majority of registered voters in Montgomery County, and the fact it's been very challenging to field Republican attorney/judge candidates (notice we have none for court of common pleas), it would be difficult to win this position again for a Republican judge. Therefore, bi-partisan support to retain all three judges secures the position of a Republican judge.
