HARRISBURG (AP) – Party nominees for four open seats on PA’s statewide appellate courts will be settled in today’s primary election. The top-of-the-ticket race is for a state Supreme Court seat. On the Democrat ticket are Dan McCaffery of Philadelphia and Deborah Kunselman of Beaver County. Both currently sit on the statewide Superior Court, which handles appeals from county courts in criminal and civil cases. On the Republican ticket are Carolyn Carluccio, a Montgomery County judge and Patricia McCullough, a judge on the Commonwealth Court, which handles cases involving government agencies or state laws. Five candidates are running for two open seats on the state Superior Court. On the Democrat ticket are Jill Beck, Pat Dugan, and Timika Lane. Dugan is president judge of the Philadelphia Municipal Court, Lane is a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge, and Beck of Pittsburgh, is a lawyer in private practice who has clerked on the state Superior and Supreme courts. On Republican ballot will be Harry Smail, a Westmoreland County judge, and Maria Battista, a Clarion County lawyer. For Commonwealth Court, one seat is open after Republican judge Kevin Brobson was elected to the state Supreme Court in 2021. On Democrat ballots is Matt Wolf, a Philadelphia Municipal Court judge, and Bryan Neft, a trial lawyer from Pittsburgh. On Republican ballots are Megan Martin, who spent more than a decade as parliamentarian of the state Senate, and Joshua Prince, a Berks County lawyer.
