Cheryl Allen Builds Support in GOP Supreme Court Primary May 8 2009
First off, I should be clear: I am a GOP Committeeman. As such, I formally support all candidates endorsed by the PA Republican party. Such is the price one pays if one wants to help make the party better from the inside.
The endorsed candidate for the PA Supreme Court in the current contested primary is Joan Orie Melvin, so she is who I support.
Bob Guzzardi, though, just came out in support of Judge Cheryl Allen in his weekly newsletter. Bob, for those that don’t know, is one of the most energetic conservative activists in southeastern Pennsylvania. Some take him with a grain of salt, as he is a real “all or nothing” kind of guy. As such, I have lots of disagreements with him, and he sometimes accuses me of being a RINO, an accusation my personal friends would find patently absurd.
But there are three candidates in total, and Bob’s reasoning runs something like this:
Joan Orie Melvin: Too close to the GOP political leadership, so may have trouble impartially adjudicating issues that involve that leadership. Also sports the endorsement of the PSEA (the teachers union), so she may not be an ally for school choice. Finally, the PSEA alliance may be problematic if potential legislation to end teachers strikes happens to reach her bench.
Paul Panepinto: Bob is uncomfortable with the amount of money he has taken from the same Texas law firm detailed in this Wall St. Journal piece. His political allies do seem, to Bob, to overlap with many of Ed Rendell’s.
Cheryl Allen: Mr. Guzzardi believes her to be independent of the leadership of both political parties, and is hence best equipped to fulfill the judiciary’s non-partisan role. She also has a compelling personal narrative, being probably the most prominent self-proclaimed judicial originalist in the Commonwealth who also happens to be an African-American woman. Not that this should matter, but electoral politics and image are what they are.
Again, I formally support Judge Orie Melvin. She can raise a ton of money, and has run a statewide race before, when she lost to current Supreme Court Justice Baer a few years back, so she has high name-recognition. These are qualifications not to be dismissed.
But many conservatives have been casting around for a horse in this race, and it looks to this observer they may be settling on Judge Allen.
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