House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014 Regular Session

Posted:	December 16, 2013 11:31 AM
From:	Representative Ted Harhai
To:	All House members
Subject:	Cosponsorship: Judicial Retention Races

In the near future, I plan to introduce a constitutional amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution requiring a justice or judge running for retention in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to disclose his or her party affiliation on the ballot. Many people across the Commonwealth find themselves in front of judges who every 10 years must run for retention to keep their court bench seat. Lawyers often endorse, contribute to and assist campaigns of judges before whom they practice and have pending cases. Publicly filed campaign finance reports are available, but may not be timely enough to reveal all attorney, or party, contributions in particular cases to voters. In addition, this information is not always easily available. I strongly believe that judges should take the initiative to routinely disclose complete, current information about campaign contributions. One of the easiest way to do this is to disclose party affiliation. This would eliminate any appearance of impropriety or questions about a judge's rulings and promote public confidence in the judiciary branch of government. In the interest of justice, judges should disclose their party affiliation. I hope you join me in this endeavor and cosponsor this constitutional amendment for open transparency elections.
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Introduced as HB1986