Supreme Court race tops Pa. ballot

HARRISBURG, Pa. - November 2, 2009 -- Candidates for Pennsylvania's highest court are winding up a campaign for state Supreme Court marked by a blistering battle of TV attack ads.

The $3 million-plus contest between Democrat Jack Panella and Republican Joan Orie Melvin is at the top of Tuesday's statewide ballot. Both candidates are currently judges on the state Superior Court.

Panella has raised by far the most money - more than $2.5 million - mostly from trial lawyers, who have given him $1.3 million, and a parade of organized labor groups.

Voters also will be filling four seats on the Superior Court and two on the Commonwealth Court.

Terry Madonna, a professor and pollster at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, says he expects fewer than one-quarter of the state's nearly 8.5 million voters to cast ballots.

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