“Merit Selection” for Governor?

Apr 25th, 2008 | By Dan Pero | Category: Judicial Elections, Pennsylvania, State Battlegrounds | Print Print

Great tongue-in-cheek piece in today’s Philadelphia Daily News by attorney Gerald McOscar, but with a serious point. If so-called “merit selection” is such a great idea for choosing Pennsylvania judges why stop there?

But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. In fact, why stop with judges? As long as we’re talking reform, let’s take it to the next level. Why not merit selection for all statewide elective offices? Broad-based commissions for governor and regional broad-based commissions for lawmakers.

Heh. How about commissions for selecting the school board, city council members, and other offices? Bottomline: people treasure their right to vote and won’t stand for secret selection commissions replacing that right.

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  1. Shira Goodman April 26th, 2008 3:06 am :

    Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, PMCAction and fellow merit selection supporters trust the people of Pennsylvania to decide the best way to select appellate court judges. That’s why we want the voters to decide in a referendum, the final stage of the constitutional amendment process, how they want to pick their appellate court judges. Merit selection opponents are loathe to let this happen. Why are they afraid to let the voters decide?

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