There are two candidates from each party seeking the nomination to run for Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
On the Republican ballot are Patricia McCullough, currently a Commonwealth Court judge, and Carolyn Carluccio, a judge of the Montgomery Court of Common Pleas.
On the Democratic ballot are Daniel McCaffery and Debbie Kunselman, both Superior Court justices.
REPUBLICANS
McCullough has served on the Commonwealth Court for more than 12 years, was a trial judge in the Allegheny Court of Common Pleas and served as the chair of appellate court procedural rules committee, appointed by the PA Supreme Court. She has said she is the only candidate who has the extensive appellate court judge experience necessary to be ready on day one to serve on the highest appellate court in PA.
For 25 years she was a practicing attorney in the private, corporate and government sectors.
She served as assistant general counsel at the University of Pittsburgh, an adjunct faculty member, member of the NCAA Career Counseling panel, judicial clerk, chair of the Allegheny County Board of Property Appeals, and executive director of Catholic Charities.
She earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pittsburgh, graduating magna cum laude, and her Juris Doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
She ruled in favor of limiting the governor’s pandemic restrictions, and presided over the 2022 Congressional redistricting trial and ruled in favor of the legislature’s right to determine the boundaries of the map. She refused a 2005 pay raise.
Listing her important issues, she said, “Election integrity, protecting the people’s rights by upholding the Constitution and laws as they are written, including the Second Amendment, religious freedom, freedom of speech, and every other Constitutional right and liberty of the people.”
Carluccio is a judge on the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas, to which she was first elected in 2009.
Before becoming a judge, Carluccio worked on both sides of the justice system. After a few years in private practice at the start of her career, she became an assistant U.S. attorney in Delaware in 1989 and served in the role for nearly a decade. She then served as chief public defender of Montgomery County from 2002 to 2006.
Carluccio also worked as chief deputy solicitor for Montgomery County, handling contract negotiations, real estate matters, and personnel and labor law issues. She also did a stint as the county’s acting director of human resources between 2008 and 2009.
Carluccio was elected unanimously by her peers to serve as president judge of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas in 2022.
The Pennsylvania Republican Party endorsed Carluccio in early February, choosing her over another candidate who had previously run for state Supreme Court.
She was rated “Highly Recommended” by the Pennsylvania Bar Association, which called her a “highly respected jurist.”
In her PBA questionnaire, she wrote that she “wants a justice system that is fair and impartial.” She also wrote that her “diverse court experience” is an asset, citing her experience on both sides of the justice system as well as in family and civil cases.
DEMOCRATS
McCaffery, a Philadelphia native, was elected to Superior Court in 2019.
A veteran of the U.S. Army, McCaffery began his legal career as an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia, where he was assigned to the major trials unit.
Following his stint in the DA’s office, McCaffery joined a private firm based in Montgomery County and spent 16 years there as a civil trial attorney.
Before being elected to the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas in 2013, McCaffery volunteered as legal counsel for the Philadelphia Democratic City Committee and was a member of the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee. McCaffery’s website notes that he has also worked on 50 campaigns as a manager, fundraiser, and canvasser.
McCaffery is the Pennsylvania Democratic Party’s endorsed candidate, and his website also lists endorsements from the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association, the Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters, and the Pennsylvania State Building & Construction Trades Council.
He was rated “Highly Recommended” by the Pennsylvania Bar Association, which wrote that he has “sound knowledge of legal principles” and a history of “community involvement.”
McCaffery wrote in his PBA questionnaire that he is running for state Supreme Court because he thinks that “Democratic Institutions including the judiciary are under duress.” He said that he hopes to restore confidence in the court system and will “approach every case in a non-partisan manner.”
Kunselman is based in Beaver County. She was an honors graduate of both Penn State University and the University of Notre Dame Law School.
She began her judicial career with an election to the Beaver County Court of Common Pleas in 2005 — the first woman ever elected to that position, and won a seat on Superior Court in 2017.
She spent 13 years in private practice before that, working in civil litigation and family and employment law at several Pittsburgh-area law firms. During eight of those years, she also served as assistant solicitor and then chief solicitor for Beaver County.
She was the first woman elected to the Court of Common Pleas in Beaver County.
Outside of her practice, Kunselman sometimes lectures about legal issues, volunteers as a religious education instructor, and annually serves as a judge at the Beaver County Mock Trial Competition.
She was rated “Highly Recommended” — the top designation — by the Pennsylvania Bar Association, which wrote that she has a “reputation for being a thoughtful appellate decision-maker, open to persuasion, and proceeding in each matter with integrity and high character.”
In her PBA questionnaire, Kunselman wrote that her “passion for the law and love of writing opinions” drove her to run for state Supreme Court. She said that she hopes to write unambiguous, precedent-setting opinions that lawyers will be able to clearly understand.
