Candidate for Pa. high court alters campaign ad

Follows complaint from his opponent

HARRISBURG — The Republican candidate for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has revised an ad attacking his opponent after the state bar association notified him it ran afoul of its judicial campaign advertising standards.

A top campaign aide to Commonwealth Court Judge Kevin Brobson said Thursday the modified version of the ad critical of Judge Brobson’s Democratic opponent, Superior Court Judge Maria McLaughlin, has begun to air.

The adviser, Bob Branstetter, said it was changed in response to communication from the bar association’s Judicial Campaign Advertising Committee but that confidentiality agreements between the candidates and bar association group prevented him from going into details.

“The bar association asked us to do some things,” Mr. Branstetter said. “We agreed to do what they asked us to do.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Saturday that the bar committee directed the Brobson campaign to withdraw the ad or issue a release clarifying portions of the ad that violated the bar’s advertising guidelines. The bar guidelines say problematic ads can also be revised.

The amended version of the ad provided to The Associated Press by the Brobson campaign deletes a claim that “one of her largest donors is indicted by the FBI for political bribery” and adds more context about her role in a 2020 appeals ruling to say she cast the deciding vote and sided with the author of the majority opinion rather than the dissenting judge, who would have let the guilty plea stand.

Both versions of Judge Brobson’s ad say that in the 2020 Superior Court decision, Judge McLaughlin “chose to void the guilty plea of a drunk driver who admitted to killing a pregnant woman and her unborn child.” In a case out of Blair County, Judge McLaughlin and another judge ruled the defendant had been incorrectly advised by his lawyer about the elements of his crime.

The case was sent back to

county court, where the defendant again pleaded guilty to homicide by vehicle and related offenses. He was never released from jail and is currently in state prison.

Judge Brobson and Judge McLaughlin are seeking to replace Republican Justice Thomas Saylor, who has reached mandatory retirement age. It’s a race that has drawn millions in campaign donations, much of it used for television advertising.

McLaughlin campaign manager Celeste Dee confirmed the McLaughlin campaign lodged a complaint about the Brobson ad.

“I have done multiple, multiple statewide races, and I have never, ever seen such negative, untrue campaigning in all my life in a judicial campaign,” Ms. Dee said. “It’s why they’re held to a higher standard — the judiciary should uphold the law.”

Ms. Dee said that even in its revised form, the ad is a baseless attack on a judicial opinion for political purposes.

“He’s using a sound legal decision and misleading the public in an effort to cast Judge McLaughlin in such a way that the public would feel unsafe,” Ms. Dee said. “The spirit of that ad is still deceptive and misleading to the public.”

The court has a 5-2 Democratic majority so the contest will not significantly alter its partisan composition.