News & Brews November 21, 2022

It’s never too early to start, right? Next year, Pennsylvania will hold judicial elections, and at the top of the ticket will be a race for an open state Supreme Court seat. The AP reportsthat Democrat Superior Court Judge Dan McCaffery plans to run. McCaffery was first elected to the Superior Court in 2019. Currently, Democrats hold four seats on the seven-seat high court, and Republicans hold two. One seat is vacant following the death of Chief Justice Max Baer. Separately, Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Harry Smail Jr., a Republican, announced he will run for an open seat on Commonwealth Court.

On Friday, the Pa. House named the three lawmakers who will serve as prosecution managers in the Senate impeachment trial of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner. They are Republican Rep. Craig Williams (Delaware and Chester counties), Republican Rep. Tim Bonner (Mercer and Butler counties), and Democrat Rep. Jared Solomon (Philadelphia). The trial is expected to begin later this month, and a two-thirds vote is required to remove Krasner from office.

Broad + Liberty Editor-at-Large Kyle Sammin analyzes Mastriano’s and Oz’s county-by-county performance among Republicans, both as compared with each other and as compared with Trump. Sammin writes that this data provides “some evidence that hints at where there is room to grow the Republican vote in 2024.” Read his piece here.

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate fell to 4% in October, which is the lowest rate since 1976, City and State PA reports. But there’s a catch. As the Commonwealth Foundation’s Nathan Benefield explains: “Pa.’s unemployment rate is artificially low, because labor force participation is declining; 107,000 Pennsylvanians dropped out of the labor force since January 2020. The Employment-to-Population ratio is significantly below pre-pandemic level[s].”