MERCER, Pa. (WKBN) – With just days left before the General Election, Pennsylvania’s Republican Appeals Court candidates are barnstorming the commonwealth.
Montgomery County Judge and former federal Prosecutor Carolyn Carluccio is running for a seat on the Supreme Court.
“I need to be part of the solution, and my career has really led me to this point,” she said.
Her Democratic opponent is current Superior Court Judge Dan McCaffery, who has been touting his record in the military and on the bench.
“Someone who has a well-established and well-earned reputation for being kinda fair, honest and above board,” he said.
As we’ve seen in other statewide races in Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh areas have often overwhelmed other parts of the commonwealth. Those candidates here in Mercer are hoping to change that.
“We’re going into every single county in this commonwealth and reaching out to people because you know what? A vote in Mercer County means just as much as a vote in Philadelphia County,” Carluccio said.
But McCaffery believes his record, having already run a successful statewide campaign, will make the difference.
“I tend to do very well in rural areas. I don’t necessarily win a very rural Republican county, but I’m very different,” McCaffery said.
Still, recent polling suggests a vast majority of registered voters don’t know either of the candidates well enough to have opinions about them. Both say they’re doing what they can to get their messages across.
“You have to get your kind of bio and your history about who you are and what you stand for out front of as many voters as you can. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of talking about that,” McCaffery said.
“It is so important that judges are elected who understand their role in our government. So I do think that reaching out to people is one of the ways that we’re reaching out to the community,” Carluccio said.
We may learn who was the most effective come Tuesday night.
