You might have gotten an ad in the mail recently encouraging you to vote “no” on the three judges facing judicial retention elections. Or perhaps you saw a TV spot with three smiling justices — Christine Donohue, Kevin M. Dougherty and David Wecht — boasting that they are all recommended for retention by the PA Bar Association. Or maybe you saw one scrolling through Instagram, saying that voters can “term limit” these justices. Or on YouTube. Or X.

Pennsylvanians are no strangers to political advertisements. But rarely do they enter the mix when it comes to judicial retention elections — a sleepy, off-season affair Pennsylvanians use to decide if justices on the state’s three appellate courts should serve another 10-year term. Only one judge has ever lost a judicial retention race

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