Angry PA voters oust justice

As posted in FR here last week, a pay raise voted on in the dead of night last summer by the Pennsylvania Legislature has kept voters outraged and spurred legislation to repeal the raises.

Pennsylvania legislators were not up for reelection this past Tuesday, so Supreme Court Justice Russell Nigro's narrow loss in a retention vote is seen as a pay-raise backlash, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Nov. 10. The pay raises have generated a "populist insurrection." The 2006 elections will be the next battleground - all 203 House seats and half of the 50 Senate seats will be up for vote. "If those legislators want to keep their jobs, they must start making amends," say political analysts.

Nigro was a well-regarded jurist, and his ouster was a first for a justice. In a related Inquirer article, Justice Nigro stated, "I believe the public was so angry with the legislature they became blinded. They said: 'We don't care. Get rid of him.'"