Maybe now, they’ll take the people seriously. Now that the voters have put the fear of God into Justice Sandra Schultz Newman and sent Justice Russell Nigro to the unemployment line. Just maybe, the most conceited legislators in the country will finally get the message.
The voters of Pennsylvania don’t just want an apology for the July 7 middle-of-the night pay heist — they want revenge! The victims are fighting back. They’ve cornered their attackers and want to beat them to a pulp before turning them over to the authorities.
That’s the message the 253 members of the Pennsylvania "House of Lords" need to walk away with after last Tuesday’s election results.
Never before in the history of Pennsylvania retention elections has a state judge been tossed out of office by voters. It’s nearly impossible to get more people to vote "no" than "yes" in a retention election, where judges typically are returned to office by 3-1 margins.
While Russell Nigro’s name was listed on the ballot, the vote against him was symbolic, although hearing his comments after the defeat, Nigro probably deserved to lose. Nigro took his banishment hard, calling Pennsylvania voters "irrational" and "misguided." Displaying the typical hubris of a Harrisburg insider, Nigro told the Associated Press, "I don’t know what they thought they accomplished by knocking me out of the box."
The 804,000 "No" votes cast against Nigro on Nov. 8 sent a message to the 253 legislators who fattened their bank accounts on the backs of working Pennsylvanians and senior citizens struggling on a fixed income. The voters said "No" to a do-nothing governor who worries more about Eagles football than Pennsylvania’s continuing decline.
They voted "No" to a Supreme Court that looks the other way when the larcenous legislators raid the public treasury to line their own pockets, double their pensions and give themselves unrivaled perks. The legislators have also thumbed their collective nose at the Constitution on a regular basis, but our esteemed judiciary, including Justice Nigro, has chosen to wink at the lawmakers time and time again.
Don’t weep for Russell Nigro. He can run again for the Supreme Court in 2007 or return to a lucrative private practice. And don’t worry about hurting Justice Newman’s feelings, either. She’ll retire in three years with a fat state pension when she reaches the mandatory judicial retirement age of 70. In the meantime, she’ll enjoy the $171,000 a year salary the legislators approved on July 7 for state Supreme Court justices.
What lessons can we glean from Tuesday’s vote?
First, the party line from Harrisburg that the citizen revolt is the creation of talk radio, newspaper columnists and editorial writers was proven wrong. Pennsylvania voters have had enough of the overpaid, underachieving Harrisburg bunch. It’s open season on incumbents. You’re going to need a scorecard to keep track of how many of our esteemed legislators retire in 2006, giving up the big paychecks and fancy cars before Pennsylvania voters ride them out of town on a rail.
The Republican Party in Pennsylvania might as well start packing its bags. It’s going on a trip to a place called political purgatory. What do the next 12 months look like for the state GOP? Let’s just say, it’s not good to be the ruling party in a state where the citizens are shouting, "Off with their heads!"
GOP bosses made two huge mistakes leading up to the election. They refused to condemn the pay-jacking, choosing to stand with the villainous John Perzel and the Harrisburg Hogs. Having lost the moral high ground, the GOP then put hundreds of thousands of dollars into a last-ditch effort to save Justice Newman’s job.
They even dug up former Gov. Tom Ridge to beg Republicans to spare Newman. Voters wanted blood, but the GOP bosses denied voters their retribution. That will cost the GOP big time at the polls in 2006. And what does it say about the party’s clout when 672,000 voters still voted against Newman?
The revolution is just getting started. The latest Keystone Poll, released days after the election, shows that anger over the pay-jacking will last through the 2006 elections. Voters clearly are not satisfied by the legislature’s half-hearted attempt to repeal the pay raise. Isn’t it amazing that the vote to increase their own pay was taken at 2 a.m. without a single person raising an objection, but the House and Senate cannot figure out a way to undo the pay raise.
The next step to take back our state government from the corrupt politicians is for honest, civic-minded Pennsylvanians to step forward to challenge the do-nothing legislators in the May 16, 2006, primary election. In many cases, that means running against people in your own party. It also means that voters should consider changing their party registration so they can vote out incumbents in their districts. You can always switch back in time for the November election, but many of you won’t get the chance to oust incumbents if they get a free pass in the primary.
Residents in southeastern Pennsylvania also need to wake up to the reality that Ed Rendell is the worst governor in the United States and no matter how much he did to revive Philadelphia, Pennsylvania cannot afford four more years of Rendell. It’s called addition by subtraction. The Phillies fired general manager Ed Wade. The Eagles cut Terrell Owens. The people who elected Ed Rendell — essentially the residents of Philadelphia and its five suburban counties — must replace "Fast Eddie" if Pennsylvania is to have any hope for the future.
E-mail Tony Phyrillas at tphyrillas@pottsmerc.com
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