(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Republican Pennsylvania Supreme Court candidate is trying to hide extreme views [1] ['Daily Kos Staff'] Date: 2023-10-25 Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court race is a critically important one, with a choice between protecting a solid Democratic majority or putting Republicans within striking distance of retaking the court in 2025. And once again, it’s a race where a Republican candidate is trying to hide their extreme positions on two key issues: abortion rights and election denial. The Philadelphia Inquirer, like Daily Kos, has endorsed Judge Dan McCaffery for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The Inquirer's endorsement highlights two of the questions where McCaffery’s Republican opponent, Carolyn Carluccio, fell short in her answers—and voters should be paying attention. On abortion: [Carluccio] was endorsed by two Pennsylvania antiabortion associations and removed a reference on her website that said she was a defender of “all life under the law.” In a meeting with this board, Carluccio said she would follow the law in Pennsylvania regarding abortion. She said she did not scrub the “all life” language from her website, but rather a political consultant “updated” it before the primary. Bottom line: The antiabortion language was removed before election season. By her own account, Carluccio wasn’t the one to remove the anti-abortion language—it was done by a political consultant, who was presumably tasked with making her a more palatable candidate. Those two anti-abortion groups probably didn’t endorse her just for fun, either. She told them things they wanted to hear from a potential Supreme Court justice who could be hearing challenges to abortion access in Pennsylvania. Then there’s the question of who won the 2020 election. Last spring, while speaking to a Republican audience, Carluccio suggested that there had been significant problems with Pennsylvania’s election procedures, saying, “We should be able to go to the polls and understand that our vote counts and understand that there’s not going to be some hanky-panky going on in the back.” She was speaking specifically about Act 77, a 2019 law that expanded voting access. At the same event, she directly encouraged a legal challenge to that law. “I would welcome that to come up before me again, let’s put it that way,” she said. “I can tell you that Act 77 has been very bad for our commonwealth.” When the Inquirer editorial board asked her directly if she thinks President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, Carluccio replied, “I have no idea.” Then she went on. “Yeah, I think he’s the president. Obviously, he’s our president. I believe he won the election. There are people in my party who don’t believe that. I do believe that I’ll be very clear about it. And I should have just been more direct in the beginning.” Hmm. It’s not clear how you follow “I have no idea” with a convincing case that actually you do have an idea and you believe the true and correct answer, but if there is a way to do that, this wasn’t it. It kind of reads like she had to awkwardly talk herself into saying the words, “I believe he won the election.” So this is the choice Pennsylvania voters have: They can vote for McCaffery, who the Inquirer described as “a highly qualified and fair judge” who is “the best choice for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.” Or they can vote for Carluccio, whose position on abortion disappeared from her website during the campaign, who has encouraged a legal challenge to a bipartisan voting law that’s already been upheld by the state Supreme Court once, and whose first answer when asked if the president won the last presidential election was, “I have no idea.” Donate now to protect abortion access and the 2024 elections by electing Judge Dan McCaffery to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/10/25/2201504/-Republican-Pennsylvania-Supreme-Court-candidate-is-trying-to-hide-extreme-views Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/