"I am just overwhelmed," said McCaffery, who said it was tough for a Philadelphian to mount a successful statewide campaign. "I have become electable despite having Philadelphia under my name."
In the GOP primary, Montgomery County lawyer Michael L. Krancer and state Superior Court Judge Maureen Lally-Green of Butler County won the nomination. Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Paul P. Panepinto, who did not have the state GOP party backing, pledged to support Lally-Green and Krancer.
"I am very happy and very satisfied with this victory," said Krancer, former chief judge of the state Environmental Hearing Board and a great-nephew of the late publisher and philanthropist Walter H. Annenberg.
McCaffery and Todd edged out Philadelphia Common Pleas Court President Judge C. Darnell Jones II, who had the support of Gov. Rendell and had mounted a vigorous campaign.
Jones, who did not have the backing of the state party, said he was hurt by insufficient resources to do TV commercials in the expensive Philadelphia market, and low voter turnout in the city.
Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Willis W. Berry Jr. - the only candidate rated "not recommended" by the Pennsylvania Bar Association - was fourth in the Democratic primary, despite capturing more than 58,000 Philadelphia votes.
While the candidates for the state's highest court topped the ballot yesterday, voters also had to pick and choose among a slew of judicial candidates for everything from Traffic Court to trial court to the state Superior Court.
In the race for four seats on the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, the top vote-getters were Linda Carpenter, who has been a lawyer at two Center City firms and specializes in appellate law; Alice Beck Dubow, formerly a lawyer with the City Solicitor's Office and deputy general counsel at Drexel University; Michael Erdos, a former city prosecutor; and Ellen Green-Ceisler, a former city prosecutor who served as the Police Department's oversight officer.
