Pennsylvania state Supreme Court judicial candidate Joan Orie Melvin is campaigning in Erie today.
Orie Melvin, of Allegheny County, has served on the state Superior Court since 1997, when she was the first female Republican elected to the court.
She is running on a reform platform. In an interview with the Times-News this morning, Orie Melvin, 53, said she believes in transparency in the courts. If elected, she plans to advocate that the state Judicial Conduct Board be severed from the state Supreme Court and placed under an independent commission.
She also advocates the campaign finance reform for judicial elections and said that Supreme Court hearings should be broadcast on television so that citizens have greater access to the deliberations of the court.
“I have always believed that judges are public servants and should not be isolated in ivory chambers. They should be connected to the community,” she said.
Orie Melvin, a judge for 24 years, said gender, party affiliation and other factors do not dictate how she rules. She said her role as judge is to apply the law and not advocate or legislate from the bench.
On Nov. 3, she will face off against fellow Superior Court Judge Jack Panella, a Democrat from Northampton, who was unopposed in the May primary.

– Lisa Thompson