Former Commonwealth Court President Judge Bonnie Brigance Leadbetter recently answered ten questions in the Philadelphia Bar Association’s quarterly publication, the Philadelphia Lawyer.  She was asked, “As a judge who was first appointed and then elected and retained to Commonwealth Court, do you believe that Pennsylvania should continue to elect judges?”  Judge Leadbetter responded, “No.  I have always supported some kind of appointive process.”  In both systems, she explained, one will find very good and very bad judges; however, "the money that is involved in the elective process is a problem and it gets worse because the amount of money it takes to run is enormous these days.”  She explained that judicial campaign contributions continue to increase, and “it’s not going to come for the most part from people who have no interest whatsoever.”
 
Judge Leadbetter explained that she has never seen any kind of partisanship or bias among judges.  Despite these observations, she noted that it is difficult to credibly convey this to the public.  "It’s hard for the citizens to read about big money being given by an interest group to a judge or a judicial candidate and not suspect that there might be some influence, even if it isn’t justified.”
 
In an elective process, there is more of an appearance of bias and partisanship because of who is contributing and the contribution amount.  Judge Leadbetter brings up an interesting point: if there is no partisanship or bias, even the appearance of partisanship weakens the judicial system.