Democrat appears poised to snare state Commonwealth Court seat as tight race flips

Pennsylvania Democrats appear poised to pick up a seat on the state’s Commonwealth Court.

As provisional and mail-in ballots were tallied late last week, preliminary returns showed Democrat Lori Dumas, a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge, slightly ahead of Drew Crompton, a Republican judge who was running for a full 10-year term.

In 2019, Gov. Tom Wolf appointed Crompton, former counsel to Senate Republican leaders, to a two-year vacancy on the court that hears government disputes.

If the razor thin margin between Dumas and Crompton holds, it would be sufficient to trigger an automatic recount under state election laws that provide for such when candidates in statewide races are divided by less .5% of votes.

Crompton’s apparent slide would dash the GOP’s hope of taking all four openings — one on the Supreme Court, one on Superior Court and two on Commonwealth Court — on the state’s appellate bench. When the polls closed Tuesday, preliminary returns suggested Republicans had pulled off the sweep.

But the narrow margin Crompton held over Dumas closed last week as provisional and mail-in ballot counts came in. The Pennsylvania Department of State website showed Dumas with a 12,565 vote edge as of Tuesday morning.

A state department spokeswoman said the candidate who is trailing in such races can opt to forego an automatic recount but must file papers stating that by Wednesday.

In recent years, candidates in two statewide races opted to forego recounts in such races. Automatic recounts conducted under the automatic recount clause in appellate court races in 2009 and 2011 affirmed the original totals.