Hooray, PA! We were 1 for 2 yesterday.

I am hoping (but not holding my breath) the voters don't ever calm down. I am certain the weasel politicians will keep up their end of the bargain and remain weasels.

I doubt Justice Nigro is no ogre, and I'm sure Slow Eddie Rendell will name someone much worse to replace him, but this election was about the people taking control back from the political class that rules over us. Nigro was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm sure he has a lucrative ambulance-chasing practice to get back to in Philly.

IF (and that's a big if, kiddies) the people of the Keystone State keep this up, this state may someday again be fit for human habitation.

Nigro ousted from top court; Newman wins

State Supreme Court Justice Russell Nigro didn't vote for the pay raises, but he paid for them anyway.

Voters yesterday ousted Nigro by a 51-49 ratio, making him the first justice on the high court to ever lose a retention election.

Justice Sandra Schultz Newman won a new term on the state's highest court, with 54 percent of voters saying she should stay.

Judicial-retention elections traditionally lack drama. But Newman and Nigro were the first statewide candidates to face voters since July, when Gov. Ed Rendell and lawmakers approved the raises for themselves, judges and top state officials.

With no lawmakers seeking re-election yesterday, many said they saw the two justices as fitting targets. Government-reform advocates implored voters to make a statement.

By any measure, they did.

"By making history today, Pennsylvania voters have also begun to make their future," said Tim Potts, who led the coalition Democracy Rising to seize on the voter outrage.

"People want integrity in government, and anyone who is running for governor or the Legislature next year who doesn't get that message will not be elected," Potts added.

Opponents of the pay raise mounted vigorous campaigns arguing that change in government starts with removing the justices. They said the high court's rulings encouraged lawmakers to skirt provisions in the state Constitution designed to ensure an open legislative process.

Nigro became the state's first appellate judge to lose a retention vote since the yes-no vote was instituted in 1969...

It's about time.

Nigro will serve until his term expires in early January. Then, Rendell will nominate a replacement. With Senate confirmation, an appointee would serve through 2007, when voters would elect a candidate for a 10-year term.

Newman can serve until November 2007, when she reaches the court's mandatory retirement age of 70.