207 Pa. Code §§ 00-1
The Committee has received several requests for advice asking whether it is permissible for a judge to sign a candidate's nomination petition. Because of the importance of this issue throughout the Commonwealth, the Committee issues this Formal Opinion. A bare majority of the Committee is of the opinion that signing a nomination petition is prohibited; a minority of the Committee is of the opinion that signing a nomination petition is permitted.
Candidates for elective office who wish to have their names placed on the ballot for the primary election of a major political party must obtain a certain number of signatures of the voters of the party on a nomination petition. See generally25 P. S. sec 2862, 2869.
Code of Judicial Conduct 7A (1)(b) prohibits a judge or candidate for judicial office from publicly endorsing a candidate for public office except as authorized by section 7A (2). Code of Judicial Conduct 7A (2) permits a judge holding an office filled by public election between competing candidates, or a candidate for such office, among other things, "to speak on behalf of any other judicial candidate for the same office."
Code of Judicial Conduct 7A (4) prohibits a judge from engaging "in other political activity except on behalf of measures to improve the law, the legal system, or the administration of justice."
A majority of the Committee joins the Florida Committee and concludes that a judge may not sign a candidate's nomination petition. Florida Committee on Standards of Conduct for Judges Opinion 92-32. A majority of the Committee declines to follow other committees which have permitted signing.
207 Pa. Code §§ 00-1