HARRISBURG -- Two bills to make a major change in the way appellate court judges are chosen have sat around for months, waiting for the Legislature to act, but now Gov. Ed Rendell has jumped in to get them moving.

Merit selection of judges is needed for several reasons, he said Wednesday, one being the recent criminal charges filed against state Sen. Jane Orie as a result of the 2009 state Supreme Court race. Also, he said, the "explosive" growth in funds spent to elect appellate judges is giving the public a negative perception of the court system.

Mr. Rendell stressed that he wasn't making any conclusions about the theft and conspiracy charges filed against Ms. Orie and her sister, Janine Orie, by Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. Based on a grand jury report, Mr. Zappala has charged them with using the senator's political staff last year to help elect another sister, Joan Orie Melvin, to the Supreme Court.

Mr. Rendell said that if Supreme Court justices, along with Superior and Commonwealth Court judges, didn't have to be elected, the charges against Jane and Janine Orie would never have occurred.

"We shouldn't have people campaigning through the political system for judges and justices," he told reporters. "The [charges] against Sen. Orie wouldn't have happened."

He also was alarmed about the total of $4.7 million that he said was spent last year in the hard-fought Supreme Court race between Republican Melvin, who had been a Superior Court judge, and her Democratic opponent, Superior Court Judge Jack Pannella. Mr. Rendell said the large amount spent in that contest, which included in-kind services as well as actual donations, is twice what was spent on Supreme Court races just 10 years ago.

Most of the money contributed to court candidates comes from lawyers who appear before judges or litigants such as big corporations and big unions, he said, adding that such contributions should be taken out of the process of choosing judges. He said he wasn't implying that any judges have been corrupted by campaign contributions, but the money does contribute to "a negative public perception" of the court system.

Problems from the "cash for kids" scandal in Luzerne County, where two judges are charged with profiting from sending juveniles to holding facilities where they had a financial interest and a recent newspaper series about problems in Philadelphia courts also have contributed to public skepticism about the courts, he added.

The governor urged the House and Senate to act quickly on either a bill sponsored by Rep. Matt Smith, D-Mt. Lebanon, or a similar one by Sen. Jane Earll, R-Erie, to create a 14-member panel, with eight members chosen by the governor and legislators and six being ordinary citizens picked by lottery. The panel would give a governor several qualified candidates for each opening on the three appellate courts. The governor then would choose one candidate to fill an opening and he or she would have to be confirmed by the Senate.

Mr. Rendell said he also would like to see a "county option" in the new process, where voters in each county could decide if they want Common Pleas judges chosen by the same merit selection process or to continue electing them.

Merit selection of judges would have to be approved by the Legislature in two different sessions -- for example, 2010 and again in 2011 -- and then approved by voters in a statewide referendum, the soonest being November 2011.

Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, supports merit selection for appellate courts, as does a Philadelphia-based group, Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts.

Mr. Ferlo said, "The impact of the electoral system on the impartiality of judges puts the fairness of our courts in question, and now requires judicial candidates ... to raise millions of dollars to run their campaigns."

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