HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled Senate on Wednesday confirmed Gov. Tom Wolf’s nominations of a former state attorney general and a top Senate Republican aide to fill two state court vacancies.
Bruce Beemer, Wolf’s inspector general and a longtime prosecutor who served a stint as state attorney general in 2016, will replace a retired judge on the Allegheny County Court.
Drew Crompton, Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati’s chief counsel and chief of staff, will replace the retired Judge Robert Simpson on the Commonwealth Court, a statewide appellate court that typically hears disputes in which a government entity is a party.
Both will serve until a successor is picked in 2021’s election and sworn in to a 10-year term.
As inspector general since 2016, Beemer ran an office that investigates complaints about fraud, waste and misconduct in state agencies.
Beemer, a former first deputy attorney general and Allegheny County prosecutor, stepped in as Wolf’s nominee to the attorney general’s post for five months in 2016 to finish the elected term of his former boss, Kathleen Kane.
Kane had resigned after she was convicted of abusing the powers of the office by leaking secret grand jury information to smear a rival and lying under oath to cover it up.
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