It's probably a safe bet Pennsylvania labor leaders are hoping for a better turnout from voters in the Nov. 4 election than what they got from a quartet of state judicial candidates Thursday as part of a statewide election tour.

None of the four judges who were scheduled to appear at a luncheon, co-sponsored by the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO and the Mercer County Central Labor Council, in Sharon showed up. The no-shows, all of whom are Democrats, were Supreme Court candidate Judge Max Baer and Superior Court hopefuls Judge John Driscoll, Judge Seamus McCaffery and Judge Jack Panella.

While offering no excuses for the absences, state AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Richard Bloomingdale said this might be the first election where the candidates endorsed by labor across the state are all sitting judges.

A disclaimer on the release announcing the tour emphasized that because of prior commitments, all the candidates couldn't be at all the functions, which also included stops in Erie County on Wednesday and Beaver County Thursday night. But a local spokeswoman for the event said earlier this week that all four were confirmed for the Sharon appearance.

"Naturally we would have liked to have seen them there," said Dominic Vadala, president of the Mercer County Central Labor Council who served as master of ceremonies. "Up until yesterday we didn't know how many we were going to get. We do this almost every year and this is probably the first time where none of them showed up."

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