PHILADELPHIA — The two candidates for Pennsylvania's highest court clashed over campaign contributions during a debate Thursday but separately pledged to help restore public confidence in a judiciary system rocked by a courthouse scandal and an unpopular pay raise.

Democrat Jack Panella and Republican Joan Orie Melvin, both Superior Court judges, are competing for a single opening on the state Supreme Court.

Melvin criticized Panella for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from organized labor and political committees representing Philadelphia trial lawyers, which she said could be perceived as a conflict of interest.

"They feel that they have an advantage with him," Melvin said.

Panella denied that, saying cases will be judged on their merits.

"Regrettably, this raising of money is necessary in order to get information out there about what the judiciary is all about," he said.

Melvin, too, has received contributions from trial lawyers and labor groups, Panella said. She also received funds from a top Republican senator, and Panella noted the Senate could have cases before the Supreme Court.

The wide-ranging, hour-long event at Temple University's law school in Philadelphia was held less than two weeks before the Nov. 3 election.

The two are competing for the seat vacated by Chief Justice Ralph Cappy, who retired last year. His replacement, Justice Jane Cutler Greenspan, agreed not to seek a full 10-year term.

The seven-member panel currently has four Democrats and three Republicans. A Melvin victory would restore the one-seat majority the GOP lost in 2007.

Judicial pay is still a sore issue after the Legislature passed a surreptitious 2005 government salary increase that enraged voters. Public outrage led lawmakers to repeal the raises for 1,000 judges as well as legislators and some executive officials, but the Supreme Court issued a ruling in 2006 that restored only the judicial raises.

Panella agreed the pay-raise controversy "stank of back room politics" and that future raises should be approved by a "multidisciplinary task force."

Melvin, who has returned to the state treasury the after-tax portion of all pay raises since then, said the court's chief justice should approach the Legislature, "armed with statistics," to make the case when an increase is necessary.

Both agreed that public confidence also was shaken by the Luzerne County courthouse scandal in which two judges were charged with taking kickbacks to place juvenile defendants in private youth detention centers.

Melvin, 53, who lives in the Pittsburgh suburb of Wexford, called herself "a proven innovator" in 24 years on the bench.

Panella, 54, of Easton, said he has "the proper temperament and experience" for the job, having been a judge for more than 18 years.