April 28-May 4, 2005

political notebook

Judicial Candidates to the People: Pick Me!

by Mary F. Patel

Without a big-ticket race, turnout for the May 17 primary election is expected to be light, so party insiders will likely decide the judicial candidates' futures.

There are 25 candidates on the primary ballot for eight spots on Common Pleas Court and six hopefuls for three seats on Municipal Court. (An extra opening appeared in Common Pleas Court after Judge Gene Cohen resigned earlier this year to go to the private sector.)

The Democratic City Committee endorsed candidates earlier this month but the unendorsed are unfazed.

"This is a good time to not be endorsed by the party," said one Democratic operative. "Right now, there's so much bullshit going on between factions that if you're associated with anyone in particular, it can hurt you at the polls."

This primary is particularly critical for Susan Schulman, Glenn Bronson, Walter Olszewski and Charles Cunningham, four Common Pleas Court judges who were appointed by Gov. Ed Rendell. Rendell met with the appointees after Senate confirmation and advised them not to give any money to ward leaders, according to sources. Candidates must contribute $35,000 to the Democratic City Committee if they are endorsed. This is in addition to the money they have to pay to ward leaders to push their name — an amount anywhere between $500 and $1,300. And you can bet that every ward leader will have their own sample ballot at the polls.

The cottage industry of electing judges hasn't changed in years. Judicial candidates have to run around to a host of geographically dispersed ward meetings practically every night, where they have less than three minutes to sell themselves. That's odd, considering that unendorsed crowd has little trouble getting in.

Joseph O'Neill, who is running unendorsed for Municipal Court even though he worked pro bono for the Democratic City Committee for a number of years and was a committeeman, has not had any problems.

"I've never been turned away and I don't know anyone who has, either," O'Neill said. He finds that his nonendorsement is not an issue with people who just want to talk about specific issues such as unsupervised kids on the corner and sentencing procedures.

Ellen Green-Ceisler, also not endorsed, gave up her job as director of integrity and accountability for the Police Department to run for Common Pleas Court. She has built her own coalitions.

"I have support from labor, the gay community, the African-American community, and the endorsements of State Rep. Dwight Evans and U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz," she said, adding that she thinks that sophisticated voters who are not part of the party apparatus will follow newspaper endorsements and the Philadelphia Bar Association recommendations.

Having a patron has not gone out of style.

Olszewski is a favorite of the embattled State Sen. Vincent Fumo but seems to be doing well in the wards anyway. While the late senator and ward leader Buddy Cianfrani could get a milkshake elected, Fumo doesn't have the same power.

Unendorsed Common Pleas Court hopeful Ann Butchart is the sole candidate who is openly gay and she is expected to receive citywide support because of it. Butchart served as the interim director of the Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Task Force and provided free legal assistance through the AIDS Law Project. Butchart also cites her pro bono legal work on zoning matters for residents enforcing quality of life issues.

"I decided to run this year rather than in 2007, in the next judicial election, when the judicial candidates will want to get on all the mayoral candidate's ballots and that would be expensive," Butchart said.

While these candidates are running around, the question of merit selection often comes up.

Even though this partisan process is expensive and demeaning at times, few candidates want to see it replaced. They're afraid that behind every merit-selection panel would be some political connection.

While Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts has advocated for merit selection for some time and high-ranking party leaders have now gotten on the bandwagon, it is unlikely that the process will be completely free of politics.

"No wonder [U.S. Rep] Bob Brady, Fumo and [State Sen.] Anthony Williams want merit selection," said one judicial candidate. "Then they can get their power back."