By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff
The Center City-based Eighth Ward voted last night to only back candidates endorsed by the Democratic City Committee who also have received a "recommended" rating by the Philadelphia Bar Association's ratings arm, Gregory Harvey of Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads and co-chairman of the 8th Ward reported.
While all the city's ward leaders have agreed to Democratic City Committee Chairman Bob Brady's call to coalesce around the same slate, the 8th Ward, at Harvey's recommendation, did not want to back candidates who also don't have the bar association judicial commission's "recommended" rating, Harvey said.
Brady appears willing to tolerate the decision of a ward, which finds the bar association's recommendations important, to only back the members of the DCC slate who are "recommended,” Harvey said. But ward committee officials did not want to endorse candidates without the City Committee's backing, since Brady has pushed for a unified citywide ticket without other names to the 8th Ward's recommend slate would not have been consistent with Brady's push to cut down on side deals between ward leaders and judicial candidates that undermine the effectiveness of the DCC's backing of a slate of candidate, Harvey said.
The candidates who have the DCC's backing and a "recommended" rating are: Philadelphia Common Pleas Judges Dan Anders, Angeles Roca and Joyce Eubanks, as well as attorneys Robert Coleman and Donna Woelpper for Common Pleas Court, and Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge Pat Dugan as well as attorneys Joseph C. Waters Jr. and Charles Hayden for Municipal Court.
The candidates who have the DCC's backing but lack the "recommended” rating are attorneys Sharon Williams-Losier and Roxanne Covington for Common Pleas Court.
A rating has not yet been issued for Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge Tom Nocella.
The 8th Ward also endorsed Seth Williams for district attorney, Harvey said.
Comments