Montco Dems Ignore Bar Association Recommendation For Court Position, Again
The Montgomery County Democratic Committee (MCDC ) will hold its Endorsement Convention this coming Thursday night, (February 18). That’s when they will endorse, and effectively elect, A. Nicole Phillips, in the race for the one open position of Judge, on the Court of Common Pleas. Phillips will win the endorsement on Thursday night, by virtue of having gained the recommendation of MCDC’s Judicial Screening Committee. She will win the Primary on May18, because she will be endorsed by the Committee. And she will win the General Election on November 2, because Democrats are now firmly in control of Montgomery County. Once a reliably Republican stronghold, Montgomery County gave 62.63% of its votes to Joe Biden in the recent Presidential Election. That vote was consistent with the 2019 county-wide judicial election, when Democratic candidates won 63% of the vote.
The Screening Committee and the Bar Association
The Judicial Screening Committee supposedly takes into consideration the recommendations of the Montgomery County Bar Association, but as they have demonstrated over several recent Judicial Elections, the Committee takes the Bar Association recommendations with a very large grain of salt. This year, Daniel G. Ronca was the only candidate to win a highly recommended rating from Bar Association. The Committee rejected Ronca’s bid in favor of Phillips’, who received the lesser rating of recommended.
February 2, 2021
Report of the Autonomous Judiciary Committee of the Montgomery Bar Association
The autonomous and non-partisan Judiciary Committee of the Montgomery Bar Association, tasked with the obligation to pass objectively upon the qualifications of candidates for Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, has rated the following candidates Highly Recommended, Recommended, or Not Recommended.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Daniel G. Ronca
This candidate possesses superior qualifications to serve with distinction as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He possesses an exceptional level of integrity, good moral character, industry, legal ability and experience, courtroom experience, and judicial temperament, to be rated as HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. The candidate, through these traits and his legal experience, his commitment to justice, the community, and the practice of law, has earned this HIGHLY RECOMMENDED rating from the Committee. A candidate earns the rating of HIGHLY RECOMMENDED if eighty percent (80%) or more of the voting members of the Committee deem the candidate “Highly Recommended.”
RECOMMENDED
Katherine E. McGill
A. Nicole Tate-Phillips
Mary C. Pugh
These candidates possess the qualifications to serve as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Each possesses the appropriate levels of integrity, good moral character, industry, legal ability and experience, courtroom experience, and judicial temperament, to be rated as RECOMMENDED. Each candidate has the legal experience, the commitment to justice, the community and the practice of law, and the regard of the legal profession to be rated RECOMMENDED by the Committee.
2021 is pretty much the same as 2019, 2017 and 2015
The Bar Association also rated Ronca as highly recommended in 2019, but he did not win the Committee’s endorsement then, either. In 2019, one of the three candidates that MCDC endorsed was Virgil Walker. The Bar Association had also rated Walker as highly recommended. But for the other two endorsements, the Committee bypassed Ronca, and instead, gave them to Melissa Schwartz Sterling and Henry S. Hilles, even though they were both only rated as recommended.
In 2017, there were two open positions on the Court. The Committee that year endorsed Jeffrey Saltz, who the Bar Association rated as highly recommended. The Committee’s other endorsement went to Wendy Rothstein, in whom the Committee saw something which they thought put her a better light than Jeffrey Lindy, even though the Bar Association had rated Lindy as highly recommended, whereas Rothstein was only rated as recommended.
Lindy also failed to win the Committee’s endorsement in 2015, even though he was highly recommended then by the Bar Association. Natasha Taylor-Smith was one of the candidates that the Committee endorsed that year. After she won the endorsement, the Inquirer wrote, “The endorsement of Natasha Taylor-Smith was especially perplexing to some, since there one ‘highly recommended’ and three ‘recommended’ candidates party leaders could have backed.”