STATEMENT BY VOTE THE RIDGE WITH
MT. AIRY DEMOCRATS:

Judicial candidates withdrew from speaking at a neighborhood forum after the appearance of a letter warning them not to participate. Philadelphians deserve answers.

It’s nearly time for the May primary. That’s why our two grassroots neighborhood groups, Vote the Ridge and Mt. Airy Democrats, collaborated to create an online public forum (held on 4/3 & 4/7) for our members and the public at large. It’s especially hard for voters to get information on judicial candidates and to hear from them in their own words, and our intent was to create a space in which that could happen. Local judicial candidates were excited to have the chance to connect with voters, and nearly all of them quickly and enthusiastically agreed to attend.

Then, just days before the event, a letter bearing Bob Brady’s name was circulated, copies of which were slipped under the door of one of the forum organizers. The letter falsely characterized our organizations and discouraged DCC (Democratic City Committee) endorsed candidates from participating in the forum. The letter claimed that appearing at our forum might create vague “conflicts” between them and ward organizations. Within 48 hours of its appearance, nearly every DCC-endorsed candidate who had confirmed attendance withdrew from our forum. Only one DCC-endorsed local judicial candidate followed through.

This last-minute exodus was deeply troubling. Judges are not party operatives. Their duty is to fairness and to the law. Judges have tremendous power: their decisions can take away a person’s property, liberty, right to see their children, and even, potentially, their life. Our democracy depends on judges who will hear each case without fear or favor, whether the person before them is politically connected or powerless, wealthy or indigent. We are currently witnessing how critical it is to have a judicial branch that does not fold under external pressure at the national level. We cannot afford to normalize or accept judges who fold to external pressure at the local level here in Philadelphia.

Philadelphians deserve a judiciary composed not only of skilled legal minds, but of individuals with the backbone to resist coercion and the clarity to rise above political gamesmanship. When candidates for judicial office yield to party influence rather than engaging with the public in open forums, it raises legitimate questions about whether they would be willing, or able, to stand firm in court when it truly counts. When our members voted on endorsements (you can find Vote the Ridge endorsements here, and the Mt. Airy Democrats endorsements on their website), members of both groups chose not to endorse anyone who had backed out of the forum. A core principle we have to insist on is that a judge must demonstrate the courage and integrity to remain independent, especially in the face of political pressure.

Even though most of the DCC-endorsed candidates withdrew from the forum, we would like to point out that one stood firm and showed up (Brian Kisielewski) and that other non-DCC-endorsed candidates, including both DA candidates, chose to participate to help voters make informed choices:  Thank you to Larry Krasner, Pat Dugan, Qawi Abdul-Rahman, Sherrie Cohen, Taniesha Henry, Mike Huff, and Brian Kisielewski for participating. You can listen to their video segments on our forum and read our research on all the candidates. We thank them profusely and respect their willingness to make themselves available to Philadelphians. We also thank Brandon Neuman, running for PA Superior Court, for attending our forum.

We now call on the candidates who chose not to participate in the forum after the letter appeared (Braveman, Davidson, Ehrlich, Farnese, Ghee, Jones, King, Stefanski, and Watson-Stokes) and the two who never responded (Page and Patton) to reconsider their actions, and demonstrate their independence and willingness to speak to our members and the public at large. We invite each of them to meet with us to record a brief segment about their candidacy to be posted on our websites so that voters can hear from them in their own words. 

To the public, we reaffirm that grassroots neighborhood groups such as Mt. Airy Democrats and Vote the Ridge will keep working to help inform voters in our communities. We hope you will look at the information posted on our websites and linked to below, and vote in the May primary. Voters can and should seek a variety of sources of information to make their choices at the ballot box.