‘Magic seat’ season has arrived again for would-be judicial candidates in Philly

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for would-be judicial candidates in Philadelphia — “magic seat” season — when the city’s Democratic Party can nominate candidates for judge who are sure to win.

As Clout explained in 2021, magic seats become available when current judges seeking to be retained for another term in November’s general election decide instead to drop off the ballot.

The Democratic City Committee then nominates candidates to replace them. That’s often called a “golden ticket” because the nominees don’t need to raise money for expensive campaigns or deal with hassles from political consultants and ward leaders to win a crowded primary.

Clout hears three names are on a short-list for potential nominations: former State Sen. Larry Farnese, James Eisenhower, and Raj Sandher.

Farnese and Eisenhower were recommended by the Philadelphia Bar Association in March before suspending their campaigns for judge. Sandher, a lawyer since 2013 who was not rated by the bar, also suspended his campaign.

Potentially up for grabs: a 10-year term as a Common Pleas judge with an annual paycheck of $212,495.

Farnese, who served three terms before losing the 2020 Democratic primary to Nikil Saval, originally won his Senate seat with the backing of the man who held it before him, former State Sen. Vince Fumo.

But Fumo told Clout he sees nominees “more qualified” than Farnese.

Eisenhower, who ran twice for state attorney general and is a former president judge of the Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline, represented local Democratic Party chair Bob Brady, a former U.S. House member, in a 2017 federal investigation that resulted in convictions for a pair of Brady aides.

Brady was not charged.

Farnese did not respond to Clout’s hails. Eisenhower declined to comment. Sandher told Clout the future is uncertain.

“That would be great if it happens,” he said of a magic seat appointment. “But nothing is definite.”

There are 14 Common Pleas judges in Philadelphia up for retention for 10-year terms in November. Clout hears at least two or three could withdraw from the ballot before the Sept. 7 deadline.

The potential drop-outs are judges Rayford Means, Joel Johnson, and Jacqueline Allen.

Allen told Clout she is “day-to-day” in her decision about retention, noting that she still loves the work but has been doing it for 29 years.

We hear Allen is unhappy that her fellow judges did not pick her law clerk for jury commissioner in May, despite a letter of recommendation written by Brady. Time will tell if that plays into her decision.

Means, a judge since 1992, and Johnson, elected in 2003, did not respond to Clout’s hails.

The Democratic City Committee in 2021 appointed six judicial candidates with magic seats — four for Common Pleas, including former State Sen. John Sabatina Jr., and two for Municipal Court.

John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty’s campaign to depose the man he backed 19 months ago to lead Pennsylvania’s most politically powerful union was rejected Saturday as members of Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers voted to keep Mark Lynch Jr. as their business manager.

Lynch won 55% of the vote in a runoff election against Todd Neilson, Dougherty’s candidate, who took 45% of the vote.

Both had campaigned on promises of putting the union’s controversial past behind them.

That was a complicated task because both have direct ties to Dougherty, who was convicted in November 2021 on federal bribery charges along with the union’s former political director, former City Councilmember Bobby Henon.

Dougherty still has two more criminal trials ahead of him, including one for charges that he and other Local 98 officials embezzled more than $600,000 from the union. Henon is already serving a prison term.

Lynch, in an email to Local 98 members last Friday, sounded a conciliatory note in what had become an acrid election.

“Todd and I are not enemies, we’re just opponents,” he wrote. “Todd’s supporters are not enemies of my supporters. In the end, we all want a strong, united local.”

Lynch, who fired Neilson from a union post after taking over, saved most of his invective in the election for Dougherty, who called him “the right choice at the right time” when he backed Lynch to lead Local 98 one day after his bribery conviction.

The two men had a falling out after Local 98 did not back Dougherty in a fight with the union’s insurance carrier about paying for his continuing legal bills.

Lynch told Clout last week that Dougherty turned on him “because I wouldn’t cave to his demands for money and fought his attempts to maintain control.”

After his victory, Lynch said he would work to “reclaim our union’s good name.”

“What matters most right now is that we set aside any political factions and recommit to one another as true union brothers and sisters,” Lynch said of the divided union.

“Philadelphia is not a golden gem of voting integrity”

— State Sen. Doug Mastriano, explaining to Clout colleague Gillian McGoldrick why he was the lone vote in a committee hearing this week against approving former Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt, a fellow Republican, as Pennsylvania’s secretary of state.

Mastriano, who got crushed in last year’s gubernatorial race, also repeated his debunked claims about the 2020 election. Totally on brand.

Clout provides often irreverent news and analysis about people, power, and politics.