Tracey Gordon’s time as Register of Wills is winding down but the lawsuits keep coming

Before he was fired, it fell to Malik Boyd to respond to media inquiries when Philadelphia Register of Wills Tracey Gordon was accused of ousting employees for not funding her reelection campaign.

Now Boyd is the fourth former employee suing Gordon and her office, saying his refusal to donate to her campaign was part of the reason he was fired after she lost the May Democratic primary.

Gordon has less than three months left in office. A bill to taxpayers for her alleged actions could soon come due as well.

“Gordon insisted that employees of the office support her reelection candidacy publicly, vote for her candidacy, contribute monetarily to her reelection campaign, and not remain noncommittal or uninvolved in the reelection process,” Boyd claimed in a lawsuit filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court last month before the city Law Department sought to move it to federal court.

Boyd also claimed Gordon “frequently” ordered him to “perform personal tasks” unrelated to his job and “attempted to coerce” him into making “false statements” in response to questions from media outlets.

His “multiple formal complaints” to the office’s human resources department only prompted more abuse from Gordon, he said.

Gordon did not respond to Clout. A spokesperson for the city Law Department, which has contested some of the claims, declined to comment.

Three other lawsuits against Gordon, pending in federal court, are scheduled for settlement conferences next week.

Nicholas Barone, a former clerk, took action in January in Common Pleas Court before moving his lawsuit to federal court in July. Barone said he had a good record and had been promoted, but that came undone after Gordon asked employees to give $150 to her campaign.

Barone’s suit said Gordon asked his supervisor, Thomas Campion, why the clerk did not contribute, even after she said $75 would be enough. He was fired in January.

Mark Wilson, another former clerk, sued Gordon in May, making similar claims. That lawsuit included a sworn affidavit from Campion, who supervised Wilson and Barone and said they “were well liked and worked very hard.” Wilson was fired in April.

Campion, who was fired last year, sued Gordon on July 27, accusing her creating “immense pressure forcing employees to donate to her campaign” and screaming at him when he did not contribute.

Gordon was narrowly defeated in May’s four-candidate primary by John Sabatina Sr., an estate attorney and Northeast Philly ward leader.

Clout hears the City Council 10th District race in Northeast Philly between 11-term incumbent Republican Brian J. O’Neill and Democratic challenger Gary Masino is causing friction for Philadelphia’s Building & Construction Trades Council.

Members of Local 19 of the Sheet Metal Workers union beefed at the council’s monthly meeting last week with Wayne Miller, who heads Local 692 of the Sprinkler Fitters union.

Masino leads the Sheet Metal Workers. Miller, who also serves a president for the council, and his union are backing O’Neill.

Clout sources say Masino’s union called for Miller to resign as president, something immediately nixed by Ryan Boyer, business manager for the council and leader of the Laborers District Council.

Ten of the 29 unions in the council maxed out their contributions to Masino’s campaign at $12,600 in December and again this year.

Miller’s union maxed out to O’Neill last month. He denied anything happened at the meeting but also told Clout “If something happened I wouldn’t tell you anyway.”

Masino said he was not in the room during the dispute, since the council is backing his campaign with super PAC spending and he is not allowed to coordinate on that.

Boyer didn’t want to talk details but described the dustup to Clout as “a minor disagreement” while emphasizing that the council — mostly — backs Masino over O’Neill.

Former Gov. Ed Rendell was among a bipartisan group of elected and former elected officials who this week called on the group No Labels to drop plans for a third-party candidate for president, warning that such an effort would only hurt President Joe Biden and help former President Donald Trump.

Rendell, in a conference call with media outlets for Citizens To Save Our Republic, said Trump “forfeited his right to be president” when he stoked his base ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Greg Schneiders, the group’s pollster, said a voter survey in June in the five swing-states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin consistently showed a close two-way race between Biden and Trump that would tip toward Trump in a three-way race.

In Pennsylvania, Biden and Trump held 50% each in a two-way race but a No Labels candidate would take nearly 20% of the vote, with more coming from Biden than Trump, he said.

Dick Gephardt, a former U.S. House leader from Missouri, founded the group as a political action committee in July and said they are not challenging anyone’s right to run for president.

“But right now — 2023, 2024 — we believe the stakes are so high for the country to be able to retain our democracy that all Americans of all beliefs and parties need to come together to make sure that Donald Trump does not get back into the White House,” Gephardt said.

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