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By Joe Shaheeli
If you can't get the party endorsement in a primary, sage advice has always been, "then pray for a decent ballot position. Otherwise, get out!" But it's obvious this is not going to be a normal primary season.
The majority of candidates cross-endorsed by both political parties for Common Pleas and Municipal Court will see victory by the end of primary day May 15 .
Normally, as history has proven, despite answered prayers, endorsements rule the roost. But this is not going to be a ho-hum normal primary. When votes are finally certified, the only sure facts will be there will be 11 left vying for that number of vacancies in Common Pleas and two in Municipal Court.
This primary has developed a mix that has served to keep more candidates in the race than what would normally be expected. They need to concentrate their primary efforts in Common Pleas on keeping votes away from only one candidate.
The Democratic Primary field for Common Pleas remains cluttered with a total of 24 from which the electors have to choose. Though it endorsed 11 strong candidates, others have stayed in for other reasons.
One of these was ballot position. Another was strong endorsements from campaign proven Labor Unions who have learned well how to make their influence felt on election day.
Also keeping some of the independent candidates active and with high hopes is the
possibility of being is open only to the challenger since the Party endorsement and the
endorsement of the AFL-CIO have gone with the incumbent.
Then, of course, there will be several ballots put out by caucuses of ward leaders united to insure the survival of their favorite sons and daughters. Some may carry independents who have been able to raise enough funds to insure their placement on these ballots.
Also feeding into the possibility of several independents succeeding is the growing consensus that one or more of the cross endorsed candidates in either Court have fallen into disfavor by projecting "take it for granted" attitudes.
A larger than normal turnout will open the gate a little wider for an independent to sneak through. Adding to that incentive will be one of the yes and no ballot questions. It asks voters "If they favor the issuance of licenses to conduct small games of chance in Philadelphia?" Expected to turn out are Catholics whose parishes have been denied the ability to resume their revenue producing "Bingo Nights" because of a fluke in State and local laws.
The Municipal Court Race has heated up. Though Judge Wendy Pew has been cross endorsed and is one of two candidates on Sen. Vincent Fumo's top burner, the battle for the second position will keep her alert to slippage. That battle is being waged by Deborah Griffin who has both Labor and Republican endorsements and Nazzario Jimenez, Jr., who has both Labor and the Democratic endorsement.
Robert Muench enjoys the number one position in the Democratic side of this race for M.C. But insiders are reading this as a prayer request granted and "little else". |
