Delco rejects Democrats’ call to remove three Republican judges

Delaware County voted to keep three Republican judges in office for the next decade, rejecting a call from Democrats to remove them from the bench.

Pennsylvania is one of a handful of states that lets voters decide whether sitting judges remain on the bench every 10 years of their career.

Common Pleas Judges Richard M. Cappelli, Barry M. Dozor, and William C. Mackrides each faced a judicial retention vote on Tuesday.

In a “yes-no” vote, Cappelli received support from 61% of the voters, Dozor from 59%, and Mackrides from 58%.

Voters almost never boot judges from their positions.

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This year, however, the Delaware County Democratic Committee’s recommendation brought factional tension to a typically bipartisan process.

In suggesting that voters tick “no” on the three conservative judges, Democrats said the court was “operating under a system of patronage and personal convenience that costs taxpayers money and clogs our justice system.”

The party also considered calls from some members of the electorate who felt the county’s judicial system delivered unfair legal outcomes for marginalized groups. However, Democrats added that their recommendation was not to criticize any of the judges’ individual rulings.

Judges up for retention do not list their party affiliation, though Cappelli, Dozor, and Mackrides have either run as or been endorsed by Republicans in the past.

Two judges on Pennsylvania’s Superior Court, Jack A. Panella and Victor P. Stabile, also faced retention votes on Tuesday.

Both appeared to have been retained by voters statewide.

Delaware County Democrats had also suggested that voters oust Stabile, a Republican who formerly chaired the Cumberland County GOP.

County Democratic leadership greenlit the decision after a narrow 18-17 vote, with their recommendation reflected on sample ballots in the weeks ahead of the election.

That quickly drew the ire of the county’s Republican apparatus, including its chair, who said a similar call from the GOP would be unprecedented, and that Republicans had no interest in ousting Panella, a Democrat.

Meanwhile, some progressives within the Democratic Party — buoyed by the strength of the suburban “blue wave” that saw its candidates elected up and down the ticket in 2019 — took their party’s calls one step further.

In Upper Darby, for example, support for a “no” recommendation was unanimous among the borough’s Democratic Committee. Some members spoke of the “dangers” of electing conservative judges after the GOP-controlled U.S. Supreme Court struck down abortion protections last year.

In Haverford, one left-leaning committee member criticized Dozor’s record on charter school rulings directly in rationalizing his support for ousting GOP judges. However, committee members in the Main Line township largely rejected the idea of issuing a recommendation to voters.

Some of the most vocal disapproval for the suggestion came from the Delaware County Bar Association, a bipartisan professional group that represents attorneys in the region.

The result of a September internal poll found that among the group’s members, each of the three conservative Common Pleas judges received over 90% support.

Not long after Democrats announced their strategy, members rallied outside the county’s courthouse in Media, flanked by a banner that read “Retain Qualified Judges” as they decried the suggestion.

“In order to ensure the judiciary remains as a check and balance against the partisanship of the legislative and executive branches, we must vigilantly support judicial retention as a nonpartisan, nonpolitical matter,” said Patrick T. Daley, the bar association’s president.

Even the Democratic Party’s top prosecutor, District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer, issued a statement saying he did not support the Republicans’ removal.

Tuesday’s victory means that both Cappelli and Mackrides have survived their first retention vote since their elections in 2013.

Dozor, meanwhile, won his first retention in 2013, receiving over 70% support a decade after his 2003 election.