Legal News

Montco Republicans Endorse Judicial Candidates

By Brian Harris

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff
 
The Montgomery County Republican Committee has endorsed attorneys Daniel J. Clifford and Maureen C. Coggins to be the party's candidates in this year's election of two common pleas court judges.

The endorsement last week of Coggins and Clifford, who is openly gay, is in keeping with the 2009 trend of the committee endorsing candidates from diverse backgrounds. The 2009 election, with six Republicans winning six of seven judgeships, saw the largest number of women and minorities elected in the bench's history.

Committee chairman Robert Kerns predicted that 2011 would be a Republican year, and candidates for all offices will do well. Kerns also said that while diversity of background, including geographic location within the county, is important in selecting judicial candidates, the most important thing in selecting judicial candidates is their legal acumen.

Clifford said that he thinks he has garnered a lot of support because he is running on a platform of family court reform. Clifford, a family law practitioner and managing partner of Weber Gallagher Simpson Stapleton Fires & Newby's Norristown, Pa. office, argues the court system should be court-driven.

As Democrats have become more competitive in a once-staunch Republican stronghold, Clifford said support for his candidacy shows "that our party is willing to attract Democratic and independent voters."

Coggins said that she is one of several women lawyers who got a lot of trial experience in the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office, and her former peers and she have come of age in their careers and are attractive to committee members looking for experienced trial attorneys to run for trial judgeships.

"The Republicans have picked two great candidates," Coggins said. "In this instance, it's the background that's going to appeal to the voters, not necessarily being a woman." Coggins, a criminal defense attorney with an office in Allentown and of counsel with her husband Tim Woodward's law office in Norristown, Pa., has worked as a prosecutor, a public defender and a county solicitor.

Besides working for the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office, she has worked for the Montgomery County Solicitor's Office and served as the chief public defender in Lehigh County.
Clifford was "highly recommended" and Coggins was rated "recommended" by the Montgomery Bar Association.

The Montgomery County Democratic Committee will be endorsing its candidates this week.

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on February 14, 2011 (boomark / email).