Local judgeships were no contest for Dems

As elections go, the races for seven spots on the Court of Common Pleas and four spots on Municipal Court certainly lacked a sense of suspense yesterday.

Seven Democrats, five with endorsements from their party, were selected for Common Pleas Court in the May 19 primary election. Four Democrats, three endorsed by the party, were selected for Municipal Court.

Then the Republican City Committee announced in August that it was withdrawing from the ballot its six judicial candidates who didn't also win the Democratic primary. The GOP replaced those candidates on the ballot with the Democratic winners.

With the field cleared, the Democrats cruised to victory.

Winning Common Pleas seats were Dan Anders, Adam Beloff, Robert Coleman, Roxanne Covington, Angeles Roca, Diane Thompson and Donna Woelpper. Anders and Roca had previously been appointed to open seats on the court.

Winning seats on Municipal Court were Pat Dugan, Charles Hayden, Dawn Segal and Joseph Waters Jr. Dugan had previously been appointed to a seat.

Roca, who with her husband put up about $140,000 of their "nest egg" for retirement to fund her primary election run, felt a nice sense of relief last night.

That's not uncommon. Several candidates this year put up five and six figures of their own money to run for judge, including a $35,000 "assessment" for the Democratic City Committee.

"Philadelphia being a Democratic town, for the local races, the primary is the election," Roca said. "You keep working. You go back and say thank you. But in May, we're pretty much done."