GOP Party Boss Tries to Ensure Democratic Victories for Judge

By J. Matthew Wolfe

Mike Meehan, General Counsel of the Philly GOP, sent an email recently suggesting that vacancies on the Republican ballot for judge be filled with Democrats who are already nominees of the Democratic Party.  He asked the chosen recipients to respond “via email communications in a very fast process” as to whether they agreed with his suggestions.  His scheme was wrong in many different ways.

Nominating Democrats for these positions, especially Democrats who are already Democratic nominees, is no way to build the Republican Party.  First and most obviously, the Republican Party should be promoting Republican candidates.  Next, by selecting Democrats who are already the Democratic nominees we effectively make those positions uncontested, limiting all voter’s choices.  At the very least, a minority party should provide a choice.  Finally, we hurt the Republican candidates for judge already on our ballot.  Admittedly they face challenges, but filling vacancies on the Republican ballot with candidates already running as Democrats decreases their chances even more.

 Meehan’s favored procedure was email polling.  Problem.  State law requires that these vacancies be filled pursuant to the party bylaws.  The bylaws do not say that a group of Republicans email the General Counsel and give him their opinion.  The bylaws say that the elected Republican Ward Leaders are to have a meeting with written notice and vote on the nominees.  There are good reasons for such a rule.  It makes clear who is voting.  It is transparent.  It enables the parties to interact, negotiate and arrive at a consensus or at least understand who voted how and why.  How do we know what individuals say in emails sent to Meehan?  Only he knows.

Meehan has a history of ignoring the bylaws.  The election for Republican City Committee Chairman was so replete with violations of the bylaws and irregularities that it was overturned by the Republican State Committee.  The post remains vacant.  “Rules are for fools” seems to be his mantra.

The email was addressed “Dear Ward Leaders,” but the recipient list is problematic.  The list should be the ward leaders who have a vote on Republican City Committee.  Not Meehan’s list, however.  Glaringly missing were several ward leaders who are opposed to Meehan’s leadership.  On the list, however, were individuals who claimed election as ward leader but whose elections were contested.  These contests have not been heard and pursuant to the bylaws they cannot vote.  Others on the list included several who claim to have been appointed to fill vacancies by the chairman.  Again, since the chairman’s position is vacant, no appointments can be made.  Those pesky bylaws again.  Finally, there were people on the list who are not ward leaders and have positions with the courts preventing them by law from participating in politics or holding party office.

To have submitted these Democrats to the Department of State to fill vacancies using Meehan’s procedure and tallying the votes on Meehan’s list would have been a clear violation of the state election law and might have been a criminal violation.  Two years ago, Meehan and his allies are alleged to have pressured Republican nominees to withdraw and replaced them with the Democratic nominees, so there were NO contests for any local judicial position that year.  The procedure followed?  Three Republican ward leaders lied under oath and submitted a notarized affidavit to the Department of State falsely stating that a meeting took place where the ward leaders voted on the replacements.  A complete fabrication.  The nominees were just selected without a vote.  This is now rumored to be part of a Grand Jury investigation by the District Attorney, the scope of which may include inquiries into forgeries in nomination petitions, forgeries on documents attached to lawsuits in Common Pleas Court, fraud by notaries and Republican activity at the Parking Authority.

Meehan did not fill the positions, representing that he did not get enough responses from the people he emailed.  He complained “I get grief if I do it and I get grief if I don’t do it.”  Sorry Mike.  You get grief when you try and do things that are not in the best interests of the Republican Party and the City of Philadelphia and when you try and do things that are illegal.

J. Matthew Wolfe is a Republican Ward Leader in West Philadelphia.  He can be reached at Matthew@Wolfe.org.