Hello All-

With the Judicial and District Attorney elections rapidly approaching, voters are asked to choose among judicial and district attorney candidates without having any real information upon which to base their choice. In order to make an informed decision as a voter, it is important to know what like-minded people who have professional and personal experiences with the candidate actually think. As a progressive bar association dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system, the Philadelphia Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is concerned with the lack of information available for all of the candidates. To that end, the Elections committee of the Philadelphia Chapter of the NLG developed and administered a questionnaire in order to survey members of the Philadelphia progressive legal community about Judicial and DA candidates.

The Philadelphia NLG Chapter surveyed other members of the Philadelphia Guild Chapter, public interest attorneys, and other progressive lawyers. The Elections committee contacted participants by email, explaining the nature of the project, and requesting that participants agree to complete a short, anonymous questionnaire created by the committee members, and hosted by a web service survey provider. The vast majority of respondents had 11 or more years experience in their capacity as either attorney for a non-profit public interest organization, criminal defense attorney, prosecutor, private practitioner, or academic. The candidates included in the questionnaire were those running for Philadelphia District Attorney, as well as all the candidates (both those running and those seeking retention) for the Supreme, Superior, Common Pleas, Commonwealth, and Municipal Court.

The questionnaire asked respondents about their experiences with each candidate specifically, with possible answer choices being: 1). appeared before, 2). co-counseled with, 3). was opposing counsel, 4). know through community/political activities, 5). know through Bar Association activities, 6). friend, 7). neighbor, 8). Other (Which they were asked to describe), or 9). Do Not Know. Furthermore, respondents were asked how they would rate a candidate for election, by highly recommending, recommending, opposing, strongly opposing, or, selecting “have no opinion.” Respondents were then asked, to please give a detailed response in regards to their rating of a specific candidate. These comments are perhaps the most telling, and useful to other voters.
Attached to this email are the results of this survey process and we hope that it will aid in helping voters making an informed decision on election day, November 3, 2009.

Please distribute and share widely!

To access survey, please utilize the linked pdf at the top of the page!

Sincerely,

The NLG Philadelphia Chapter Elections Committee:

Gloria Gilman
Steve Gotzler
Ryan Hancock
Ted Lieverman
Angus Love
Emma Reynolds
Cindy Rosenthal
Peter Schneider
Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg
Suzanne Young