Bucks D.A. declares her candidacy for judge

Bucks County District Attorney Diane Gibbons, a career prosecutor who assumed the top job in 2000, is running for judge.

Gibbons, 48, this week entered a crowded field of candidates seeking a seat on the county court.

"I love my job, but it'll kill you after a while," Gibbons said jokingly. "I'm not burned out, but these opportunities are not going to be around every year, so you need to take advantage of them when they come."

Gibbons, a Republican, joins seven other lawyers who have already announced. They are Republicans Wallace Bateman, Elliot Kolodny, Carol Shelly and Daniel Silver, and Democrats Donna McKillop, Jahn Chesnov and Gary Gilman.

Whether they are vying at the polls for one or two judgeships may be in dispute. Two seats will be available this year, but one could be filled by Gov. Rendell instead of the voters.

The seats are being vacated by Judges Kenneth Biehn and Daniel Lawler.

The position of Lawler, who reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70 this year, will be on the ballot. The disagreement centers on how to fill Biehn's seat.

Biehn does not reach the mandatory retirement age until 2009. But in December, he notified state officials that he intended to resign in July.

The Department of State, which oversees elections, has refused to place Biehn's vacancy on this year's ballot. It contends that, under the state constitution, Biehn would have to leave office at least 10 months before the November election for that to occur.

"It is the Department of State's opinion that the vacancy should not be filled until the next municipal election" in 2009, said spokeswoman Leslie Amoros. In the meantime, an interim judge would be appointed by Rendell, subject to confirmation by the state Senate.

That could open the door for a Democrat to join the Bucks County bench, which has a Republican majority.

The Department of State's stance was successfully challenged by Philadelphia political leaders two years ago in a similar case. In January 2005, Common Pleas Court Judge Gene Cohen submitted his resignation, to be effective March 1, less than 10 months before the fall election.

A Commonwealth Court judge ruled that Cohen's vacancy should be on the ballot anyway. The ruling said that the 10-month rule "is not an absolute," and that Cohen had signaled his intention to resign well ahead of the 10-month window.

Amoros said the Department of State does not consider that ruling to be a binding precedent. She also noted that Cohen left the bench prior to the 2005 primary election, while Biehn plans to stay until two months after this year's May primary.

Art Heinz, spokesman for the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, said some court officials believe Biehn's vacancy should be on the ballot, since the judge submitted his resignation letter before the first of this year.

So far, no one in Bucks County has filed a legal challenge to the state's decision.

Gibbons, who is halfway though her second four-year term, does not intend to resign as district attorney to run for judge. If elected, she said, she would like her successor to be chosen from her current staff of lawyers.

"This office works as a team and always has," she said. "They know the community, they know the police and the judges, and they have the respect of the judges. So I would hope it would be somebody chosen from inside."