Judge: Brady can remain on ballot

U.S. Rep. Bob Brady is still on the Philadelphia mayoral ballot, thanks to a judge's ruling yesterday that an omission from his financial-disclosure form was not a fatal defect.

The out-of-county judge's decision was a victory for Brady. But the lawyer who led the effort to bounce him from the May 15 Democratic primary vowed to appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court - assuring that some of the controversy surrounding Brady's candidacy will continue.

Senior Judge Patrick J. Toole Jr. of Luzerne County Court ruled that three of four omissions alleged by the challengers, who are allied with rival candidate Tom Knox, were not omissions at all.

Among these was Brady's $8,700 annual city pension - which the challengers argued must be disclosed, but which Brady's lawyers termed the kind of "governmentally mandated payment" that the disclosure forms tell candidates to omit.

The judge agreed with Brady's side.

On the fourth omission, Toole said Brady had indeed been required to list the carpenters union's ongoing annual payments of roughly $13,500 into his pension fund, which were made in connection with Brady's unpaid post at the union. But Toole ruled that this flaw in his disclosures should not be fatal to his candidacy. He said Brady should be allowed to file an amendment to his disclosure form.

"We believe, whenever possible, election contests should be decided by the hand of the voter in the election booth and not by the pen of the judge in the judicial chamber," wrote Toole, who was brought from Wilkes-Barre to hear the case because of Brady's outsize role, as Democratic city chairman, in electing Philadelphia judges.

In a footnote, Toole added that the state might want to consider changing its ethics act to allow candidates to file amendments without being subject to the "harsh and drastic penalty" of being struck from the ballot.

Challenging nominating petitions is an old pastime in Philadelphia, and one often used to oust minor candidates. In 2005, a candidate for city controller fell victim to just such a challenge. As Brady's challengers repeatedly pointed out, that effort was spearheaded by a Brady ally, the race's eventual victor, City Controller Alan Butkovitz.

Noting that courts previously applied strict standards to the disclosure forms, Paul Rosen, the challengers' attorney, lashed out at Toole's decision yesterday.

"He's changed the law and made an exception for Brady. Other people have been removed, but now he says the law is too harsh," Rosen said. "I'm shocked."

It was "big-boss politics at its worst," Knox said last night of the ruling.

But Brady told reporters, "It was a fair ruling, and I'm just happy that I'm beyond it."

In a statement released by the campaign, Brady said that "this challenge has energized my supporters and now we are in a full sprint to the finish line."

The judge's decision is "complete and total vindication - about as good as you can get," said Brady's attorney, Steve Cozen. "It doesn't suck," he added.

The ruling is a setback for Knox, whose supporters launched the challenge and who also paid Rosen's legal bills. His campaign referred questions to Rosen yesterday.

As the only other white candidate in the race, Knox could have benefited from Brady's departure because Philadelphia voters have a history of voting along racial lines. The three other major Democratic candidates, former City Councilman Michael Nutter, State Rep. Dwight Evans and U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, are African American. Evans has joined with Knox in backing the legal challenge to Brady.

Knox sat in on last week's hearing and afterward berated Brady's testimony, calling his arrangement with the carpenters union a "no-show job" and suggesting that Brady's answers in court showed he was not smart enough to be mayor.

Brady hit back yesterday in a statement from his campaign that said, "Anyone has the right to challenge petitions, but Tom Knox crossed the line with mean-spirited personal attacks on me."

As for Evans, he said through a spokesman yesterday that he wanted Toole's ruling appealed. "Judges in previous cases have ruled in a very different manner under eerily similar circumstances," said Evans' spokesman, Tim Spreitzer.

It remains unclear how an appeal will affect the race - which moved on last night as a major union chose not to back a candidate. The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers said nearly half its 16,000 members voted in a referendum and that "no endorsement" won, followed by Fattah, Knox and Brady.

Although Brady repeatedly said he was not distracted by the court challenge, the case clearly took a toll, with the campaign appearing distracted and off-message. It also generated unflattering images - such as the scene after the March 20 court hearing, when Brady was shown fleeing a pack of TV cameras down a hall outside the courtroom after his testimony.

Elliott Curson, a veteran Philadelphia political consultant, said the ruling gives Brady a golden opportunity to erase such images. "He was handed a lemon last week, now he's got to turn it into lemonade," Curson said.

The challengers' lawyer, Rosen, who spoke to The Inquirer by phone from the French Caribbean island of St. Barthelemy, said he would appeal "the minute I get back to the country." He is due back Tuesday.

Rosen said he hopes to take his appeal directly to the state Supreme Court.