Reclaim Philadelphia's Steering Committee Judicial Endorsement Recommendations!
Steering Committee is excited to announce our recommendations for endorsements in the Philadelphia judicial elections! Our recommendations were determined by a combination of factors including candidate responses to the Judge Accountability Table’s questionnaire. We also made an intentional choice to uplift candidates with identities like queer women and women of color. Click on the name of each candidate next to their bio below for their questionnaire response, which is the best way to understand their values regarding mass incarceration, profiling and transformative justice. Cast your vote here!
Courts of Common Pleas
Janine Momasso - Janine is a queer woman of color with an extensive background in family law. After serving as a law clerk for several family court judges, she started her own firm to represent disadvantaged clients who could not afford legal representation.
Nicola Serianni - Nicola is an attorney with experience in criminal defense, civil defense, and as a law clerk in the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. Currently, she represents railroad workers and consumers in class action cases who have been injured by corporations.
Cateria McCabe - Cateria is the Director for tenants rights, kinship/custody matters, and veterans rights at the Senior Law Center. In eviction cases, she has provided free representation for tenants. She has given legal services for victims of crime. She is also an advocate of the “Civil Gideon” project, which supports a right to counsel in civil cases (including eviction and custody).
Tiffany Palmer - Tiffany is a queer woman with 20 years of trial and appellate experience. She began her career as a public interest lawyer who represented low-income LGBTQ people, and has received many awards for her work. She is currently the Director of the Family Law Institute of the National LGBT Bar Association.
Wendi Barish - Before becoming the Senior Deputy General Counsel for Labor and Employment for Philadelphia Housing Authority in 2015, Wendi served as a civil attorney with experience in a variety of cases in small and large firms regarding civil rights cases and discrimination claims.
Jennifer Schultz - Jennifer is a legal services attorney who has spent her entire career at Community Legal Services, representing clients in housing and consumer rights disputes. She is also an advocate for the Civil Gideon project. We recognize that Jennifer had a controversial moment at the candidates forum regarding occasions where she would reject a deal between the prosecution and defense. She has since clarified her position, stating that she would not reject a deal in the case that was presented at the forum, where a defendant had already served 19 years, and would only consider rejecting deals in extreme cases like sexual assault.
Municipal Court
No Endorsement - Steering Committee is recommending no endorsement for this race because of the remaining candidates, none have reached the criteria we felt necessary to endorse them as an organization.
All monthly dues-paying members of Reclaim Philadelphia are able to cast their votes online now!
Voting will end on April 18, 2019. If you would like to cast your vote but are not currently a dues-paying member of Reclaim Philadelphia you can become a member by contributing monthly dues here.