District justice proves a case of voters' say

The story of how an upstart Allegheny County district justice took on the statewide Republican establishment - and won - may not be a saga of biblical proportions, but by political standards, it comes close.

When John T. Bender, a Democrat turned Republican, became the belated winner last week of a GOP nomination for Pennsylvania Superior Court, he became the first statewide candidate in many years to win a nomination without the party's blessing, according to Republican officials and political observers.

Bender, 52, of Fox Chapel, got that far without the recommendations of the state and local bar associations - and despite being outspent by more than a 10-to-1 ratio.

If elected in November, Bender would vault from the lowest rung on the judicial ladder - a district justice who handles traffic citations, minor civil matters and preliminary criminal proceedings - to an appellate judge who would hear some of the state's most complex cases.

'I told John: 'You don't have a chance. You're just going to be a loser, and you are going to antagonize everyone,'' said Richard Stampahar, chairman of the Allegheny County Republican Party. 'He showed that I'm not infallible on political matters.'

Ending a nearly 10-week-old election dispute, the Pennsylvania Department of State determined last week that Bender edged out Schuylkill County Common Pleas Judge Cyrus Palmer Dolbin, an endorsed Republican, to capture one of the three GOP nominations.

Bender received 336,931 votes, while Dolbin got 336,094 - an 837-vote difference - according to the May 15 primary results made official last Monday.

Bender joins Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Richard B. Klein and Allegheny County attorney Mary Jane Bowes of Brentwood as the GOP nominees for the three open Superior Court seats in the Nov. 6 general election.

Superior Court, which hears appeals from common pleas courts, consists of 15 judges elected to 10-year terms. The job pays $129,458 annually, or almost $1.3 million over a single term.

The primary victory was not easy, Bender said.

In 1996, Republican leaders coaxed Bender to leave the Democratic Party and to run for district justice.

This time, however, the GOP fought him with words and money. Bender survived a Republican challenge to his qualifying petitions at the start. In the end, he overcame a potential Republican challenge of the election results.

What irked him most, Bender said, was that the state party targeted him in a direct-mail and advertising attack that branded him as a former Democrat.

Now that the results are final, Bender and GOP officials are mending fences.

'That's all behind us now,' Bender said. 'I need them. They have a powerful machine. I know; they ran against me.'

Chad Saylor, executive director of the state Republican Party, acknowledged that the GOP had tried to block Bender. But Saylor now supports him as a member of the party's 'judicial team.'

'We are united and moving forward,' Saylor said. 'If you look at our track record, the Democrats have a lot to worry about.'

Republicans have won 20 of the past 28 statewide races, Saylor pointed out.

Stampahar, who recruited Bender in the 1996 campaign, said that even though he opposed Bender's running for Superior Court without the endorsement, he disliked the party's strategy.

'To be honest with you, we are in missionary territory in Allegheny County,' Stampahar said.

The county has twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans.

'My wife was a Democrat. So what the hell am I going to say or do• As my wife told me, after we were married, I never complained that I was sleeping with a Democrat.

'He (Bender) is a Republican, as far as I'm concerned.'

Saylor said the party zeroed in on Bender because the nonendorsed candidate could have damaged statewide strategy in the fall election, when the party likes to balance a ticket geographically. Strategists decided to use the 'former Democrat' tactic because they were seeking 'hard-core Republican' support in the primary.

Asked if he believes Bender will be a good candidate in the general election, Saylor said: 'I think he's a proven vote-getter. ... And he certainly seems to have luck on his side. Luck is a key component.'

Bender, a lawyer and a first-term district justice based in Sharpsburg, was hesitant to characterize himself as a political maverick. He said he merely got into the campaign too late to receive serious consideration for the endorsement. So he ran without it, and without favorable recommendations from the Pennsylvania and Allegheny County bar association.

'I did a lot of work in that primary. I talked to a lot of people. I didn't have a lot of money, but I spent a lot of time,' Bender said. 'Clearly, the voters picked me. The establishment was negative on me throughout the campaign.'

Campaign records leave no doubt that Bender lacked a financial advantage. Dolbin raised and spent more than $160,000, while Bender's campaign cost less than $10,000.

G. Terry Madonna, chairman of the political science department at Millersville University in Lancaster County, said the last major upset of the Republican Party's statewide favorite in a primary dates to 1980, when Arlen Specter defeated an endorsed candidate for the U.S. Senate nomination. Specter went on to win the Senate seat.

'This is a rare moment when the Republican Party doesn't deliver its endorsement,' Madonna said. 'Its endorsements carry weight, and the party has a long history of delivering on its endorsements. They are prized and valued by candidates.'

Political analyst Joseph Sabino Mistick, a Duquesne University law professor, agreed.

'The Republican Party has been exemplary in its ability to discipline candidates for statewide office,' Mistick said. 'The Democrats, in contrast, are often faced with a free-for-all in which hard feelings survive the primary and come back to haunt them in the fall.'

Bender said he believes the state party's strategy to go after him by name backfired.

That might be true, Madonna said, but Bender probably was helped more by being second on the ballot in a low-profile race with four candidates. The ballot placement may have accounted for an advantage of 1 percent or more, Mistick said. Bender won by a scant 0.2 percent.

Leaping from district justice to the Superior Court is a long shot, political observers said.

Bender meets the qualifications to serve on Superior Court. State law requires a candidate to be a U.S. citizen, 21 years old or older, who is a member of the state bar association and has been a Pennsylvania resident for at least one year before the election.

Amy Greer, president of the Allegheny County Bar Association, wouldn't elaborate on Bender specifically, but she said a 24-member committee decides whom to recommend based on information from the judicial candidates.

The committee classified Bender as 'not recommended at this time,' which means a candidate 'may have the potential to excel as a judge, but the candidate is not yet at that stage.'

Winning the Democratic nominations for Superior Court without opposition were Erie County Common Pleas Judge Stephanie Domitrovich, Philadelphia Municipal Judge Lydia Kirkland and lawyer David Wecht, Allegheny County's Register of Wills.

David Brown can be reached at dbrown@tribweb.com or (412) 380-5614.