The County Ballot: Who's Who?

Hey, did you know there's an election coming up? No, we don't mean the 2012 presidential election, though from the general media buzz, one could hardly be blamed for thinking that's the next election that matters. Surprise: we've got elections this year, too. With many of Montgomery County's most important jobs on the ballot, one could argue that the decisions made on Nov. 8 will affect your life more directly than anything that happens at the polls in 2012.

Recent history suggests that somewhere around 75 percent of registered voters won't bother to turn out to the polls in two weeks. At Patch, we're hoping to nudge you to get a little more involved than that.

Last week, we reviewed the county offices on the ballot in a two-part series. You can read that and . This week, we're going to take a short peek at the candidates for each of those offices.

Today, we're going to review the four candidates for two judges' seats on the county's Court of Common Pleas, the two candidates for county Controller, and the two candidates for Clerk of Courts.

Tomorrow, we'll look at the four Commissioner candidates, the two candidates for Sheriff, the two candidates for Register of Wills, the two candidates for county Coroner.

Court of Common Pleas: Dan Clifford (R)

Norristown attorney Dan Clifford, a Republican candidate for a seat on the county’s Court of Common Pleas, has been in family law practice for 25 years. He is currently the managing partner of the Norristown office of Weber Gallagher Simpson Stapleton Fires & Newby LLP.

Clifford cites his unanimous 2009 appointment to the Advisory Board of the Office of Children and Youth by the county’s Board of Commissioners as evidence of his bipartisan support and of “the respect that [he has] from both Republicans and Democrats.”

Calling the Family Court system “the most accessible division” of the county court system, Clifford says that the Family Court should be “more user friendly and responsive” to county residents. He supports a “Judge Managed System” to replace what he calls the current “'no one’ managed system,” where he says “cases end up languishing for many years.”

Among the many plaudits and accomplishments Clifford claims on his web site is his involvement with the establishment of “Court Care,” a day care facility near the courthouse where parents involved with jury duty or Family Court proceedings can obtain care for their school-aged and younger children.

Clifford is a resident of Springfield Township, where he has been chair of the Zoning Hearing Board since 1997. He lives with Jonathan Weinhold, his partner of 19 years, and their son, Matthew, whom Clifford and Weinhold adopted from Vietnam in 1999.

Dan Clifford campaign Web site

Court of Common Pleas: Cheryl Austin (D)

Abington resident Cheryl Austin is a Democratic candidate for a seat on the county’s Court of Common Pleas. Now in private law practice, she has spent much of her adult life in public service, beginning with a 1991 appointment as Human Resources Director for the Secretary of State in her home state of Ohio.

Austin was one of the first female midshipmen in the Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps program at Northwestern University and received her officer’s commission upon graduation. She served on active duty in the Navy for seven years, reaching the rank of Lieutenant, and later rejoined the Navy as a reservist. She retired as a Navy Captain in 2004.

She moved to the Philadelphia area after marrying her husband, Mike, and later served as an assistant district attorney and assistant county solicitor in Montgomery County. Montgomery County Community College appointed her to its Board of Trustees in 2007.

Cheryl Austin campaign Web site

Court of Common Pleas: Maureen Coggins (R)

Franklin & Marshall College graduate Maureen Coggins is a Republican candidate for a seat on the county’s Court of Common Pleas. 

Her career in public service began shortly after she earned her law degree at Widener University in 1992. She worked in the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office for most of the next decade, first serving as an assistant district attorney with later stints on both the Chief Major Crimes Unit and the Chief Special Prosecutions Unit.

In private practice since 2001, she has continued to serve in public legal capacities in both Montgomery and Lehigh Counties, including as Chief Public Defender for Lehigh County from 2004-2006. She is a Child Advocate for Montgomery County’s Child Advocacy Program and has been recommended for Judge by the Montgomery County Bar Association’s Committee on the Judiciary.

Coggins and her husband, Tim, have three sons and live in East Greenville.

Maureen Coggins campaign Web site

Court of Common Pleas: Richard Haaz (D)

Richard Haaz, Democratic candidate for a seat on the county’s Court of Common Pleas, is a 1971 graduate of Abington High School and has been a practicing trial lawyer for more than thirty-two years, during which time he has “protected the rights of seniors, families, and children,” according to his campaign website. The Montgomery County Bar Association recognized him with its “highly recommended” rating.

Haaz told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he “has an even temperament and a profound respect for the courtroom, its procedures, and all those parties and attorneys who appear before the court.”

Haaz, 58, lives in Springfield Township with his wife, Jennifer, and their two Clumber Spaniels. The couple have three adult children.

Richard Haaz campaign Web site

Controller: Stewart Greenleaf, Jr. (R)

Stewart Greenleaf, Jr., an associate attorney and commercial litigator at the Blue Bell law firm of Elliott Greenleaf, is a Republican candidate for the office of County Controller.

The son of State Senator Stewart J. Greenleaf (R-Montgomery/Bucks), the younger Greenleaf graduated from the University of Maryland in 2000 and earned his law degree at American University in 2004.

Greenleaf promises on his campaign Web site to “work to curb spending by identifying excesses in county finances,” to “scrutinize county functions to determine which can be performed more effectively by the private sector,” and to “ensure the county’s financial condition and transactions are open for public inspection.”

Greenleaf and his wife, Heather, live in Willow Grove with their two young children.

[Editor’s note: Heather Greenleaf  to Patch as a freelance correspondent.]

Stewart Greenleaf, Jr. campaign Web site

Controller: Diane Morgan (D)

Incumbent controller Diane Morgan is Montgomery County’s first female controller and the first Democrat to hold the position since the late 19th century. 

Morgan, who calls herself “a fiscally conservative Democrat,” has attracted significant attention this year as a result of a lawsuit she has filed against the county’s current Board of Commissioners, which contends that the county does not provide her office with sufficient staff and other resources to properly perform the function of county controller. In the official 2010 Controller’s Annual Report, Morgan described “a challenging year” in which she was “banned and sued for doing [her] job.”

Despite those alleged handicaps, Morgan says on her campaign website that she has saved taxpayers millions of dollars through the identification of $15 million in accounting errors in the county’s employee retirement fund, “held county officials accountable for the way they conduct business,” and “brought 21st century technology into the Controller’s office.”

Prior to being elected to the Controller’s office, the Ambler resident and Temple grad was a successful entrepreneur, founding and serving as CEO of a rehabilitation agency that she later sold to a large healthcare company.

Diane Morgan campaign Web site

Clerk of Courts: Moon Ahn (R)

Moon Ahn, the Republican candidate for Clerk of Courts in Montgomery County, was 14 years old when he immigrated to the United States from South Korea with his family in 1976. Now an attorney with his own private practice in Lansdale, the UC Berkeley graduate lives in Whitpain Township with his wife of 21 years, Joanne, and his two school-aged sons, Ethan and Edison. His oldest son, Justin, is a sophomore at NYU.

Though the Clerk of Courts would be his first elected office, Ahn is not new to public service. In 2000, County Commissioner Bruce Castor, then the county’s district attorney, appointed Ahn one of his assistant district attorneys.

Ahn has promised on his website to “bring efficiency to the office,” accusing current Clerk of Courts Ann Thornburg Weiss of failing to process court documents “in an accurate and timely manner,” which he says does a disservice to the county’s judges. These judges are “often held responsible by the State Superior Court for any inefficiency in the process,” Ahn’s website says.

Ahn further promises to “streamline” the office through “a ground-up review of all expenditures and procedures” and to “aggressively pursue outstanding bail money” that is owed to the county.

Moon Ahn campaign Web site

Clerk of Courts: Ann Thornburg Weiss (D)

The incumbent Clerk of Courts is Ann Thornburg Weiss, a Democrat who lives in Upper Dublin with her husband, John. Their son, John, is a senior at the University of Michigan.

A Lehigh Valley native, Weiss earned her law degree from Temple in 1980 and has been a partner at the Fort Washington law firm of Timoney Knox, LLP since 1989. She continues to practice law for the firm on a part-time basis, focusing on civil litigation and municipal and real estate law.

Prior to being elected Clerk of Courts in November 2007, Weiss had served on the Upper Dublin Township Board of Commissioners since 2002, chairing several committees during her tenure.

As Clerk of Courts, Weiss claims a number of accomplishments, notably the “implementation of measures to get the best prices” for various goods and services required by the Court, introducing technology that increased file retrieval efficiency, switching the “internal information processing” of the office to a paperless process, and “making the office website more informative and user friendly.” Weiss also cites her retention of her Republican predecessor’s employees as evidence of her commitment to remove politics from the Clerk of Courts office.

Ann Thornburg Weiss campaign Web site

Tomorrow: Candidates for Commissioner, Sheriff, Coroner, Register of Wills

Related Topics: Election 2011, Montgomery County, and Voting