Commonwealth court candidate: ‘Bob Ceisler was my mentor’
Ellen Ceisler, Democratic candidate for Commonwealth Court, responds to a question in an interview Friday at the Observer-Reporter.
Ellen Ceisler, Democratic candidate for Commonwealth Court, responds to a question in an interview Friday at the Observer-Reporter.
When Commonwealth Court candidate Ellen Ceisler’s name appears on the ballot in the May 16 Democratic primary, voters will see “Philadelphia County” under her name in a race where two people will be nominated.
She’s a Common Pleas Court judge in Philadelphia, but she wants voters at the opposite corner of the state to know she has firm ties here.
Ceisler, 59, was the daughter-in-law of Robert Ceisler, a trial lawyer in Washington County for more than 60 years who was part of an anti-corruption movement known as the “Straight Eight” attorneys who were based on West Beau Street. Bob Ceisler died in 2005 after his son, Larry, and daughter-in-law, Ellen, divorced.
Ellen Ceisler, who has been a judge in Philadelphia for nearly a decade, was making a campaign swing through Western Pennsylvania Friday.
“It’s an honor to have his name and to run statewide,” she said, noting Robert Ceisler aspired to be a judge.
“Bob and Connie were amazing grandparents. I’m familiar with the town, and it brings back a lot of warm memories,” she said from the Observer-Reporter conference room overlooking South Main Street.
“He had the highest standards, the highest standards in his profession. An absolute role model for anyone in the legal profession. He mentored me as a daughter-in-law, he mentored me as an attorney.”
She described him as a father figure who stepped into the role of the person who was largely absent from her life. Then-Ellen Green’s father abandoned his wife and three daughters when she was very young, leaving her mother destitute. Mrs. Green worked two to three jobs seven days a week, renting an apartment so small she resorted to sleeping on the couch.
“There’s nobody sitting on the court with that kind of background, and there’s nobody running for the court with that kind of background,” the candidate said. “I bring a perspective of everyday people and what they face.”
Ellen Green worked her way through community college in Montgomery County, transfering to Temple University but commuting so she could help her mother. She met Larry Ceisler when he was working at Philadelphia City Hall. After graduating from Temple law school, she specialized in domestic violence crimes in the Philadelphia district attorney’s office. She then worked as an investigative producer for WCAU-TV in Philadelphia.
She remains on friendly terms with political pundit Ceisler, father of their two children, Dan, 24, a U.S. Army veteran recently returned from Afghanistan who is his mother’s campaign manager, and Hannah, 21, a college student who hopes to work as a stand-up comedian.
“Politics makes strange ex-bedfellows,” Ellen Ceisler said.
After serving as director of the special investigations unit of the Philadelphia city controller’s office, where she initiated and oversaw probes into municipal waste and fraud, she ran for the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia in 2007. She won an endorsement from the local Fraternal Order of Police after leading the Integrity and Accountability Office for the police deparment. She won the judicial race despite landing ballot position 26 on a list of 27.
Since then, she has handled both criminal and civil matters in Philadelphia County Court. For the past several years, she sat in an appellate capacity, handling all appeals from government agencies, including zoning board, housing authority, building inspection, parking authority, pension board, tax appeal board, civil service commission, human relations commission and right-to-know law cases.
It’s a docket very similar to that of Commonwealth Court, which hears cases, both appeals and original jurisdiction, related to state, local and county governments.
Commonwealth Court is one of two Pennsylvania intermediate appellate courts. The candidate described it as a forum to protect property, pension and employment rights. Appeals of driver’s license suspensions can eventually land in Commonwealth Court.
Her opponents on the Democratic ballot are Timothy Barry of Dormont, incumbent Joe Cosgrove of Wilkes Barre, Todd Eagen of Lackawanna County, Irene M. Clark of Pittsburgh and Bryan Barbin of Cambria County.
The Pennsylvania Democratic Party “requires a two-thirds majority vote to endorse. After two rounds of voting, Todd Eagen was the only candidate to pass this threshold,” wrote Brandon Cwalina, party spokesman, in response to an email inquiry.
Running unopposed on the Republican ticket for Commonwealth Court are Paul Lalley of Upper St. Clair and Christine Fizzano Cannon of Delaware County.
A Democratic woman has not been elected to Commonwealth Court since 1991.
“I do believe in beating odds,” Ellen Ceisler said.