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A farewell to Tom Judge

“There’s gonna be some changes made.”  Those words are absolutely accurate for Delaware County Republicans. After 34 years county GOP Chairman Tom Judge, is calling it quits—sort of. He is officially handing the reins over to Andy Reilly, a former county council chairman and Middletown Republican leader. Suburban Snapshot asked Reilly what he will do to make sure the Judge recipe for success continues under his tenure: “Good candidates and a good campaign,” he said simply.

He said he is going to work with everyone to make sure the Republican districts stay that way, and those that presently have a Democrat in office can be turned.

“Delaware County has good candidates, and they are putting together good campaigns, and will hopefully emerge victorious,” he said.

To thank Judge for his decades of work, the DelCo GOP threw a party for him recently—and what a party it was. Insiders packed the room at the Springfield Country Club, Charlie Sexton, John McNichol, Dominic Pileggi, Ted Erickson, Bill Adolph, Tom Killion and Mario Civera. Even some Democrats were there, including Bob Brady, Joe Sestak and Arlen specter.

Judge has an incredible record for Delaware County and the Republican Party—he never lost a single countywide campaign during his tenure as chairman. Judge was partly responsible for George H.W. Bush’s first presidential victory in Pennsylvania in 1988.

Everyone, Democrat or Republican, had only one word to describe this man: gentleman. Ironically, politics is known as one of the worst contact sports. But for Judge, he conducted himself—on and off the field—with dignity and honor, along with emerging victorious.  This man may have delivered victories for his Republican team in Delaware County, but he was always “just Tommy.” Nothing pretentious about him. He will always be one of us.

November 30, 2009 at 9:03 pm

--Beth Hegedus

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