PhillyJudges is a project developed and maintained by local civic activist Micah Mahjoubian to serve as a comprehensive resource for judicial elections in Philadelphia. Frustrated by the lack of accessible information on judicial candidates, he created PhillyJudges as a clearinghouse where voters can easily find details about candidates, endorsements, and other key election insights.

Micah has over 20 years of experience in deploying technology to effect civic change. It all started when he developed his first voter database for a state representative campaign he ran in 1996. Since then he developed a reputation as a computer nerd who understands local politics. In 1999, before the existence of online campaign finance tools, Micah built a fully functioning campaign fundraising and finance compliance database for John F. Street’s mayoral campaign, which has recently been re-developed as an online tool set to compete with other online campaign finance systems like NGP.

In 2003, Micah worked with a team of people to develop a cutting edge voter registration database that allowed Mayor John F. Street to register over 80,000 voters during his re-election campaign. That database, operating before the advent of smartphones and modern wireless devices, synced with Palm powered handheld devices allowing teams of field operatives to easily collect data as they canvassed. This technology was the foundation of what would later become the VAN.

Six years later, in 2009, Micah formed Soapbox Solutions, a local political consulting firm that specializes in political technology. He then worked with a city councilman to develop the first smartphone app created by a Philadelphia elected official to connect residents with city services. He also worked with the Philadelphia Sheriff and Philadelphia’s Board of Elections to develop online tools to make their offices more transparent.

Micah also began working with candidates for judge in 2009 and has become an expert on the unique aspects of a judicial campaign in Philadelphia. Using the relationships he built across the city of Philadelphia over the previous 10 years, he was able to help his clients navigate the complicated web of ward leaders, committee people, labor unions, civic groups, progressive organizations, funders, media outlets, bloggers, and other stakeholders in Philadelphia politics. 

It is through this experience that Micah became frustrated by the lack of information available to voters about judicial candidates in Philadelphia. Besides the work of the Philadelphia Bar Association and a few progressive groups like Liberty City LGBT Democrats, there is very little substantive vetting of candidates in a way that is easily consumable by voters. Even the local citywide newspapers stopped making endorsements for local judge several cycles ago. 

Hence this website.

It is Micah’s goal to make this site a clearinghouse for all information related to judicial elections in Philadelphia. You will be able to easily search through the list of candidates to see who is running, find out where to view their campaign websites, and learn about who has endorsed them.