The Daily Times Editorial Board, on which I proudly serve, has been meeting with local candidates for County Council and Common Pleas court judgeships.

A couple of observations:

Democrats John Innelli and Ann O'Keefe surprisingly and individually volunteered that they took issue with the tone of the campaign being run by their running mate, David Landau.

They seem to think it is too accusatory when it comes to alleging GOP corruption in the county courthouse.

I think so too.

But at least Landau is making the serious effort to make the case for minority representation on council. He's running a much stronger campaign than either of the other two and working harder at it.

We had all the GOP candidates, Andy Lewis from Haverford, Christine Fizzano Cannon from Middletown and Tom McGarrigle from Springfield in Wednesday afternoon.

All three were impressive in my book, Lewis for his business credentials and general independence of the older-style county GOP machine politics, Cannon for her geniality and good grasp of the issues facing the county, and McGarrigle for his down-to-earth, common-man business sense.

My favorite moment came when I was badgering McGarrigle about a shot he took at Landau earlier in the campaign for his ACLU work 20 years ago. (He'd said it showed that Landau cared more about cop killers and criminals than the taxpayers of Delaware County.)

After trying to suggest that wasn't exactly what he said, he simply admitted he'd been wrong.

"I shouldn't have said that."

That impressed me.

When we caught the Landau campaign fudging the truth about its hand in revealing McGarrigle's tax problems in the early 1990s, Landau should have stepped up and said simply said "we screwed up." He didn't. At least, when I asked him about after it happened.

Like the good lawyer that he is, he tried to change the subject. Sometimes though, it's better to simply admit a mistake and move on. It shows integrity and confidence and its very disarming, especially with journalists.

For her part, Cannon said the county government web site was one of the worst she'd ever seen and that she would like to see it made more user friendly. Here here to that.

The Dems all made the same old arguments for a county health department.

The Repubs are said they had "open minds" about the issue but wanted to wait until a cost-benefit study was done to make a final decision on the matter. Sounds reasonable.

And EVERYBODY is against the FAA flight plan and for the county-funded lawsuit it.

Ridley DJ Greg Mallon, who is running for Common Pleas court judge was as affable and genial as could be. Over his 26 years as DJ he said he's heard over 100,000 cases and like anything else, the more you do something, the better you get at it.

When I told him he was gaining a reputation for being a little "cranky" on the bench he seemed so geniunely surprised that I told him I'd reject my sources. I haven't yet but I will.

Mary Alice Brennan was something of a surprise. She's also running for judge.
All she talked about how wonderful, hard-working, fair, compassionate, experienced, etc. she is. She's been a District Justice. A public defender and county council member. She has plenty of street cred. There's a way of conveying that without seeming to bragging on yourself about it.

At her last appearance at the Daily Times, when she was running for county council, as I recall, she seemed easier going and had less of an edge. This was more of a hard sell job, seemed a little out of character for her. I wasn't the only one who noticed it.

Later today, we'll meet with Democratic judicial candidates Frank Daly and Mike Farrell.

Daly responded (pretty well I think) to an earlier post of mine. Scroll down and you can find it. I'll post later on our meeting with them.