COURTHOUSE — Montgomery County — where the men are men and women, too.

Of the three county Republican men who have already filed nominating petitions to run for GOP municipal committee posts in their party’s April primary election, two have filed to run as committeewomen.

Both Brian Miles and Patrick Broderick are seeking re-election as committeewomen, Miles in Whitpain 8 and Broderick in Lower Merion 13-1.

Under state Republican bylaws, each voting district is assigned two municipal committee posts. One is for a committeeman and the other is for a committeewoman.

“The goal is to guarantee parity but sometimes there are exceptions when you have to borrow the title,” said county GOP Chairman Ken Davis.

Sometimes party officials simply cannot find someone of the necessary gender to run for the post, said Davis.

“I can’t say I support that kind of thing but I can understand how it happens,” said Davis. (ed. note: Ask Ken Davis how many of the committee-men he appointed in the last few years were women...I know of at least two in Whitemarsh)

Davis said he would not support a change in state committee regulations “because I think striving for parity is a good thing.”

Democrats scrapped their gender-based designations years ago and now just assign two “committeeperson” posts to each voting district.

Note to Peggy Gibbons: before you try to ridicule two of the party's most hard-working individuals, make sure you check all of the facts...there are a lot of male committee-women and a fair number of female committee-men. The past few years have seen some strange appointments being made for some pretty obvious reasons. For Ken to say he "can't say" he "support(s) that kind of thing" is untrue, as he is the reason this particular dynamic exists.


Call Peggy and give her hell for being petty by sensationalizing a non-issue just to put ink on paper!

Margaret Gibbons can be reached at mgibbons@timesherald.com or 610-272-2501 ext. 216.