Among the candidates left off the list was Assistant District Attorney Heidi Eakin, who earlier this year received the Lancaster Bar Association’s “highly recommended” rating.

Eakin said she intends to stay in the race.

“My résumé of 21 years of public service speaks for itself, and I will readily make it available to everybody,” she said. “My courtroom experience is unsurpassed, and I have supported this party both in my work and financially.”

Robert Frankhouser, an attorney and chairman of the 10-person screening committee, said the panel thoroughly vetted 15 candidates during the last two months.

“The results of the (Lancaster Bar Association) review is a data point that is available” to the screening panel, he said. “It is one of a multitude of pieces of information that the panel uses to make its decision.”

Recommended for endorsement are constitutional lawyer Leonard Brown III; Christopher A. Hackman, an assistant district attorney; defense attorney Howard Knisely; David P. Miller, magisterial judge in Manheim Township; Margaret Concannon Miller, Jeffrey Mills, Jeffrey J. Reich and John P. Stengel, all of whom are attorneys in private practices; District Attorney Donald R. Totaro; and Jeffrey D. Wright, a civil law attorney.

In 2007, half a dozen seats in Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas are up for election. The spring primary is May 15.

The county Republican committee will meet in February to decide whether to endorse six candidates or call for an open primary.

“The entire committee and the voters will have some interesting decisions to make,” Frankhouser said.

The screening panel includes four local attorneys. Seven of the 10 members also serve on the county Republican committee.

Four of the panel’s selections — Margaret Concannon Miller, Mills, Reich and Totaro — received the bar association’s “highly recommended” rating this year. The association gave Hackman, Knisely, Miller, Stengel and Wright a “recommended” rating.

Brown is the only one on the panel’s list to receive the association’s “not recommended” label.

Along with Eakin, family lawyer M. Lucile Longo publicly announced her candidacy but failed to obtain the panel’s recommendation.

Longo received a “not recommended” rating from the bar association.

Longo was not immediately available for comment Wednesday night.

Frankhouser said the list of candidates whom the panel interviewed but did not recommend is confidential unless the individual candidates want to make it public.


Dave Pidgeon’s e-mail address is dpidgeon@lnpnews.com.