Philadelphia Mayoral Election 2023
Seven major candidates have entered the race for mayor, there are more but these candidates appear to dominate the race and have serious backing. They are Helen Gym; Jeff Brown; Alan Domb; Cherelle Parker; Amen Brown; Rebecca Rhynhart; and Derek Green, who is no longer in the race but whose name will appear on the ballot unlike Chicago there will be no runoff. There are other candidates they are both perennial candidates like Warren Bloom who has run for mayor seven times and Queena Bass who has run several times before. There are some like James Deleon who appear to have little support. Even though he was a municipal court judge. Perhaps it is due to his conservative positions. He wants to put an additional 1,500 policeman on the force. Perhaps his unpopularity stems from the fact he has been disciplined twice while sitting on the bench. Even more, the fact that he has lost many races means that Philadelphia voters have begun to turn a deaf ear to him.
Out of the more popular and front running candidates Helen Gym, a Chinese- American woman, appears to be one of the most popular. Although the polls are a little murky at this point. The first poll was conducted by Jeff Brown and showed him as a winner. One of the more recent polls that was a little fairer gave Helen Gym second place, with 17% of the voters undecided. Helen Gym also appears to be the strongest candidates when it comes to progressive politics. She has been endorsed by Working Families Party and Make the Road Pennsylvania. She is an extremely active campaigner and has fought most of her political life for better public schools. In fact, Billy Penn at WHYY says she has been referred to as a “public agitator” an office she held before becoming a second term city-wide elected council member . According to that paper she is considered “Philly’s AOC”. On the negative side the press and her critics have castigated her for her husband’s association with big pharma. Bret Flaherty was a top lawyer for Amerisource Bergan, a prominent pharmaceutical corporation. The company seems to have profited from the sale of opioids. However, her husband left the company three months after she began her campaign and Helen Gym said that not had any ties with the corporation but her critics state that she should have recused herself when voting on a bill that required companies registered with the city if they intended to give gifts to doctors to whom they marketed medication. She states the ads attacking her for this are unfair.
Jeff Brown is one of the city’s largest grocers. He is a fourth-generation grocer. His father owned nine Shop N’ Bag supermarkets, known as Julen Enterprises. While in college he helped his father with his business. During that time, he served as his fathers Chief Financial Officer and after college he took on the job full time. In 1987, his father retired, and one year later Jeff Brown opened Brown Super Stores Inc. One year later in 1989, at age 25, he would open his first Shop Rite supermarket, Shop-Rite of Roxborough. His company continued to grow, until it encompassed 10 Shop-Rite and two Fresh Grocer Supermarkets. Brown Super Stores Inc. became a part of a grocery cooperative the Wakefern Food Corporation. Jeff Brown serves as member of its Board of Directors and serves as the Chair of the Risk Management Committee. He has no political experience. The mayor of Philadelphia, if he is elected, would be his first. He takes a hard stand on law enforcement and believes that strengthening the Philadelphia police force and supporting it is the only way to reduce crime. He believes that is the way to deal with problems of shooting in the streets. Jeff Brown has spent the most money some claim he has spent as much as 21 million dollars. For a good while he was the only mayoral candidate with his own commercial. He claims he does not cater to any special interests. People are free to contribute to his campaign. However, it will not influence his decision about anything. However, while he does not agree with Super PACs, he feels he “must utilize the system to keep his campaign “competitive.” His lawn signs decorate the city from one end of the town to the other. Banners with his name and face grace the city. Still the voters do not appear to be persuaded 17% of the voters are still undecided with 46 % of the African American voters have not decided who they are going to vote for. Jeff Brown has some negative qualities. the Philly Ethics Board filed suit accusing Brown of illegally coordinating with a super PAC that’s taken and spent millions on his behalf.[1] This is ample evidence that Jeff Brown circumvented the city’s election laws to increase the amount he spent on things like television commercials. The city has campaign limits. Jeff Brown is being investigated over the issue of exceeding these limits. Another issue was the support for his campaign by Michelle Obama. He claimed she had endorsed his campaign. In fact, she had not. She said she never endorses political campaigns.
Alan Domb comes from humble beginnings. He was a working-class person from North New Jersey who moved to Philadelphia in the 1970’s. He has amassed a large fortune developing real estate. He is known as the Condo King. Recently he won a city-wide election to the office of City Council. It was his second term before he left office to run for mayor. He claims that though he has contributed two million dollars of his own money to the campaign he is still a person who had to shine shoes to make a living. However, he is wealthy. His contribution to his own campaign was enough to cause the use of the millionaire’s amendment to the city limits on campaign financing. This amendment doubles the limit to campaign financing. This would not be too much of a problem but in this race Former City Councilperson Maria Quinones was forced to quit the race because of the lack of campaign funds. She said the race was simply too expensive. This makes the question Alan Domb was asked at the first mayoral debate on ABC even more glaring. “Are you trying Mr. Domb to buy the election?”
Amen Brown, an African American, is the Pennsylvania State Representative for the 10th District. He has a painful background. He was a victim of street violence when he was younger. He was a victim of a shooting. He spent time incarcerated. He has endured the worse life experience the city has to offer. Perhaps his only negative is the inward pain has contributed to a very negative viewpoint when it comes to law enforcement. He was one of the few democrats who sided with the Republicans on the issue of impeachment of liberal DA Larry Krasner. The Republican accused the District Attorney of failure of doing his job because not enough people were going to jail. To have a African American version of Frank Rizzo will not help the city of Philadelphia.
Cherelle Parker is the most experienced candidate. An African American woman, she has more than 15 years as a legislator. She has served as Pennsylvania State Representative and a City Council member for District 9. On the negative side, in 2015 Cherelle Parker lost her appeal of a drunk driving conviction and began serving her sentence of three days in jail, $1,000 fine, and a 1-year license suspension.[2] She does not support rent control. During ABC’s, Year of Decision televised debate she supported stop and frisk. On the bright side she considers herself a strong supporter the African American people.
Cherelle Parker has focused on Philadelphia’s middle neighborhoods as Philadelphia’s hope for the future. Middle neighborhoods house people who earn 80 to 120% of the median income. They are viewed as essential for a healthy city tax base.
Rebecca Rhynhart, born 1974, is a Democratic candidate for mayor. She served as the City Controller until she resigned in October to run for mayor of the city of Philadelphia. If elected she will be the city’s 100th mayor and the first female mayor. She has interviewed for Make the Road endorsements. She has received the endorsements from John Street; Michael Nutter; and recently Ed Rendell. All three men were former Philadelphia mayors. Ed Rendell was a former governor. He was the first governor elected from Philadelphia since 1913. Ed Rendell is a loyal democrat. He served as the Chair of the Democratic National Committee during the 2000 Presidential elections. Al Gore referred to him as America’s mayor. He served as District Attorney from 1978- 1986 during the administrations of Mayor Greene and Mayor Wilson Goode. Perhaps this why Rebecca Rhynhart gets her tough on crime approach. However, she is not wrong in wanting to stop the senseless gun violence. She broke with the current administration on the issue of gun violence. Her banking and business background puts the city’s financers and banks at ease. At the writing of this article, she leads the pack of mayoral candidates in the city’s only unbiased poll.
The Committee of Seventy just released a new poll. Rebecca Rhynhart is in the lead with 18%. Cherelle Parker is second with 17%. Helen Gym is third with 15%. Alan Domb is fourth with 14% and Jeff Brown came in with only 11%. But this poll does not mean much since the undecided voters held the largest percentage with 20 %. This is a statistical tie. However there have been more recent polls that show Helen Gym moving ahead of Cherelle Parker into second place. Still the race is a dead heat and there is no way at this point of showing any distinguishable winner.
David Oh is a Republican Attorney, who served as an at large city council person from 2012 to 2022. He graduated from Rutgers Law School and served as an Assistant District Attorney in Philadelphia. He left the job to join the U.S. Army, where he served from 1988-1992. Upon leaving the Army he practiced law. In 2008, he merged his solo practice into the law firm of Zarwin Baum DeVito Kaplan Schaer Toddy, P.C. He served on Ed Rendell’s gubernatorial transition team. He also served on Governor Ridge’s trade mission to South Korea. His good qualities are that he is a supporter of the Ironworkers and Teamsters unions. He spoke on behalf of the striking Teamsters along with Jeff Brown during the Coca-Cola strike. He is the presumptive Republican mayoral candidate. He will face no opposition in the Republican primaries.
Like Chicago, the City of Philadelphia’s Democratic primary will decide the winner. Unlike Chicago, there will be no runoff. Philadelphia is what political scientists call a strong mayor town. The mayor dominates politics in the city. According to the office of the mayor he or she must work to strengthen every neighborhood by focusing on:
- Improving educational opportunities and outcomes for all of Philadelphia’s children.
- Improving economic opportunities for all Philadelphians.
- Improving public safety for all Philadelphians while treating residents with respect and dignity.
- Operating government efficiently and effectively.
- Developing a diverse workforce that looks like Philadelphia.
According to the legal dictionary a mayor in a strong mayor system has the power to veto laws and introduce legislation. He or she may hire and fire employees and create task forces to handle the city’s problems. In Philadelphia the mayor runs the police and fire department and because of the merger of city and county systems exercises a great deal of control over both Philadelphia’s District Attorney’s Office and the Sheriff’s Office has not had. He or she also sits on various commissions and boards that control various aspects of the city’s life. She or he will appoint the members of the Philadelphia School Board. This Board is responsible for hiring the school superintendent.
The question each Philadelphian faces is which one of the candidates can do the job of being a strong city mayor. There is some hope. Recently both Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez have endorsed a woman who considers herself a tough city mom, Helen Gym.
[1] https//www.billypenn.com. /2023/04/10/jeff-brown-super-pac-coordination-illegal-mayoral-candidate
Comments
Post a Comment