For those that don’t know, Philly requires a minority party to hold some seats on city counsel. So the Working Families party decided to try to take all those seats to get rid of the GOP.
Highlights: The Nov. 7 general election presents something of an existential test for Philadelphia’s Republican Party, which has for decades watched its power and influence atrophy as the demographics of America’s urban centers became decidedly more favorable to Democrats.
A major setback came four years ago when Kendra Brooks of the progressive Working Families Party became the first third-party candidate to win a seat on Council in generations, ousting a Republican from an at-large seat effectively reserved for a non-Democrat.
This year, the Working Families Party is trying to take both set-aside Council seats. At the same time, Northeast Philadelphia Republican Brian O’Neill, who has been a member of Council since 1980, is facing one of the most well-funded general election challenges of his career.
And if all three GOP candidates fall, the 115,000 registered Republicans in the city would for the first time in modern history have no representative on Council. The only remaining Republican in City Hall would be City Commissioner Seth Bluestein.
The party nominated five Republicans in the primary, and then three candidates promptly dropped out, leaving civic leader Drew Murray and small business owner Jim Hasher as the only two Republicans on the ticket. That makes for a head-to-head matchup with the Working Families Party.
To win in the at-large race, Republicans may need to perform outside the GOP strongholds in Northeast Philadelphia and parts of South Philly where working class white voters tend to cluster. Even parts of those traditional bastions of the Republican party have become more diverse over the last decade.
Something is wrong with Philadelphia. I had a delivery near Kensington, and my contact, who lives nearby didn’t want me walking around after dark for fear I would be shot. Not for getting in a fight, or anything. Just for no reason.
Looking at google maps it looks like I was in Allegheny West. Looking at crime rates it’s the highest in the city.
You understand why I’m saying this, yeah? Maybe the current government is fucked.
People don’t randomly get shot in Kensington. Maybe mugged, but the vast majority of gun violence is not random shootings.
Regardless, overdose deaths and addictions are a serious issue everywhere in the USA. Philly isn’t some outlier.
I will say that city council banning supervised injection sites (for all intents and purposes) was a bad move. Some NIMBY shit. It’s one thing Kenney is 100% right about.
Philly is the worst.
Thanks. Thats a really well-worded reply to my points!
You won’t realize it until you leave. It’s viewed by most as the worst. I’ve been there and I know it’s pretty bad.
I’ve lived in other places bud. Thanks again for your insightful and evidence-driven comments.
Philly is like the inside of a homeless opioid addicts intenstine as it digests a 5 day old dumpster sandwhich that’s the only thing he had to eat in about as long. Crawling with parasites and smelling worse than anything you can imagine.