Needless to say, Philadelphia will almost certainly not elect a Republican mayor this year. They will also almost certainly not elect a MAGA-type conservative, for that matter.
So why even cover the race? Because for the first time in a long time, the 6th largest city in America may elect a Bloomberg, moderate Democrat over a hard left, establishment candidate in the race.
Out of nine candidates running, four seem to have a good shot at taking the reins. Crime has gone up consistently within the city, it’s the seventh most dangerous city in the US when it comes to homicides, and homicides in 2021 sat at an all-time record high.
Councilmember Helen Gym is tied for second place in the polls. She’s probably the most hard left candidate out of them all, and surprise, surprise, has AOC’s endorsement. She wants a mobile mental health unit and reserve police intervention for violent crime only. That’s code for slashing the police budget, something she publicly supported in 2020. She displays her pronouns on her Twitter bio, signalling a willigness to jump in and fight in the distracting culture war.
Councilman Allan Domb also previously supported slashing the police budget, but has since called for it to be strengthened stronger than ever. He sets a more moderate tone than Gym, which is most likely why he’s tied at 15% in the polls with the progressive councilwoman. He’s a big advocate of public schools however, not at all supporting charter schools or school choice in general, making him reliably left. Still, he’d be a sharp turn from the ultra liberal current mayor Jim Kenny, who, with a radical DA, has largely stopped prosecuting non violent crime committers.
But at 25% is the comparitvely more conservative Jeff Brown. He’s a local grocery store magnate having never been elected to office before. He certainly cuts a Mike Bloomberg mold, which may signal, Chicago notwithstanding, the direction urban America is going in. Usually, in a primary, they’d elect a hard left candidate. But that doesn’t seem to be the case with Philadelphia.
Brown has also received the endorsement from the local police union and has drawn cricticism for (gasp!) slightly criticizing two local unions. That gives him some extra points in my book. The union chief of the local grocery store workers (and they owe him a lot, Brown was instrumental in allowing his employees to quickly and easily unionize) took Brown to task for calling a construction workers union and a teacher’s union both “concerning”. That was it. They endorsed Brown’s opponents, which is probably why he brought up his opinion. The grocery store union chief said he was troubled by Brown’s comments and that they “do not align with our vision for how union workers can help build a better Philadelphia.”
That’s how hard left Philly is. You can be generally pro union but criticize just two, and your name is mud. The grocery store union chief is apparently sticking with his horse after a conversation, one that didn’t need to happen at all.
But voters might view Brown’s tepid comments as a plus. He’s not reflixively loyal to two of the biggest unions in the city. And as explodes crime wise, pay attention to this race. Brown might just turn it around.
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