This race will decide who will serve in the seven “At-Large” seats on the 17 seat Council. Unlike the ten District Council Members, these seven people represent all of us. The trick here is that a maximum of five candidates from one party can win. So despite the fact that Philadelphia voters are mostly registered as Democrat, two Republicans will be serving as well.
That is where you should use your vote. All five Democrats will win. There is simply no chance that the third place Republican will have more votes that the fifth place Democrat. The Republican candidates vary greatly in the views and experience. The Vanguard chose to endorse a mix of candidates.
Two candidates distinguish
themselves from the others in this race:
First, we endorse Republican Dennis O’Brien. His experience and bi-partisanship has served the citizens of Pennsylvania better than any other elected official. He has had no problem working hand in hand with Democrats on issues like education. In fact, at the debate, he was asked if the city was getting a 6th Democrat if he was elected. Further, he believes in making the City Council Budget Hearing public. To prove this was not an empty political campaign promise, he pointed out that as Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives he simply made the budget of each office public information. He noted a profound change in the way many of those elected officials spent the public money.
Second, we believe Democrat Blondell Reynolds Brown best represents the interests of CCP. Her college degrees are in education, she shows a passion for youth and women’s issues, and like O’Brien, expressed particular concern for the students in Philadelphia Public schools. Also, Reynolds Brown has taken notice on environmental issues like green building and Marcellus Shale fracking which have proved to be important to the CCP student body and faculty.
After those two candidates there are a couple that are deserving of consideration.
The best of the rest would be Democrat Bill Green. He actually sued to keep the libraries open when Mayor Nutter was closing them due to budget short falls. He also introduced legislation to eliminate DROP for elected officials. The drawbacks on Green are his unwillingness to open the Council Budget Hearing and his connection to cetain Political Action Committees that have backed questionable Council Members in the past.
Since no other Democrat cared to participate in the non-partisan debate we can only cite two other candidates worthy of consideration.
Republican Al Taubenberger is a business minded person from Northeast Philadelphia. As President of the Greater Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, he is tuned in to the needs and desire of the business community. Creating a positive business environment can increase the number of available jobs and tax revenue for the City.
Republican David Oh, is a business and education minded candidate. He was a front runner for a spot but has retreated a bit in the last few months. Questions about his military record arose and Oh apologized though he insists he did nothing wrong. Unfortunately, he was guarded in his answers at the debate. The Vanguard is comfortable with Oh taking a seat on Council next year but simply cannot fully endorse a candidate who is not vocal enough about their views.