Photo: Jared Piper / Philadelphia City Council Philadelphia’s spirited 2023 has finally come to a close, with overall net positive results for the future of our city.  The big winners of the election were Black voters, moderate voters, and the Philadelphia Democratic Party establishment, along with the Philadelphia Building Trades unions under the leadership of Ryan Boyer. Cherelle Parker, the official choice of the trades, and the unofficial preferred pick of Democratic City Committee leadership, won the Mayoral election with 33% of the vote. Continue reading

(Image: The Philadelphia Citizen) It’s a little over 30 days until Election Day, and Philadelphia voters still haven’t seen a real unbiased poll of the Mayoral primary.   Continue reading

Candidates running for office in 2023 filed their Sixth Tuesday Pre-Primary campaign finance reports this week, showing how much money they raised and spent since the first of the year, how they spent their resources, and who’s funding their campaigns.  Continue reading

(Photo credit: Jon Geeting) Inquirer reporters Jake Blumgart and Sean Walsh talked to outgoing Council President Darrell Clarke about one of the big themes of his tenure in office, which we also focused on in our last newsletter: the steady power shift from the Mayor toward District City Council members on land use and built-environment questions. "Clarke announced Feb. 23 that he is not seeking reelection, ending a 40-year career in City Hall, which includes almost a quarter-century on City Council, 12 of those years as the Council’s leader. The defining principle of Clarke’s tenure — empowering hyperlocal decision-making, often at the expense of citywide policy — could last long after he is gone. It can be seen in the ever greater latitude of district Council members to set rules specific to their territory — to the chagrin of those who argue that it creates a patchwork of rules that makes it harder to do everything from making streets safer to opening a new coffee shop. It also tends to privilege the loudest voices, which are usually those most opposed to change."   Continue reading

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been reporting on some of the horse-race news about Philadelphia’s 2023 elections, like who’s running for At-Large and District primaries, how much money everybody’s been raising, and what could happen in the general election.  Continue reading