Council President Clarke's Departure Dramatically Raises the Stakes for 2023 City Council Elections
(Photo Credit: Thom Carroll | Philly Voice)
Further cementing the 2023 election’s status as a pivotal election year for the city of Philadelphia, Council President and 5th District Councilmember Darrell Clarke announced last Thursday he would not run for another term.
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2023 Issues: Two Million Philadelphians!
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.
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How Did Philly's 2023 City Council Candidates Perform in the Money Race?
(Photo: Michael Bryant / Philadelphia Inquirer)
Christmas Day for 2023 election observers came earlier this week with the release of candidates’ Cycle 7 campaign finance reports—the first real concrete gauge of the candidates’ electoral viability.
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Previewing the 2023 Philly General Election
In two recent newsletters we previewed the emerging field for City Council District primaries and the At-Large primary, based on what we know from the confirmed candidate committee filings and what various political observers are saying. This week we’ll take a look at some of the emerging general election dynamics that are visible at this point in time.
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The Emerging At-Large Primary Field for Philly City Council
With three Democratic At-Large members having resigned to run for Mayor, the At-Large City Council candidate field in 2023 was expected to be pretty crowded. So far, though, it doesn’t appear the race will be quite as crowded as it was in the 2019 cycle when there were just two open seats. The 2019 Democratic primary had attracted 30 At-Large candidates, while the 2015 primary—with just one open seat—featured 15 At-Large Democrats on the ballot.
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The Emerging Primary Field for Philly's City Council District Elections
No matter what else happens in the 2023 elections, one thing is for sure: there are going to be a lot of new faces on City Council in 2024.
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And They're Off! The 2023 Mayor's Race Starts in Earnest
With Councilmember Helen Gym’s entrance into the 2023 Philadelphia Mayoral race this week, all of the candidates we mentioned in our overview from earlier this fall have now declared their candidacies, and the race has begun in earnest.
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Philadelphia's 2022 Turnout Was Lower Than the Suburbs'
(Chart: Lara Putnam)
Pennsylvania Democratic voters turned out in surprising numbers for a midterm election last week, as we recapped in our last article, but the situation in Philadelphia was a lot more mixed.
Jonathan Tannen at the Sixty-Six Wards blog published a preliminary review of the turnout situation in Philadelphia, noting that while Pennsylvania as a whole turned out at a higher rate than in 2018, Philadelphia’s turnout fell short of matching 2018, though it was higher than in 2014.
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Who Will Control the PA General Assembly?
(Image: Senator-elect John Fetterman, Credit: Gisele Barreto Fetterman)
The 2022 general election in Pennsylvania was full of surprises, most significantly the better-than-expected showing by Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman, who bested Republican nominee Mehmet Oz, and the possible change in partisan control of the PA General Assembly.
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How City Council's Popular Density Bonus is Boosting the Basic Systems Repair Program
(4040-50 Walnut St)
The newly-released annual report from PHDC, the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation, offers an updated look at where Philadelphia is spending its Basic Systems Repair Program (BSRP) funds, and who the beneficiaries of that spending are.
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