(Photo credit: Congressman Bob Brady)

In a meeting with Democratic City Committee on Wednesday afternoon, Congressman Bob Brady confirmed the rumor that had been swirling in local political circles for months: he won't be running for reelection. 

(We are all this boy, in Bob Brady's Democratic Party | Image: WHYY)

Over the past year, there's been an amazing small-d democratic resurgence building in Philly politics. Our usually sleepy District Attorney and Controller election cycle saw huge voter turnout due to two exciting primaries, and grassroots groups are on the march to revive the local Democratic Party's creaky get-out-the-vote apparatus. But not everybody is getting in the democratic spirit.

Dave Davies flagged a juicy detail from Judge Jimmie Moore's hearing this week, in which Moore pleaded guilty to accepting a $90,000 payment from Congressman Bob Brady's campaign to abandon a primary challenge against the incumbent. According to Moore's attorney, the feds have really been sniffing around Brady.

(Bob Brady (left) with Mike Meehan (right))

The most important bedrock reality of Philadelphia politics is that registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by about 8 to 1, making it very difficult for non-Democrats to win any citywide elections. 

The big question coming out of the 2017 municipal primaries is whether the results, which were a total black eye for the traditional Democratic Party machine, should be seen as a one-time fluke, or whether they're part of an ongoing trend that spells trouble for other incumbents in the 2018 and 2019 election cycles.

(DCC Chairman Bob Brady is a very traditional guy. Photo: Rep. Bob Brady)

In the course explaining away the Democratic City Committee's ultra-weak performance in the municipal primaries this Tuesday, chairman Bob Brady told Dave Davies of WHYY that the "traditional wards" were simply out-hustled by "liberal wards."

(Congressman Bob Brady | Photo: Philadelphia Inquirer)

This week former Governor Ed Rendell gave Democratic City Committee chairman Bob Brady some unsolicited advice about cleaning up the city's party organization via an article at City & State--advice that didn't go over so well. 

Incumbent District Attorney Seth Williams got some more bad news today as Congressman Bob Brady, chair of the Democratic City Committee, told Chris Brennan that the party is unlikely to endorse Williams as the party's nominee in the 2017 primary.

Rep. Leslie Acosta of the 197th District is rebuffing calls from two of her party's highest-ranking elected officials to resign, in the wake of an Inquirer report that she quietly plead guilty to a federal felony charge last winter.

Congressman Bob Brady, head of the Democratic City Committee, and Governor Tom Wolf issued statements publicly calling on Acosta to resign this week, but this afternoon she said she plans to press on with her reelection campaign.