Brotherly Love.

May 16, 2007 9:14 AM

Unconventional Wisdom: Vote Local, Impact National? The City of Philadelphia often serves as a test-market for the introduction of goods and services, due to demographics that are sometimes representative of the country as a whole. Many of the usual tenets of political conventional wisdom have not held true in this election. A city still geographically divided by the artifacts of redlining did not have a campaign reflective of the population's breakdown by race (although the results map [PDF] implies a racial deliniation, with a largely-white Northeast Philadelphia preferring candidate Knox). The candidate with the largest war chest and most TV advertising did not win. Incumbents with various amounts of local name recognition (and even the support of a BIG NAME) could not garner a simple majority of the vote. Tremendous Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) efforts by local labor and the party-machine proved fruitless. And save for some swiftboating and alleged dirty-tricks at the end, the campaign was fought cleanly. Given that, the recently completed Primary Election and Great Expectations for the Next Mayor of the City of Philadelphia may serve as an example of newly-evolving voter behavior, where a brainy policy-wonk is the people's choice versus the usual suspects.
posted by rzklkng (19 comments total)

Extra points for the correct usage and spelling of the word 'tenet'. Cheers!
posted by dash_slot- at 9:32 AM on May 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

Spoken somewhat objectively (as one who did not vote in the primaries) Nutter seemed like the best choice on the policy issues, of all the candidates. As much as I am pleased at his success, I am very surprised at his overcoming the odds.

He's voted and fought for very contentious quality-of-life improvements while in office, like the indoors smoking ban. He's definitely the brightest of the bunch, in terms of ideas, and seems to have a strong motivation to improve the city — the wage tax is wildly unpopular and I wish him luck in reducing it — and in doing so he's pissed off the Tammany Hall-corrupt John Street numerous times, which makes him a hero in my book.

All that said, his election as mayor, while all but certain at this point, would be quite an aberration in the corrupt history of Philadelphia politics. Huge.

We had a conversation with friends last night about this, and the feeling seems to be that Philadelphia as a city is at a bit of a crossroads, and maybe the voters sensed this. Depending on how things go with the rising violent crime rate and economy, it'll either go back to the urban blight of the 70s, 80s and 90s or continue to reinvent and rebuild, but we're sort of at a metastable point where it can swing either way without some leadership.

Some parallels were drawn between Philadelphia now and New York City in the late 70s. One person remarked that NYC did not stagnate into disparate boroughs, due to a decision to carry out major public investment in communications systems in Manhattan, and specifically in the financial district. Long-term thinking and action was needed back then, and the city is now an economic and social powerhouse of the world.

Hopefully, Nutter will do the same here.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:40 AM on May 16, 2007 [3 favorites]

This 2 party system sucks bees. If you vote for the 3rd party, you get accused of taking away votes from the unpopular party. If you vote in D.C. and you win..they just ignore your vote...(The medicinal marijuana fiasco).
posted by doctorschlock at 9:43 AM on May 16, 2007

Nutter was the only plausible tough-on-crime candidate, and I think that had a major impact on the election. Not sure what that says for national impact... Giuliani for president?
posted by footnote at 9:43 AM on May 16, 2007

Spoken somewhat objectively (as one who did not vote in the primaries) Nutter seemed like the best choice on the policy issues, of all the candidates. As much as I am pleased at his success, I am very surprised at his overcoming the odds.

I think maybe Tom Knox served to draw off the votes the traditional machine candidates (Brady and Fattah) would have otherwise gotten.
posted by footnote at 9:47 AM on May 16, 2007

I think of Philadelphia after a term of Brady, Knox or Fattah in office and want to weep. It might not be perfect but it's the best possible outcome without a doubt.
posted by The Straightener at 9:48 AM on May 16, 2007

It might not be perfect but it's the best possible outcome without a doubt.
posted by The Straightener at 12:48 PM on May 16 [+]

[!]

I disagree. A successful Nutter will mean a revitalized Philly, increased housing prices, and an end to my dream of buying a cute South Philly trinity at an affordable price...
posted by footnote at 9:50 AM on May 16, 2007

I disagree. A successful Nutter will mean a revitalized Philly, increased housing prices, and an end to my dream of buying a cute South Philly trinity at an affordable price...

This is true, and I have to admit harboring secret fantasies of seeing Liberty Place boarded up like a North Philly crackhouse as downtown succumbs to shuffling junkie hoards filling the streets like Romero zombies. We were, like, right there.
posted by The Straightener at 9:56 AM on May 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

Whilst researching this, I came across the first chapter of this book, Deliver the Vote: A History of Election Fraud, an American Political Tradition, [Amazon] on Google Scholar, with the first chapter focusing on Philadelphia.
posted by rzklkng at 10:00 AM on May 16, 2007

footnote, let's hope not. The Stop-and-Frisk plan if implemented poorly sounds like something out of the Authoritarian Cult's playbook.
posted by rzklkng at 10:07 AM on May 16, 2007

Artrios (who lives in philly) was for nutter I think. I would have voted for Chakka Fattah because he has a cool name.
posted by delmoi at 10:16 AM on May 16, 2007

Feh, we've been electing nutters in the UK for years.
posted by Abiezer at 10:16 AM on May 16, 2007

I think that, as with why certain books become runaway bestsellers, it's very hard to gage just exactly why it is that certain politicians connect with voters, while others don't.
posted by Kattullus at 10:21 AM on May 16, 2007

Don't blame me; I voted for Ramona Africa.
posted by Mayor Curley at 11:12 AM on May 16, 2007

Maybe the upset trend will continue and a Republican will win the actual mayoral election....

Wait, did I forget to take my meds this morning?
posted by acetonic at 11:17 AM on May 16, 2007

Don't blame me; I voted for Ramona Africa.

I was wondering what those 6 write-ins were about!
posted by The Straightener at 12:18 PM on May 16, 2007

Not to nitpick...but I'm confused. When I read the statement:

"The City of Philadelphia often serves as a test-market for the introduction of goods and services, due to demographics that are sometimes representative of the country as a whole"

I thought that didn't sound right, just from having a general sense of what Phila. demographics are like. So I clicked on the link, and it shows that Philadelphia ranks 140th out of 150 cities in how closely they mirror America as a whole! In other words, it's the 10th worst test market in the country. I think maybe read this ranking backwards and thought it was the 10th best?
posted by modernist1 at 1:02 PM on May 16, 2007

Yeah, we rock.

The whole race politics thing was obviated by a mix of black and white candidates, as opposed to "the black guy, or the white guy" No asian or hispanic guy tho...

As a black with a chinese wife living in the northeast, my first time at my new polling place, a synagogue, some campaign working fool didn't believe i was at the right place. It's much better now.

So yeah, there's hope that the corrupt-a-thon at city Hall will at least moderate. And we get a wi-fi cloud over the city.
posted by djrock3k at 1:43 PM on May 16, 2007

Nothing angered me more than seeing (in pre-poll analyses) that Nutter didn't stand a chance simply because of his race, despite the fact that there were two other African-American candidates. The allegation seemed to be that Nutter was 'not black enough' (a concept that alludes me), and that that would cost him the primary. Maybe I'm naive, but I can't help thinking that, not only should we not be voting by race, but we shouldn't be voting by perceived degree of race, either.

I was thrilled to see Nutter prevail in the face of millionaires, union leaders, and the same old politicians spewing the same old lines. Anyone who stands up to Street can't be too bad! I'm generally not too optimistic when it comes to the state of the city, but maybe we stand a chance after all.
posted by Mael Oui at 9:58 PM on May 16, 2007