Philadelphia’s Democratic voters nominated Cherelle Parker in Tuesday’s mayoral primary election.
The former state representative and former ninth-district city councilwoman will face a downhill general-election battle against David Oh (R-At-Large) whose bid for the Republican nod was uncontested.
With over 210,000 votes cast, Parker received 32.94 percent of the vote, comfortably ahead of former city Controller Rebecca Rhynhart who got 22.66 percent, former at-large Councilwoman Helen Gym who received 21.29 percent and former at-large Councilman Allan Domb who took 11.68 percent. Jeff Brown, Amen Brown, James DeLeon, Delscia Gray and Warren Bloom all had single-digit shares of the vote.
Parker, whose district covers northern and northwestern parts of the city, compiled a generally liberal voting record during her state and municipal legislative tenures. Organized labor rewarded her economic progressivism with some key endorsements, e.g., the Building and Construction Trades Council and the Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ.
Nevertheless, Parker clashes with Gym and other doctrinaire leftists on certain criminal-justice issues. The Mount Airy resident supports stop-and-frisk and increased police funding while opposing supervised injection sites. Many city voters consider crime a top concern, with homicides now numbering over 500 annually.
At around midnight, Parker accepted Democratic voters’ nomination enthusiastically.
“I’m so incredibly honored to have earned the Democratic nomination tonight,” she said in a statement. “It’s been a long road, and to see the tireless work of my campaign team, supporters, and family pay off is humbling. I’m looking forward to November and bringing our city together as its 100th mayor.”
If elected, the former English teacher and politician will succeed Mayor Jim Kenney (D), someone not known for loving his job. After a shooting during a July Fourth celebration on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the mayor said, “I’m waiting for something bad to happen all the time, so I’ll be happy when I’m not here – when I’m not mayor – and I can enjoy some stuff.”
Many observers voiced dissatisfaction with the fact that this year’s Democratic mayoral primary would inevitably be decided by an underwhelming plurality. One of them was U.S. Representative Brendan Boyle (D-PA-2) who advocated adopting either ranked-choice voting or a top-two system for mayoral nominations.
“Our current election system made sense when both parties were competitive citywide, which was the case for the post-WWII period up through 2003,” the congressman wrote in a Twitter post. “Since then, however, it’s clear that the winner of the Democratic Primary will be the de facto next mayor. It’s nuts that our next mayor could be someone who receives 25% (or less!) in the Democratic Primary.”
Boyle nonetheless commended all of the Democratic hopefuls and said he believed they were an impressive field.
Despite the difficult race ahead, Oh professed optimism about his ability to persuade the largely Democratic city to consider his candidacy.
“I am a very independent-minded person,” he tweeted. “As Mayor, I will make the sweeping reforms this city has needed but not received.”
Other major southeastern county races occurred in Montgomery and Bucks counties on Tuesday, with conservative Republicans Tom DiBello and Liz Ferry winning county commissioner nominations, unseating bombastic incumbent Joe Gale. The landslide race saw DiBello getting over 31,000 votes, Ferry getting nearly 29,000 and Gale receiving little more than 21,000. The GOP nominees will face Democratic County Commissioner Jamila Winder and attorney Neil Makhija in the fall.
In Bucks, county Controller Pamela Van Blunk and incumbent Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo will run as Republicans against incumbent Democrats Diane Ellis-Marseglia and Robert Harvie this autumn. Conservative former Commissioner Andy Warren was unsuccessful in his bid to unseat the liberal DiGirolamo in Tuesday’s primary.
The top three vote getters in county commission races will win board seats, guaranteeing the minority party representation in county policymaking.
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Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Pennsylvania Daily Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Cherelle Parker” by Cherelle Parker and “Davis Oh” by David Oh.
