Out & About: State Sen. Hardy Williams Attempts Flying Solo

by Denise Clay

I’d like to start this column out with a question that you would think I wouldn’t have to ask in 2015 about anyone who is running a campaign for any office in a major American city.

STATE Sen. Anthony Williams takes a losing gamble.

That question: How in the heck to do you run a political campaign without a political director?
I mean, hey, I ran for Vice President-Print of the National Association of Black Journalists twice and both times I had a political director of sorts. While being a member of the board of NABJ does require a sort of political acumen, if not the stomach for some of the same shenanigans that go along with conventional politics, it’s not like running the City of Philadelphia.
And yet, it’s a question that I find myself asking two weeks after the May primary because, when I read a newspaper article in which a seasoned politician admits that he ran for his city’s highest office without something that basic, it makes me scratch my head a little.
The Philadelphia Inquirer did an interview with State Sen. Anthony Williams this week that broke down how Williams, who was the frontrunner in the Democratic primary for Mayor early in the contest, managed to lose that contest to former City Councilman Jim Kenney by a double-digit margin.
Among the things that was revealed in that article is that Williams, who has been a politician for a lot of years and even witnessed the historic mayoral campaign of his father, the late State Sen. Hardy Williams, didn’t hire a political director to help with his campaign.
Again, how does that happen? But here’s the thing. From what I’m hearing, the lack of a political director was the least of Williams’s problems.
While people have promised to elaborate what they mean by that over lunch, coffee, and several adult beverages, I could see one problem very clearly, a problem that a political director would have helped for sure.
Definition.
For half of the mayoral campaign, most folks thought it was Hardy rather than Anthony that was running for office. For the second half, Williams ran as a #BlackLivesMatter protestor, which didn’t seem authentic to a lot of people.
Williams also spent a lot of time running away from his record as a staunch supporter of charter schools and a variety of other positions he had taken in the past, stuff that was easily discoverable by a Google search.
Now a seasoned political director would have probably grabbed Sen. Williams by the shoulders, connected with his director of communications, set them both on a course of action, and moved them forward.
While he may not have won, Williams might not have gotten trounced with that kind of direction.

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