Floyd Was Key To Shapiro’s Philly Victory

by Tony West
To win the Democratic nomination for State Attorney General, Montco Commissioner Josh Shapiro had to sell his Philadelphia neighbors.

And he did – despite the opposition of Philadelphia Democratic City Committee, whose favorite was Steve Zappala of Allegheny County.

Veteran political consultant Maurice Floyd was a major reason why. He coordinated Shapiro’s campaign in Philadelphia. And he won resoundingly, thumping DCC’s candidate with a margin that ultimately carried the state.

Floyd didn’t do it all by himself. “When you surround yourself with good people and good candidates, it makes your job that much easier,” he reflected after his victory.
Shapiro had some big guns on his side: City Council President Darrell Clarke, Councilman Kenyatta Johnson, State Sen. Vincent Hughes, Marian Tasco’s Northwest alliance. “Without a shadow of a doubt, Darrell Clarke’s leadership made my job that much easier,” Floyd noted.

Floyd also rounded up Laborers’ Locals 57 and 332. He hooked in the Plumbers and the Fraternal Order of Police, also persuading some ward leaders who believed in the message Josh Shapiro was shaping.

Message is key, said Floyd. “The public bought into our message,” he said. “People wanted reform in the Attorney General’s office. Staying on message was the essence of our campaign.” Zappala’s pitch – that he was a fair-minded, no-nonsense prosecutor – didn’t pack the same promise of change, said Floyd.

The other part of messaging is consistency – “making sure that everyone stays in their lane,” as Floyd put it.

“We communicated with these various agents on a daily basis. My responsibility was to make sure I kept them into exactly what the campaign was doing. Basically it was switchboard work. The overall challenge was putting these pieces together so they all worked as one,” he explained.

When the dust settled, Floyd’s candidate swamped DCC’s candidate 164,886 to 98,921, a 56-34% blowout.

This came despite a blistering street game. “The opposition had a massive amount of bodies,” Floyd noted. “We were outnumbered on the street.”

But State Sen. Vincent Hughes, former Mayor Michael Nutter and the redoubtable 4th Ward Leader Campbell handled West Philadelphia capably for Shapiro.

Now the question is whether Philadelphia’s Democrats can coalesce behind Shapiro to hold onto the Attorney General’s office in November. Kathleen Kane achieved a historic coup when she snatched that office for the Dems in 2012, but her antics since then have not strengthened the party’s hand in retaining that office.

Look for Floyd’s hand to continue in this race, this fall.