State Rep. Acosta’s Replacement Is Far from Decided

by Tony West
Two things are certain: Sometime between tomorrow and Jan. 3, 2017, State Rep. Leslie Acosta (D-Kensington) will leave office, and her replacement will be nominated by the ward leaders of her heavily Latino 197^th Legislative Dist.

Who will replace her is very much up in the air, though.

Ward leaders from the district met recently with Congressman Bob Brady (D-Phila.), the chair of the Democratic City Committee. At that meeting, the name of Noelia Díaz, a Hunting Park political activist, was floated. Díaz, a senior-care worker, has been active in Emerge Pennsylvania, a group that aims to train and promote Democratic women in political life.

She has not yet been promoted to state rep, however. Ward leaders who attended that meeting were vociferous in insisting no one has yet been anointed as Acosta’s successor.

“We need to vet all candidates thoroughly,” said 42^nd Ward Leader Elaine Tomlin. “There have been too many problems in that district. We must find someone with the integrity, the character and the education for the job. It’s got to take time.”

43^rd Ward Leader Emilio Vázquez concurred. “That meeting was not about voting for the candidate and no vote was taken,” he said. “We want everyone to stay together at this time and vote for the process instead.”

While he has made no decision on the race, Vázquez would not rule out running for state representative himself.

37^th Ward Leader El Amor Brawne Ali was blunter: “Someone’s lying,” she said. “We won’t endorse anybody until we find out what’s been happening.”

Between them, these three ward leaders cast 41 votes, a majority in the 170^th Dist., ensuring no one will be nominated until they are satisfied.

The “problems” Tomlin referred to are the fact that that the last two state representatives to serve that district have been convicted of felonies, in back-to-back years.