POLS ON THE STREET: DA Candidates Need to Learn a Lesson

BY JOE SHAHEELI
District Attorney candidate Joe Khan boasts his campaign has raised over $500,000, attributing this to almost 900 donors and a median contribution of $200.

Khan’s campaign has more than doubled its contribution total since the last reporting period ended only three months ago. But he needs to use it wisely.

An important instance. He shouldn’t waste time on the internet or social media or on television and newspaper ads blasting one of his seven opponents seeking the Democratic nod for DA this May 16 primary.

His press secretary Brandon Cox sent out this email: “GOP real-estate millionaire Michael Untermeyer is now trying to hide his Republican roots by deleting all traces of his sexist, racially charged 2011 ad for his GOP city council run. The ad had been publicly viewable on YouTube for years before Untermeyer had his own ad taken down last week.”

His message took the trouble to show you Untermeyer had blocked that past commercial and pointed you to it, through their efforts. Took the time to show Untermeyer had pulled the ad he ran in his campaign as a Republican for Council. Then it directed you to its copy of the same ad. If you are no friend of City Councils in the past, you’d swear Untermeyer was on the right track and possibly could do well as a DA.

So to Khan, Untermeyer, and any of their peers who will have campaign money to throw around, the first rule is to ignore the fact there is any other in your race. Naming your opponent, as Clinton did Trump, in ads or from a platform, is the same as giving them free publicity at your expense.

In this type of race, the winner will be the individual who recruits the support of the organized vote-getters: ward leaders and committee people, who will remind voters on Election Day for whom they should cast their vote as the right person for the job.

Unfortunately for several of them, their campaign consultants will have them spend much of their funds on television … hoping to emulate Mayor Michael Nutter’s famous campaign ad, where he took his daughter to school, often credited to be the home run that did all the other mayoral candidates in. (Media consultants also benefit by earning large commissions with that route.)

Rule two, as we see it, is for these candidates suggest they advertise their best points for our readers, even though their campaign consultants will only get small change for their commissions for those ads.

As figured, candidate Larry Krasner is hoping his endorsements by the more-progressive elements of the voting public will translate into votes, though they failed in the recent campaign of Cheri Honkala. Endorsing him is the Pennsylvania Working Families Party, whose director, Brandon Evans, says, “Larry knows that stop-and-frisk policies, mass incarceration, and prosecution of low-level, nonviolent crimes not only don’t deter crime, but condemn a significant portion of our city’s residents and families to disrupted lives, and diminished life outcomes.”

Krasner has previously been endorsed by progressive-minded organizations including Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division, International Brotherhood of Teamsters; BLOC (Build, Lead, Organize, Campaign); and Reclaim Philadelphia.

Patrick Push Could Win Adherents in Philly

Republican State Committee Chairman Val DiGiorgio has local GOP leaders doing their best through the courts to invalidate the results of the 197th Legislative Dist. special election held March 21. They have asked state attorney Josh Shapiro to investigate and were planning a federal lawsuit as well. We wonder to what avail, since they realistically understand it is a district unwinnable by any other party than the Democratic Party.

We see this move as an attempt to distract African American ward leaders from their basic chores … building registrations. They are going full blast to tempt often-disappointed but stubbornly loyal Democratic Black voters to switch over to Judge Paula Patrick, well loved and highly regarded by many voters, who is seeking a seat on Superior Court.
They would be smart to distribute leaflets noting the fact she is recommended by the Pennsylvania Bar Association; and as a judge in the largest court system in the state, Judge Patrick has served in the juvenile, family, criminal, and civil trial divisions.

Forget Challenging Butkovitz

A word to the wise among those seeking to upend Controller Alan Butkovitz from his seat as City Controller: Organized labor is behind the incumbent and strongly. That includes Rebecca Rhynhart in the Democratic primary and GOP Mike Tomlinson in the general Election. Their backgrounds are exceptional, and do put them on something of a level with Butkovitz.

A Rhynhart victory would be a big win for Mayor Jim Kenney, in whose administration she served as his chief administrative officer, and before that as city treasurer and budget director under Mayor Michael Nutter. Like others in these campaigns, she is seeking the progressive voters.

What they may not realize is the almost unanimous agreement of organized labor behind Butkovitz provides him with a huge amount of additional election-day workers, all wearing his name and number; several phone banks; and sizable financial support as well. AFL-CIO President Pat Eiding noted at the endorsement announcement that Butkovitz always leveled the playing field for union workers in situations where labor’s interests were in contention by the city.