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Brady's Finest Hour?
Submitted by Marc Stier on Thu, 05/17/2007 - 9:31pm.
Bob Brady campaigned extremely hard up to the end, even though he had known for some time that he had little chance to win. But, as he said at a ward meeting I attended, the situation in the Mayor's race was fluid. And as he did not say...but some of us knew...by campaigning hard in particular areas of the city, and by running hard hitting ads against Knox, Brady helped made Michael Nutter win.
He did not, as far as I know, release ward leaders to support Michael Nutter. And that, too was a good move because had he done so, many of those ward leaders might have supported Knox.
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What hour was it
when Brady wanted to overturn the campaign finance limitations?
It seems that while defeating Knox wasn't important enough to release the ward leaders (do you really think that more of them would have gone for Knox than for Nutter?), it was important enough to try to overturn the campaign contribution limits. Hmmm.
Do you suppose that now, Knox having been defeated, he and Jim Kenney are glad that they listened to the public and allowed the contribution limits to stay in place?
Wasn't it Fattah who tried
Wasn't it Fattah who tried to overturn them?
Sorry
should have been more careful with my terminology.
Brady wanted them repealed.
Brady wanted them repealed. Fattah wanted them overturned.
In the Northeast, yes
I do think a substantial number of ward leaders in the city would have gone for Knox for the same reason they supported Bill Green in the at-large council race...Knox had a chance to win, could give them far more money than any other candidate, and was more appealing to their voters than any other candidate.
A substantial number still isn't justification
What matters is the relative numbers. Unless on the whole, city-wide, if released there would have been more ward leaders pulling in more votes for Knox than Nutter, Brady's refusal to release the ward leaders was self-serving and not the self-sacrifice you are suggesting. And it just doesn't seem logical that more would have gone for Knox than Nutter, particularly when Brady could have made it clear that he was releasing them specifically as a move to support Nutter.
And given that logic, his claims of trying to protect the City against Knox ring hollow - just as they did when he used that as justification for supporting the repeal of the campaign finance laws.
Don't be blind
What about 38th Ward Leader Ralph Wynder's comments to the Daily News last Friday, wherein he stated that Brady had "shown him the respect" to allow him to go with his old friend and councilman, Nutter. Yet despite that respect, Wynder still supported Campbell (friend of Bob) for the 4th district council seat. Talk about a weird ballot -- imagine the gridlock if Campbell would have won and Nutter had to deal with her?
Progressives have trouble understanding this
and won't be politically effective until they do.
Personal relationships are as important in politics as ideas.
Say that three times or as many as it takes for you to remember it.
Ralph is a great person and a long time progressive activist. Yet as a ward leader he has political relationships with Carol Campbell and others that constrains what he can do.
We talked about my race a bit and Ralph acknowledged all the times we had worked together on issues and pointed out that our ideals are quite close. Yet he had ongoing and from the point of view of a ward leader, successful relationships with the at-large incumbents who were, of course, likely to win.
Despite our ties, Ralph was not able to help me much. And I did not press him to do more because I understand the system within which he works. I don't like and actually I don't think Ralph does either. But until we figure out how to change it, we are stuck.
WOW
What a bewildering and depressing outlook. The machine can't be changed so don't try to change it?
Let us not forget that Ralph and Nutter were at one time the outsiders looking in and they were able to mobilize change. (Recall that Nutter beat the party candidate Ann Land when he first got elected to council). Simply to say that Ralph has a political relationship with Campbell is not a satisfactory answer. He had political relationships with Fattah and Brady also, that didn't stop him from supporting Nutter.
Given his comments in the press and his support for Nutter and Campbell, and his political "relationships" what other conclusion are we left with other than Brady released him for the mayoral in exchange for his support for Campbell?
You will have to ask Ralph
but I think it is more complicated than the deal you proposed. Ralph supported Campbell when she initially decided to run in the special election. Ralph was thinking of running himself and did not when Campbell decided to run. I was disappointed because I think Ralph would have been an excellent Council member and would have won this time (and the same goes for Lou Agre.)
I didn't say the machine can't be changed or challenged. There are lots of ways we can do this. But we first have to understand how it works. And to start with we have to understand that there is no one machine in this city. There is a loose coalition of, on any given day, 6 or 7 major organizations and 69 ward organizations. And the second thing we have to understand is that personal relationships and politics ties are more important in the party organizations than ideas.
That sometimes works for us, by the way. Lou Agre is a real progressive. But he helped me because of our friendship and because I helped him take over the ward.
Frank, let me back Marc up a bit here
Ralph Wynder was in an odd position because Nutter, Fattah and Brady had all helped the people of his ward and, in Brady's case, helped Ralph personally by aiding him to get the job in the Register of Wills.
Ralph is the ideal ward leader because he's engaged, he cares about his community and he supports those who help his consitutents and those who have his constituents' support. If Ralph endorses someone who hasn't helped his ward in the past (selling his endorsement for cash as some ward leaders do) then he risks losing his leadership, not to mention the moral aspects of that action. In the end, he balanced the equations of how much support each candidate enjoyed in his ward as well as which candidate he judged best for the residents who lived there. Tough decision and not without risk to his city job. Brady, to his credit, did not threaten Ralph's job and, as Ralph said, respected his decision.
The party machine is far from perfect, but I think this is how it's supposed to work and, dare I say it, it sort of looks like democracy.
You guys must be kidding me
To Marc - Ralph didn't run for any number of reasons, not the least of which that when she decided to run -- in the election by the Ward leaders -- she only needed 3 votes. She had hers, Brady's and Lou's. The decision was made for Ralph, he can count. If Nutter had served his whole term, maybe things would have been different.
To Clout - I agree Ralph is a better Ward leader than most, however, you said "he cares about his community and he supports those who help his consitutents and those who have his constituents' support." I agree he cares about his community and supports those who have helped his constituents and generally supports those who have his constituents' support. Unfortunately, Campbell was not that person. She never did anything to support his Ward durring her tenure as councilperson and she lost the ward even with his support. Accordingly, his constituents wanted someone else. (And yes I acknowledge that you may thing that his constituents are committeepeople, but even they apparently wanted someone else)
This dosen't look like democracy to me, it looks like a deal.
You guys must be kidding me reply
That is not how it happened. If you want I will discuss this with you off post.