Dear Bob Brady and Jannie Blackwell,
Each you have had some experience with petition challenges. And, I would like to talk to you briefly about them for a moment.
Congressman Brady, you should have been knocked off the ballot last year when you made multiple errors in your campaign filings for Mayor, especially given the precedent that was set in previous technical challenges. But, you had great lawyers, and you are a powerful guy, so you stayed on the ballot. However, instead of seeing the hundreds of thousands of bucks in legal fees you racked up, as well as the ridiculous idea that you weren't going to be able to run for Mayor because you screwed up something inconsequential as two ridiculous examples of a system in disarray, you apparently decided to have your lawyers sue the ethics board... Great. Yes we can!
Councilwoman Blackwell, your step-son Tommy was kicked off the ballot today (read about it in the paper tomorrow) for State Rep, because it was found that he only had 184 valid signatures. Vanessa Brown is your new State Representative. All of that work, and without an election, his career has at least been temporarily ended. Doesn't that sort of suck?
Obviously, there is a little bit of difference in going after someone for a pure technical error versus bad signatures. But the bottom line is that it is now clear that even the party's preferred candidates seem to be having some serious problems keeping themselves on the ballot.
So, Councilwoman Blackwell, Congressman Brady, what do you say? Are you ready to figure out some ways to push for sensible changes, so that this type of thing doesn't keep happening?
Pell-mell
Good questions, Dan. At this point, we have no real standards, precedent or anything to guide candidates, except their conscience of course. I think we can all agree technicalities shouldn't disqualify you, but forgeries, fraud and intentional ommissions in things should.
The Legislature should clarify these things, so that we have uniform standards throughout the state. Right now, it's up to the whim of a judge and whether or not the Supreme Court wants to listen to an appeal.
(I smell a law review article...)
www.whatever-it-takes.net
Wow...
Interesting and very intriguing, now and for the future of West Philadelphia. I am dying to ask, where did you get this information? Then again, tomorrow's papers tell all!
Fareeda C. Mabry
www.fareedamabry.com
A guy who knows things about
A guy who knows things about the case...
Payton next to be thrown off
I know you guys don't want to hear it, but Tony Payton is next to be thrown off the ballot. He also doesn't have enough valid signatures.
It's interesting that you
It's interesting that you shouted Jannie Blackwell out, Dan. Tommy didn't make the ballot because Jannie didn't help him this go around. Many people don't know that Jannie and Tommy have been having a family feud for a while. Tommy just proved he can't do it alone.
God Damn West Philadelphia
God Damn West Philadelphia politics... for messing with my post.
Well, Ray doesn't get the
Well, Ray doesn't get the joke above- he is sort of dense that way. And, now that I have to post this, it ruins it. But, uh, people get this was a joke building on the last post, right?
i am gonna start a facebook group...
...for people who hate Dan U-A. I suspect it could be big...
Without question.
Without question.
Can you provide instructions
For those of us who aren't familiar with how to use facebook?
I've avoided the whole facebook thing because I didn't see any compelling reasons to join up. But now I do have a compelling reason.
It’s time to contribute to Vanessa Brown!
It’s time to contribute to Vanessa Brown! She has a real shot at winning this, and given that her district has large numbers of low-income folks, she is going to have to raise some of her money from those of us who do not live in the 190th district.
I know Vanessa well. Vanessa was a student in my Community Involvement class at CCP; it soon became apparent that she could be teaching the class. She is certainly one of the most talented students I have been privileged to teach.
Vanessa has a very impressive record as a community activist. You can learn more about Vanessa and make a contribution to her campaign at Vanessabrown2008.com
I've already wrote a check!
And as a 20 something who works in politics, you know I don't have alot of extra cash lying around. So that is a testament to what kind of person Vanessa is.
I would encourage everyone to go out and do the same.
I gave money too.
I've contributed to Vanessa's campaign twice and stopped by her well attended fundraiser at Abbraccio Monday evening though I had two other concurrent neighborhood meetings that night. The band was pretty cooking.
Both as a result of her years of experience as a community organizer at the People's Emergency Center and it seems some friends of Vanessa's father, a retired Philadlephia police officer, Vanessa definitely brought out a crowd.
A couple of things:
Dan is right of course. Tommy's off the ballot. He only had 184 valid signatures and a whole heap of forgeries. Several of his circulators were registered to vote in Delaware County. He deserved to be bounced because he had committed fraud - plain and simple. The only reason the process dragged on at all was because George Bochetto took on the case for Blackwell for free (since when does he do that?) and attempted to drag it out to run up Vanessa's legal fees.
We may debate alternate systems but in this case Tommy just cheated and whatever system we agree upon, there should be no place for cheaters.
Tommy still plans to run a vigorous write-in campaign so Vanessa Brown's NOW endorsement and unanimous endorsement by Philly For Change needs to translate into dollars and volunteers.
Luckily the dollars part is easy. Vanessa has an actblue account set up online, please contribute there or at least look at the video as it does give a good insight into the kind of state rep. Vanessa Brown will be.
http://www.actblue.com/page/meetvanessabrown
-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.
That might be a good idea,
That might be a good idea, but the question bakes. Are there any other challengers now? And if so, why waste your money on a campaign that is sure to win?
remember Tony Payton?
I don't think Blackwell has the kind of ward-leader support that Vasquez had in the 179th when they wrote him in against Tony, but, you never know...
So yea, I think this is a worthwhile campaign to support still.
Aside from which, like Tony was, Vanessa is new to politics, she has not met most of the people in the district she'll serve yet, and there is a ton of value to meeting them at the door and letting folks that there will be a new way of doing business with the state in district. Isn't that ultimately our goal in every state legislative district in the city?
Vanessa is not that New
Ray, Vanessa is not really that new to politics. She ran against Blackwell in 2004 as a Republican.
http://www.seventy.org/pastelections/2004/hsphiladelphia.html
PA House
District Democrat Republican Write-In's
District 190 Thomas W. Blackwell, IV Vanessa L. Brown
Votes 24,725 1,214 1
um yea
I wasn't criticizing Vanessa above, but meeting upwards of 4,000 people takes time. I have know Vanessa personally and intimately since 2002 , and I am pretty confident that her canvassing to meet voters in her district is an important thing for her to do no matter if she is the only person on the ballot.
Meeting people is part of democracy
I am SO glad you brought that up, Ray.
The notion that collecting petition signatures is somehow an antiquated practice for getting on the ballot, or is excessively onerous, seems silly to me, even non-progressive in a way.
Meeting people and talking to people--which probably seems scary and unpleasant to some--is what I'd call an essential part of democracy. These are the people that a state representative is supposed to, uh, represent. You want to accurately represent them? You, or somebody who answers to you, has to talk to them and gain their basic support in the form of a signature. That's not just fair, it's a good practice.
Among other things, it's a built-in way to make sure incumbents don't become too out of touch with their constituencies.
When an office-holders actually knocks on the doors of her or his constituents, and gets their personal reactions to her or his job performance, it's kind of a beautiful thing.
You can kind of imagine cartoon founding fathers like Jefferson, Franklin, and Madison, smiling down from sky blue cartoon heaven on such scenes (yeah, the Obama speech still has me kinda giddy).
But even when incumbents have ward leaders and committeepeople at their disposal to collect signatures, the mere fact that the office holder communicates with the ward leader and then the ward leader communicates with committeepeople and the committeepeople finally communicate with the constituents, the process itself at least keeps that most human part of democracy in working order.
Representative democracy is all about humans representing other humans, no?
To me, the fact that a longtime incumbent like Blackwell and all the committeepeople he had or could have had helping him were unable to collect a measly 300 signatures shows something likely was wrong with the democracy in the 190th.
Somebody was out of touch.
Disclaimer: I canvassed five nights a week for six years, so I am biased toward person-to-person contact
This will be one of the
This will be one of the highest turnout elections in a longtime. I am not sure how that cuts, but it means that you will have many more voters than a normal primary, even one during a Presidential cycle. I think that means that the ward leaders will have less control, at least that has been the case in the past.
If you, as an incumbent, cannot get 300 signatures of Democratic voters who live in your district to sign a petition, then, perhaps you shouldn't run.
Ward support matters an awful lot in trying to get those signatures. Committeepeople themselves (i.e., no circulation of petitions, just them signing petitions), are typically good for about 70-100 signatures in a legislative district. Get them to circulate and you can get all of the signatures out of one ward.
And what's great about committeepeople is that you know that they are registered voters who live in the District. That often is the hardest part about a state rep race, the district is so small that you have to go door to door to get the signatures. People who have worked on City Council or Citywide Campaigns are familiar with standing at a transit stop and just signing people up. But for a state rep seat that will be fatal.
The other amateurish mistake, which looks like was made here, is not insuring that your circulators live in the district. Almost everyone knows that the easiest way to get knocked off of the ballot is to have your circulator not be a registered voter who lives in the District. So you always check that first.
Getting signatures thrown out is a lot harder because sometimes you may need a signature expert. (Of course the folks who pay for this stuff often do them themselves, hence "kitchen petitions" or petitions you do in your kitchen.)
It's hard to get those signatures in a State Rep seat without committeepeople support, but its not impossible. And it is much easier if you are the incumbent and have a popular name.
The only comment I would have, and I preface this by saying I am not a West Philly guy, I have not heard of Vanessa Brown being active in the community before. (That's not fatal, just an observation.) There are some pretty good folks in that District who would have been good candidates. (I don't think it matters now, but just an observation.)
The biggest hurdle she had
The biggest hurdle she had was that more people had not heard of her, than those who have heard of her. Many people in the district didn't even know Blackwell had an opponent. With Blackwell off the ballot, I guess that doesn't matter anymore. Just an observation.
observation
Truthtold, I had a similar convo with a group of folks the other night. Vanessa is new to Philly electoral politics for sure. However, she has lived on the same street in her district for pretty much her whole life. She went to school and sends her kid to school in district now. She worked at the People's Emergency Center, parts of which are in district at their CDC.
She helped organize residents of the Mill Creek projects when the Lucien Blackwell homes were being built.
I think the criticism of Vanessa not being involved in the community is a bit unfair. I think it comes largely from a place of her being too involved in the politics of fighting poverty, injustice, and domestic violence, rather than whatever backroom boys-club stuff is expected from candidates.
I don't think that anyone can run for office and expect to be elected. But I do think you can run for office, even if you have not been a committeeperson or a civic leader, and have the inherent leadership qualities and intelligence and empathy required to represent the interests of thousands of people you don't all know personally. And I think Vanesssa has that.
A lot of the people sent to
A lot of the people sent to Harrisburg are hacks. Not really good hacks either. So I don't (didn't) mean to suggest that in order to meet the low bar set by some of those folks you should be active in ward politics. (Remember Michael Horsey held that seat and was a ward leader. And his record of incompetence, priceless.) So new blood can be a good thing.
I don't even think that you have to be active in the community. A lot of good folks shy away from being active because it can seem smarmy. I just had not heard of her, (which may not mean a whole lot), but if she is a good hard working person, I wish her the best of luck. Experience outside of the ward system can be a great asset. I think it is a little odd that she ran as a Republican, and I'll ask around to see what others think. (It's all academic now, of course, and she should be supported.)
Ray's right
Ward politics, valid in theory and frequently ugly in practice, is just one way to be involved in your community. The progressive activist community is another.
Progressives sometimes think ward politics is only ugly, and that's wrong. Getting to know how the system works means getting to know how government can serve people, and that's good. However that system is usually fraught with selfish people who make the system work for them; working within that system usually necessitates personal compromises, and that's not so good.
Progressives too frequently see the bad without acknowledging the good in ward politics
But then people involved in ward politics sometimes discount progressives and activists, and that's wrong too.
It may be a stretch, but the choice is kind of similar to the one Democrats face in the presidential primary.
Hillary is kind of the candidate who knows how the (larger) system works, but has made a lot of compromises along the way to that wisdom.
Obama is the activist who has been around Washington far less but who still has a firm hold on his ideals.
I prefer Obama, but then I'm a progressive activist.
Btw, I'd prefer either to, oh I don't know, John Kerry, Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Mike Dukakis, or Walter Mondale, but that's just me.
I asked Vanessa about that
In districts like the 190th - Mill Creek, Belmont Strawbery Mansion - voter participation is often so low and Democratic registration is so high that the R's will run any warm body. Vanessa was interested in learning about the process, seeing it through from start to finish, what paperwork you need to do at each step so she volunteered to be that warm body basically in exchange for the sake of being educated to the process.
As Ray points her experience is all neighborhood and community activist based, along with delivering social services at People's Emergency Center - not electoral. In terms of electoral politics she's quite new to the game. In retropsect, compared to the shockingly negligent fatal flaw Tommy Blackwell made, perhaps she was wise to do a dry run to learn how to file, dot her "i"s and cross her "t"s.
-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.