Doron Taussig, of the City Paper, has a story this week on my favorite City Council district- the 8th.

The occasion of Taussig’s piece is the fact that, yet again, in the upcoming general election, Donna Miller has three opponents, giving her an easy ride into office. The reality, of course, is that Miller, in a general election, will not be beaten unless that independent candidate has massive amounts of money to fund a ground game and door to door, intensive campaign that can convince reliable Democrats not to vote for her.

The article gives the rundown on the district that many here are familiar with. But, I thought now, a little bit removed from the election, it might be useful to go into a little bit of details from my dad’s campaign, and from what I learned about our two other ‘progressive’ candidates. (Yeah, the quotations imply something.)

And, if I were in the 8th? I would without question vote for Jesse Brown, who in my opinion is by far the best candidate of the bunch.

OK, where do we begin?

First, I guess I mine as well state upfront: I thought my dad did an amazing job as a candidate, in terms of stump speeches, talking with people, getting volunteers, etc. He had no organization behind him, no base to lean on, and it made it all really difficult. That said, despite everything and despite the other two candidates, I think he could have won. There were some basic mistakes the campaign made, that if he ever were to run again, would not happen. But, it was his campaign, and everyone who was inside it thought there were some serious flaws, and they weren’t fixed. So, that is his responsibility as ‘the guy.’ This was a low-information campaign. And to really unseat an incumbent with the party behind her, you had to really have a better strategy at getting those low-information voters. It did not happen. So, point blank, he sort of blew it, first time candidate or not. It would have been hard- but he could have won, and he didn't.

So, lets start on what I learned about the lessons I take away from the various players in the election:

Candidate One: Greg Paulmier.

Greg Paulmier is a guy who cares about his neighborhood and his neighbors. I think everyone gets that. He is also a total, 100 percent megalomaniac. During the campaign, Greg was basically going around telling people his goal was in reality to come in second place, which he thought would set himself up to win when he... ran for the fourth time. Seriously. He really does not seem to have any concept of all the ill-will that he has built up.

Greg also talked a lot about progressive groups backing a single candidate. When every progressive group save NOW (which Bass is a board member of) endorsed my dad, and Greg was booted from the ballot, did he decide to support one candidate? Of course not.

In fact, when he was removed, Greg’s ward was going to support... Donna Miller, because the goal was not for her to lose, it was for him, and only him, to win. But, why go on about him? I think everyone pretty much understands him at this point.

Candidate two: Cindy Bass.

When Bass originally was asked about booting Paulmier from the ballot, she said something to the effect of ‘if you cannot fill out forms, you shouldn’t be in office.’ Cindy, unfortunately, did not seem to pass her own test. In fact, she was recently referred to the DA’s office, because she never followed some of the most basic, fundamental campaign finance laws. For example, Cindy did not even authorize a political committee.

She also did not file a finance report in the last week of the campaign until I mentioned it on YPP. When the campaign was over, it was not until a Gar Joseph column that she filed her final report. Oh, and late in the game she accepted money from Chaka Fattah far above campaign contribution limits. In other words, she currently has an unauthorized committee, with illegal contributions in it. (Still there, I think, as a gift/nest egg from Congressman Fattah.)

So, if you consider following laws, especially campaign finance laws, as something marginally considered ‘progressive,’ then I am really not sure Cindy should be considered for progressive support in the future. (Whether she is running for Council, State Rep, whatever.)

The media:
What can I say? The Philly political media basically had a blackout of the District Council races. As I mentioned a while back, I thought the print media did a decent job of covering the Mayor’s race. But in the 8th? There was basically nothing until almost the last week of the campaign. If reporters feel like they have some civic responsibility to help inform the issues, then they need to really look themselves in the mirror before the next set of political races. Really, the only thing that got press in the Council races were ballot challenges, and things of that nature.

It certainly hurt my dad, at least a little bit, when the papers endorsed Bass. So, I sent an email to the Inky, saying hey- Bass did not even file a campaign finance report, and wondering how that would effect them. My claim, easily checked with a quick phone call, was ignored as coming from the son of a candidate, too emotionally invested. The editorial boards of the papers constantly decry the status quo, but, when a Council candidate was running directly against that, they just ignored it. (And, I also mentioned to them that Cindy herself was driving around with her nephew, trailing a Fattah van, with her nephew hopping out to taking down signs for her opponents.)

And, on a personal note, in a City with a quarter of the population in poverty, there was that snide, arrogant note in the Inquirer editorial about my dad being a ‘populist,’ as if that was a bad thing. I will never, ever, ever, ever, forget just how stupidly out of touch that comment was.

The wards, and the system:
For all that talk of reforming the ward system, etc, let's be clear: Out of all the wards in the district, the 9th Ward was the one and only one, to actually hold a vote on who to support. If they actually held elections, maybe something would have been different. But, that is the system- totally ward leader driven.

Additionally, what was also clear was just how the judicial election process fuels this whole thing. In the last week or so of the campaign, Donna Miller's campaign coffers were swelled with huge donations from judges that the Part steered her way. That is, in effect, how she was able to afford to have about 16 people at each polling place.

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People have asked me whether my dad will run again? Well, I ask him the same thing all the time! The campaign was incredibly stressful though, on everyone involved, on our family, on our family's friends, etc. so, I have no clue. I hope he does, because he would flat out be great. But will he? I have no idea.

The 8th can and should be won by a progressive, whether that is my dad or someone else. Bass and Paulmier, however, do not count.