David Oh, remember him?

Several of us around these parts supported his agonizingly close election race for the second of two city charter guaranteed minority party seats for City Council At-Large. Basically in a razor-thin election for a guaranteed Republican seat, many of us argued for throwing some support for a smart former ADA "good-government" Republican with a strong record of standing up for equality under the law (read local NAACP endorsement, history of pro-bono legal aide work for recent immigrants, Log Cabin Republicans endorsement) against Republican incumbent Jack Kelly - who though by most accounts is a "nice guy" has been far from legislative workhorse. Kelly heavily outspent Oh and received strong support from both the local GOP establishment and interestingly some of the less progressive factions of the local Democratic Party establishment.

As most of you already know the race between David Oh and Jack Kelly for a city council seat here in Philly is still too close to call. Although they are both Republicans there are real differences in what they plan for our city, who is backing them, and who they are most likely to work with in City Hall. They need volunteers to help count votes today and tomorrow to make sure that all of the votes cast are valid and that valid votes are all counted. If you can afford the time, please come out and help ensure that our democracy is working and our votes are counted and that fraud is prevented. This is a very close election and every vote will count and any fraudulent votes could disenfranchise all of us.

David Oh, Thanks for Running.

I don’t know the result of the Jack Kelly-David Oh vote count for the second Republican At-Large Seat. It’s due to be finished later this week. I did, however, want to post a few thoughts because my thoughts are independent of whoever wins.

I don’t think anyone imagined that the race between Kelly and Oh would be so close. Even with the additional attention the race garnered in the final weeks of the campaign, I doubt that a significant percentage of Philadelphia’s residents could have told you much about either individual. Certainly I knew nothing about David before interviewing him, other than having seen him once campaigning at an event prior to the May primary in North Philly. I knew nothing about Jack Kelly, other that that he is seems to be a nice fellow and that he voted with John Street on a fair amount of occasions, and of course, that he really loves pets.

I am amazed by David Oh’s campaign. It’s not often in this town that newcomers really challenge incumbents. Certainly, it doesn’t happen often enough. David’s apparent accessibility and his five-page long list of endorsements attests to the many relationships that he developed across the city.

It is worth noting the reported enthusiasm for David in the Korean community. Having lived in Olney for most of my life, I call tell you that by and large, the Korean community has not been connected to politics or had much of voice. In retrospect, it seems to me that it was about time that they did. The Korea community effectively staved off the decline of the North Fifth Street business corridor (above the Roosevelt Boulevard) for more than twenty years.

I probably would have run David’s campaign a little differently (with a more comprehensive nitty-gritty policy committee) but given the evidence that he connected to so many voters, it is hard to believe that he could have been more competitive than he was.

Typically, competitive elections are good. They make our political leaders more responsive. I’m not sure that will be the case in this instance, because Jack Kelly has been pretty open that this would probably be his last campaign. How well Jack has done in this campaign is a testament to the many relationships that he has built over the years. Still, I think Jack owes us something---he owes us some more tightening up of campaign finance laws. I mean, when a politician is competitive because he or she collect campaign funds within the legal limit of the law but not the spirit of the law, I’m going to question his or her commitment to little “d” democracy.

To be really honest, however, I have to question lots of Jack’s priorities. The campaign to make our city a kill free city (as far as stray pets go) was a good nitty-gritty issue. It also was also blatant appeal to those who don’t want to tackle real problems. One of those real problems is the Parking Authority. I hope I’m proved wrong.

From what I understand, and I admit this is complete speculation on my part, Al Taubenberger has designs on being elected as a Republican At-Large in the near future. I like Al. He’s a nice guy. I don’t think he should be demonized needlessly but neither do I think he’s entitled to serve on Council or that he would add much to its current dynamic. Unfortunately, given six months of free media attention, Taubenberger’s name recognition may prove tough to beat if he decides to run.

We’ll see how the Kelly-Oh races goes but on the whole I’d say voters sent a pretty strong message that Philadelphian’s would like to see a more responsive, creative and democratic process rather than politics as usual.

For that, we should thank David Oh.

David Oh's latest commercial featuring many of his diverse supporters and endorsements, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, Northeast Times, Black Clergy of Philadelphia & Vicinity, Sam Katz, The Sunday Sun, Teamsters Joint Council #53, SEIU, etc:

David has a diverse base of support, emcompassing a wide range of ages, races and backgrounds.
Isn't that what Philadelphia needs?

If you are looking for reasons to vote for David Oh, I'm rounding up a few links of interest. In his interview with me, he was personable and I'd bet that if you could spend an hour with him, you'd end up voting for him.

To be fair, a couple of your favorite local media outlets cited David's quotes from his interview with me when it was clearly the case that they were paraphases. They were merely intended to provide flavor, not exact details on the discussion. Media folks, please keep that in mind for future attributions.

The flavor that the Republican party has allowed a number of lousy Democratic party power brokers to do whatever they wanted was essentially confirmed in one article:

As one insider told City Paper, "Under this current leadership, the Republican party is the largest Democratic ward in the city."

I had the opportunity to sit down with David Oh late last night and talk for over an hour about the ideas underlying his bid for City Council. While as previously noted, Mr. Oh will not be endorsed by YPP, I thought he was worth interviewing because he is participating in one of the few competitive races. In the interest of equal opportunity, if any other City Council At-Large candidates would like to be interviewed, please feel free to contact me and we will see what we can arrange or go ahead and post answers to my questions on your own.

As a word to the warning, the entire interview is paraphrased—in some case I boiled ten minutes down to a sentence or two. Mr. Oh was extremely personable as was Michael Reid, his campaign manager. Mr. Oh and I disagreed on a number of issues—but he was straight forward and defended his positions.

Mike Cunningham: Why City Council?

Today, in Gar Joseph's column "Clout," an article appeared about GOP City Council Candidate David Oh, and it said this:

GO to a political event, there's David Oh.

Go for a drive, he's on a billboard.

Look on YouTube, he's got a video.

Check the Web, he's got a site. Open your newspaper, there's his full-page ad.

We recently went to Municipal Judge Patrick Dugan's swearing-in ceremony. David Oh was holding the flag in a military honor guard.

That's a lot of Oh. He's running for City Council at large, which could be the fall election's most competitive race.

He's been endorsed by the Libertarians on the right and Young Philly Politics on the left. He has the backing of labor unions and the Chamber of Commerce political-action committee. He's been supported by gay groups and by fundamentalist ministers.

Somebody must be confused.

I know who is confused: Gar Joseph.

Young Philly Politics has not, and will not endorse David Oh running for City Council. Ain't gonna happen. I might like to see him win, but no, we will not endorse him.

Why? Well, for starters, he is a Republican. So, there is that. And while I know party labels in Philly are 'interesting,' I would never endorse someone who in 2006 passed out literature and did GOTV work for Rick Santorum and Lynn Swann. I understand with the system we have on Council, that the minority party seats could be won by a progressive. But if that was the goal, that person could do it under the Green party, Working Families Party, etc. Not the party of George Bush and Rick Santorum.

Gar is a good writer, generally 'gets' the internet (as Philly sports bloggers know) and I am sure we will get a correction. But again, no, we do not endorse David Oh.