There is an article in the Inquirer today that briefly reports on some of my experiences with ward politics during the last election. I was disappointed by the article, in part because I thought I was talking off the record with the reporter and in part because the article is misleading about the role that wards and street money played in my campaign or other grass roots campaigns. (The Inquirer will be running a clarification about part of the article tomorrow.)

I plan to write about this subject in detail later, because these are two subjects that most people interested in Philadelphia politics do not understand very well and about which I learned a great deal in the last five months. Here are some preliminary points.

1. What Street Money is For. Street money is money paid to political organizers of all kinds for providing campaign services on Election Day. This includes paying campaign workers, paying organizers of the campaign, paying for campaign literature (e.g. ballots, door hangers, letters to constituents), and paying for lunches for campaign workers.

2. All kinds of organizations take street money not just ward leaders. Philly for Change sought street money from its endorsed candidates during the last election in order to pay for campaign literature. So did Acorn. Mayoral candidates and District Council candidates take street money from the candidates on their ballots in order to pay for campaign workers, literature and mail pieces. Independent contractors create political organizations that take street money for the same things

3. Almost All Candidates Pay Street Money. Every progressive candidate running at large who raised any money at all paid someone street money for something. While I spent a lot of energy on seeking support from ward leaders, paying street money to them was a small part of my campaign. I spent far more money on staff and cable television and campaign literature than I put on the street.

4. Street money, in most cases, does not buy places on ballots. I did not get on the Philly for Change ballot by offering them street money. I did not get on ward ballots in twenty or so wards by paying street money. In every case in which I was involved, an organizer of a ballot decided to put me on their ballot for one reason or another and then some asked for street money. That is what Philly for Change did and what some of the ward leaders who supported me did.

5. In some cases spots on ballots can be bought and it is not just ward leaders who sell them. Some so-called progressive organizations do so as well. A ward leader told me that one at-large candidate offered her up to $15,000 to be on her ballot and other ward leaders told me that the same candidate was offering about $4,000 per ward. All these ward leaders, by the way, turned the candidate down. Other ward leaders did not. I never offered any ward leader a dime either before or after they told me they had a spot for me on the ballot. And I did not pay very much after being asked.

6. There are lots of ways to get on a ballot. I got on some ballots because of my stands on issues or on reforming the city. I was on the Philly for Change ballot because I won an open election. There were at least three ward leaders who put me on their ballots either because they agreed with my reform ideas or because I had worked with them on some issues in the past. One did not ask for street money, a second asked for a little money for lunches for campaign workers, and the third asked for street money. Sometimes you get on these ballots because of personal relationships. Lou Agre has written about how his support of me was based more on our personal relationship than on anything else, although he was certainly more inclined to support me because of my ideas. I became friendly with a number of ward leaders over the course of the election. Over time they came to trust me and recognize that I would be a good council member and in the last few weeks they offered to help me out. Sometimes you get the support of a ward leader because the committee people know you well and demand that the ward leader support you. That was one factor in my getting the support of a ward leader with whom I had worked in the past. Sometimes you get on a ballot because of the recommendation of a powerful politician. Over the last two years I got to know some people in party or political positions who made a few calls to ward leaders recommending me. Sometimes you get on a ballot because of intra-party politics. When I announced that I would support Anna Verna for Council President, a few political officials were willing to help me get ward support and a few ward leaders were interested in helping me out. Again, in this case, only one of the four or five ward leaders who supported me for this reason asked me for street money. Sometimes you get on ward ballots because in one way or another either you or a ward leader backing you helps a candidate supported by another ward leader. That helped me in a few cases.

7. Sometimes people who put together ballots don’t keep their word or don’t really follow through. Luckily for me, with just a few exceptions, I was on all the ballots that people promised me I would be on. However, just being on a ballot is not enough. Organizations can decide to help some of their candidates more than others. Philly for Change, for example, put much more effort into Maria Quinones Sanchez’ campaign than it did in mine. The campaign of one district council candidate called me the other day to offer to return some of the money I paid them because their field operation did not help me much. A number of ward leaders put little effort into helping me get votes even though I was on their ballot. Sometimes that was because the ward leader really does not have any control over his or her committee people. Sometimes that was because my campaign was very low priority for that ward leader. Ward leaders are much more likely to really put out an effort for a candidate when they fear disappointing a fellow ward leader. That’s part of the reason Lou Agre was so important for my campaign. If I had three Lou Agre’s helping me out, the results would have been better.

7. Ward leaders make money in other ways. Most ward leaders hold parties that are also fundraisers. If you are candidate who is running for office city wide, and want to meet ward leaders, committee people, and other political officials, you have to attend these parties. All of us did so at a cost that was usuall from $10 to $50 altough one ward leader charged candidates $250 for his party A few days before Election Day, I was joking with some of my fellow candidates about which one of these checks was hardest to write. The competition was pretty intense.

8. Street Money Is Inescapable. Until thousands of people are willing to volunteer their time in politics, street money is going to be inescapable. And even if we had all those volunteers, it is going to be necessary for some things.

Over the course of the election I probably had 80 people who did some kind of volunteer work for my campaign and another 100 or so who worked for my campaign through Neighborhood Networks or Philly for Change That is not a lot of volunteers in a city-wide campaign in which there are 800,000 potential voters in over 1600 divisions. I would love to create a city-wide progressive organization that can put 2000 volunteers on the street on Election Day. That was my goal when Neighborhood Networks got started. In almost all cases, volunteers are much more effective campaign workers than paid people. But even an all volunteer campaign is going to need some kind of street money for literature—which is not cheap—and for lunches and for gas money for the rovers who distribute the literature and, most of all, for organizers. Our experience in Neighborhood Networks and the experience of other grassroots organizations is that it is very hard to find volunteers to do the important middle level task of recruiting, training, motivating, and directing volunteers. That’s why most organizations that rely on volunteers—such as Philly Against Santorum—have paid middle level organizers.

Reformers sometimes think that grass roots politics can be done without money. That’s simply not the case. One of my aspirations is to realize a slogan of Neighborhood Networks—the power of organized people can defeat the power of organized money. But organizing people takes some money and always will.

9. Moral Issues Arise in Election Politics Everyday. They arose every time I sought money from someone or support from a ward leader. Here are some examples.

Many of the people I asked for money, including many friends I called, could in one way or another have personally benefited from my being in office if I were inclined to help them. (Consider just this: Council members often help their constituents lower their property tax assessments.) Only in one case did a potential contributor raise such an issue with me and I immediately ended the conversation. But it was in the back of my mind all the time. This is, of course, a potentially corrupting feature of our politics and is one reason I so strongly support public financing.

Someone seeking political office has to try to win. It is sometimes said the first task of a politician is to win. That’s not my view as I’m not willing to do anything to get elected. My first task in politics as in everything else is to live my life in a way that respects my own ideals. But the second task is to win. And so every time I sought the support from an organization I had to ask myself if I could live with the consequences of that support. And that is not true with regard to ward leaders but also with regard to progressive interest groups and labor unions.

I am strong supporter, for example, of labor and of our municipal unions and was very glad to get the support of DC 47. I agree with most of their positions. But I was concerned that, in the face of growing health care and pension costs, DC 47 would ask me to commit to something that was beyond what I think the city could afford in the future. They didn’t.

Similarly, Clean Water Action is very concerned about the environmental costs of dredging while the longshoreman want dredging to happen yesterday. I sought the support of both groups while defining my position on dredging in a way that didn’t make either of them absolutely happy but that they could both live with. If they couldn’t then I was willing to sacrifice the support of one or another group.

Ballot politics raises similar issues. I was asked at one time if I would support Jannie Blackwell as Council President in order to be on a certain ballot. I said no. Once or twice a ward leader asked me for something inappropriate and I stopped talking with him. One ward leader asked me if I would give a job to one of his committee people. Patronage is a touchy issue with me, although I’m not absolutely opposed to patronage jobs. I had to make sure we understood that we were talking about a real person doing a real job well. Nothing every came out of that conversation and, in the course of the campaign, I never offered anyone a job in return for their support.

Another difficult decision is who to endorse. It was hard for me not to say who I supported in the Mayor’s race or in some district races. Being quiet just runs against all my natural inclinations—which are much more those of a teacher and political analyst than a candidate. But I simply couldn’t do that without jeopardizing my chances of getting elected. In one case I rashly made an endorsement that I later regretted.

Balancing the importance of winning with the importance of winning in the right way is something political leaders should think about all the time. I know I did and I think that I mostly came up with the right answers. I regret one or two decisions I made, but they turned out not to be problematic. Having gone through this difficult process, and knowing how hard it is to always strike the right balance, I’m a little more forgiving of politicians than I once was. But I have not wavered in my belief that your can run for office and still hold true to your ideals. I think I did so.