By Lori Jardines
Democratic City Committee Chairman Bob Brady should be ashamed of himself and should resign his position. He is trying to blame the Harris campaign for the low voter turnout in the November 5 General Election. The blame for this poor showing clearly falls on the shoulders of Chairman Brady and Ward Leaders throughout the city. Over the last eight years, the voter turnout has ranged from a low of 19% in the April 2024 Primary Election to a high of 66% in the General Election in November 2020. Anyone else who had such a poor job performance would have been fired a long time ago.
I decided to run for Democratic Committee Person after the disastrous 2016 election where Hillary Clinton lost Pennsylvania by 44,000 votes. I and many others realized that if 26 more people voted in each division in Philadelphia, she could have won Pennsylvania. By that time, I realized in the 25 years that I had lived in Mt Airy, no Democratic Committee Person had ever knocked on my door. I ran and won in my Division, 22-03. There were a group of us newly elected Committee People who were excited and interested in reaching out to our constituents. We felt we could make a difference.
We went to our first Ward meeting but soon found out that it was not going to involve democracy. City Councilmember Cindy Bass, part of the Democratic Machine, was elected Ward Leader. We asked how to reach out to our voters and how we could get people in our Divisions registered and engaged. We asked to vote on our endorsements for a variety of offices in upcoming elections. In some instances, when things got a little rowdy, Ms. Bass had her “enforcer” intimidate the Committee Person who was asking the question. We felt that the Ward structure was not conducive to democracy, and we formed our own group, the 22nd Ward Open Caucus, where we vetted candidates and made endorsements without “shaking down” candidates for contributions. We became a trusted source of political information to our constituents. When the pandemic struck and Ward meetings were held on Zoom, we were excluded, despite have been duly elected Committee People. Some Committee People went to court to fight the exclusion and the judge ruled that we had to be invited back. No matter what was done to us, we never stopped working to get out the vote and educate our constituents.
Fast forward to the 2023 Spring Primary where Seth Anderson-Oberman challenged Cindy Bass in the 8th Councilmanic District. We, as a group, supported Anderson-Oberman and unfortunately, he lost the election. That fall, Working Families Party candidates were running for Council at Large seats. One Hundred Democratic Committee People signed a public letter endorsing them. Kendra Brooks and Nicolas O’Rourke won their seats without taking any seats away from Democrats. I did not sign that letter. My husband had been quite ill, and I stepped away from my duties for that year.
In early January 2024, I along with nine other Democratic Committee People in the 22nd Ward and two in the 9th Ward were removed for supporting candidates other that Democrats during the preceding election. Nevertheless, we persisted and regrouped as the Mt Airy Democrats. We invited our constituents to join us, help us canvas and make small donations for our projects. We sent postcards to 4500 residents of the 22nd Ward who are apartment dwellers and therefore difficult to reach, to 18–30-year-olds, and seldom voters. We texted and called our constituents. We went to nursing homes and housing for the elderly to be sure everyone was registered to vote and helped them apply for a mail ballot. We compiled a list of ballots in the 22nd Ward that were flawed and “cured” approximately 100 of them.
What did Chairman Brady and his Ward Leaders do to get out the vote? The Ward Leader in the 22nd Ward, Cindy Bass did not have a Ward meeting until October 5 – one month before the election. During that meeting, there was no strategic plan to get out the vote, find flawed ballots, or how to “cure” them. There was a second meeting later in the month. Does anyone seriously think that is enough time to reach out to the voting public without a plan? I don’t know how other Ward Leaders prepared their Committee People for the election. Only they and Chairman Brady know for sure.
Chairman Brady wants to blame the Harris campaign for the low voter turnout in Philadelphia, but I would say the blame rests squarely on him. He spends his time eating pizza with his minions on Wednesday afternoons. This disaster cost every statewide downballot candidate to lose. Why would any candidate give him money when he consistently is unable to get out the vote? It is time for him to resign and have a clean sweep of the Democratic City Committee before we lose any more elections.
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