Obama and Philadelphia

This a simplification of a very complicated situation. I know that.
I still think you'll find helpful insights, particularly if you'd like to become more familiar with the situation in bee-you-tee-ful Illy Philly, my home town and my one true love.

Mr. Obama made a really stupid mistake very early in his Presidential campaign.

He took the wrong side in the Philadelphia Mayoral Primary last year around this time.

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Then, there was a tight three way race for the mayoral nomination.

The first two candidates I'll describe represent two the traditional electoral coalitions that have battled for political supremacy in Philadelphia for several decades. On one side, you had Chaka Fattah. He's been a powerful African American leader in the city for a long time. He has served the city in Congress for several terms. I actually like his personality and he has a pretty good reputation for actually championing the issues of poor and working class people.

Nonetheless, he is an entrenched political entity that has gotten caught up in some bad alliances. He is extremely close with John Street, our unpopular recently departed Mayor. The city became disenchanted with Mr. Street for a number of reasons. He was always somewhat of a polarizing figure in city politics as Street unapologetically courted an African American majority, but the actions of his administration really magnified frustration with the old way of governance. Fairly or unfairly, the perception was that Mr. Fattah rose within the pay-to-play culture, represented entrenched business interests, and would govern as a continuation of the Street legacy.

The other candidate representing a traditional political base was Tom Knox, a self-financed business man from the Northeast section of Philadelphia. He staked himself out as a political outsider and a reformer. Largely, however, he represented the old white political majority. Without necessarily being connected to Frank Rizzo, a local political legend comparable to the senior Daley in Chicago, Knox nonetheless drew his support from the same base of blue collar whites.

A contest between these two men would have been largely similar to many Philadelphia mayoral races of the past. It would have been racially polarizing and Chaka Fattah likely would have emerged victorious depending on the relative popularity of other candidates diluting the field.

This race, however, was very different. There was this intriguing new guy. His name is Michael Nutter. An African American, he was able to build a different kind of electoral coalition. He served on City Council and emerged as the loudest voice in favor of wholesale reformation of ethics laws and the entrenched machine-based political culture. He was extremely critical of the Street administration. Known generally as a wonky-type (whatever that means), he courted a highly developed progressive internet community and wealthy white educated liberals. He developed a motivated base of young supporters in the high school and university communities.

Philly politics was transforming all over. In 2006, progressives organized to challenge ward leadership positions. Philadelphia's current Boss Tweed, a lifelong nemesis of yours truly, State Senator Vincent Fumo looks like he's done. He just suffered a heart attack in the midst of both a vigorous primary challenge and an impending corruption trial.

When he dropped out of Council to run for Mayor, Nutter adeptly ran to the left and to the right. His calls for government reform and his academic attention to tested progressive policy positions were extremely attractive to white liberals. Meanwhile, Mr. Nutter also emerged as the most vocal Mayoral candidate on Philadelphia's skyrocketing violent crime problems. He embraced "stop-and-frisk" as a workable option for high crime neighborhoods. This not only peeled away some blue collar white support from Mr. Knox, but it also resonated strongly within Congressman Fattah's base of older African American voters tired of seeing baggy pants. I use this link of Bill Cosby's speech to the NAACP as emblematic of this debate within Black America. (For the record, my own feelings on this debate are more reflected by the great Dr. Michael Eric Dyson)

Simultaneously, Mr. Nutter's record as a reformer capitalized on a larger statewide political revolt in Pennsylvania politics. The 2006 midterm election was a massacre of entrenched politicians of both parties. Not only did Pennsylvania voters resoundingly repudiated Rick Santorum, one of the most vile neocons ever to reach the US Senate, but voters helped deliver Congress to the Democratic Party with the overthrow of several GOP incumbents, particularly in the Philadelphia suburbs. Additionally, there was a bipartisan taxpayer revolt against members of the PA legislature that voted for a pay-raise for themselves.

Thus, it began to appear that Congressman Fattah, once seen as the favorite in the race due to his name recognition, entrenched political organization, national party support, and fund raising prowess, actually faced quite a challenge from this upstart.

So he began to look for shot in the arm for his campaign.

He reached out to Barack Obama.

Now, I can imagine how Mr. Obama's logic went:

-- Mr. Fattah was a huge Clinton ally in the '90s along with former Mayor and current Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. He's a superdelegate with major party machinery and street cred amongst African Americans. His support would be a huge coup for my campaign, a stolen base right out of the gate against Mrs. Clinton. He could easily be the next Mayor of Philadelphia. Besides, there's little to lose, the primary fight will be over well before it gets to Pennsylvania.--

So, Barack Obama helped out Mr. Fattah instead of an obvious natural ally in Mr. Nutter.


Meanwhile, Mr. Nutter continued to surge in the polls and won the Democratic Mayoral Primary with relative ease. Then he won the general election this past November by the largest margin in Philadelphia history. After inauguration, he made a call to public service that yielded an impressive number of applications. Look, the point is that Michael Nutter is the man. He's ridiculously popular right now across boundaries of age and race. He has juice, as they say. He would be a major, major asset to a candidate trying to reach voters in the Philadelphia area.

In short, Michael Nutter is Barack Obama in Philadelphia. The two of them should be bff.

But they're not. Obama injected himself into a local race he had no business getting involved in. People with knowledge of Philly politics, people from Philadelphia, scalded Mr. Obama for this choice at the time he made it, though nobody realized how damaging the decision would become. I was so upset on that day that I called Obama HQ and wrote a letter or something.

Stupid decision. Stupid, stupid decision.

Mayor Nutter endorsed Hillary Clinton.

And that's a shame. Obama's early overreach into Philadelphia's local election not only cost him a great deal of credibility amongst local progressives in the know, but also cost him an endorsement from Mayor Nutter that had previously seemed likely.

Now this is only one small piece of the Pennsylvania primary puzzle. I still believe that Obama can win there but I sure wish he hadn't erected his own hurdles in the same Philadelphia he'll be banking on to deliver him a large margin on April 22nd.