10/3/06 A Party On The Precipice

The Republican Party in Philadelphia is at risk of being demoted from concerned bystander to rounding error unless concerted action is taken to revive it as a viable alternative to Democrat one-party rule.
Over the past 12 years (from November 1994 to September 2006), the Republican Party has suffered a net loss of more than 28,000 registered voters [187,276 to 159,116] despite the addition of nearly 200,000 total voters to the voter rolls [799,470 to 994,884]. It now accounts for only 16 percent of registered voters in Philadelphia County. Surprisingly, the Democratic Party has been unable to directly capitalize on this decline, having held steady at approximately 75 percent of the registered electorate [581,189 to 746,596 or 73 percent to 75 percent]. The beneficiary? The number of voters registered as "Other" has tripled over this same period to nearly 10 percent; an increase of nearly 60,000 voters [31,005 to 89,172].
While maximizing voter participation regardless of party in elections is always a commendable goal, non-aligned voters as a whole agree on no platform and, therefore, can provide no organized counterbalance to absolute power absolutely corrupting City Hall.
This 12-year period is also important because it covers the time since the National Voter Registration Act, also known as the "Motor Voter Act," has been in effect in Pennsylvania. Republicans may blame "Motor Voter" for packing the voter rolls with more phantoms than Eastern State Penitentiary on Halloween, but it is not to blame for the net decline in Republican Party registration.
Though it is no secret that "Motor Voter" has done great harm to the maintenance of accurate and current voter registration lists due to onerous and expensive requirements that must be met before removing even the demonstrably deceased and fraudulently fictitious from the voter rolls, neither it nor the much talked about Democratic National Committee's grassroots party-building efforts have apparently resulted in any noteworthy increase in the percentage of Philadelphians registered Democrat. If there is a silver lining for Republicans, this is it.
The decline of the Republican Party, however, should be of concern to all Philadelphians, regardless of one's positions on national-level foreign or domestic policy. The same assumption supposedly motivating voters to divide power in Washington, D.C., is theoretically no less applicable to our own city. It is the responsibility of the Republican Party to offer a viable alternative, rather than serving as a wholesale supplier of sacrificial lambs, or a platform for disaffected Democrats to make an end-run for higher office when they find their way blocked by other Democrats.
So what is to be done? Three things: First, learn to love the political machine and use it before it rusts solid. Unless you can think of a better way to turn out the vote block by block, division by division and ward by ward election after election, start by filling those vacant committee person spots with likeminded friends and neighbors. If you are reading this and live in a division where a vacancy currently exists, approach your ward leader and volunteer to fill the spot. Remember, committee persons choose the ward leader, not the other way around. Second, appeal to party leadership to agree on a consensus-driven platform for our Party. I know what I believe, but I'll be damned if I can tell you what the Philadelphia Republican Party's position is on a host of concrete and timely issues. Republicans need to be more than "not Democrats." And third, support those who are keeping our Party alive and doing our work for us. Joe DeFelice, for example, is a veritable Atlas carrying the Philadelphia Republican Party on his shoulders. Contact Joe at electionday@pagop.org and find out how you can help share the load.
The sooner Republicans get this message across to their fellow Philadelphians, the sooner Philadelphians will realize that they need the Republican Party as much as the Republican Party needs them.
Albert Schmidt, Ph.D., is a former Senior Analyst for the United States Government Accountability Office. He is currently a Republican Committeeman in Fairmount.