Inquirer: "Vote Republican" in Special Election; Scott Cummings, Most promising

Editorial Your Ward Leaders Know Best

A most undemocratic party

Decades of dominance have made the Democratic Party in Philadelphia fat and arrogant.
This fall would be a good time for voters to send the city's complacent and corruptible power structure a little message.

The Democrats' method of choosing their three candidates for City Council recently highlights the problem. As the only real political power in town, Democrats had an obligation to city residents to conduct an open process to pick party nominees for this special election to fill three vacant seats.

The party's leaders know full well that their candidates will win in November, so the Democrats' nominating process was the only chance for the people to have a say.

Instead, U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, the city's party boss, and his lieutenants went back to their tired playbook. In a closed meeting of Democratic ward leaders, they anointed three candidates - Carol Campbell, Daniel Savage and William Greenlee. All three are ward leaders.

When a political system lacks a viable opposition party, corruption becomes more likely. Perhaps a stronger city Republican Party could have acted as a check against the pay-to-play abuses that have so weakened the Street administration. Instead, hampered by its national party's bad behavior and its long history as a complacent junior partner in City Hall patronage, the city GOP is a weakling.

Voters sick of corruption and arrogance need to take steps to shake up the city's Democratic cliques.

Here's one possible way: Vote Republican in this year's Council elections, simply as a protest against the fossilized status quo.

The Republican candidates are Scott Cummings, Mayfair Civic Association president; Joseph Gembala III, a lawyer; and Gary Grisafi, a former candidate for the state house.
Full disclosure time: The GOP chose its candidates in the same undesirable fashion - a meeting of its ward leaders. But given the Republicans' long history of futility in city races, the Democrats' selection process held bigger implications for the future of city government.

The Democrats' nomination of Campbell is the most troubling. A longtime ward leader from West Philadelphia, Campbell has repeatedly demonstrated arrogance and bad campaign-finance habits.

In 2003, Campbell finished a year of probation for breaking state campaign-finance law, an offense for which she paid a $1,250 fine. Now she is again facing questions about how a political action committee she founded, Genesis IV, spent its cash. The PAC has ignored inquiries from the state Bureau of Elections since Jan. 31.

Last week, she paid a $1,700 fine to the city Board of Elections regarding late campaign-finance filings from her City Council race in 1999. Campbell's belated attempts to clean up her record should fool no one. If she hadn't done so, she would be ineligible to be sworn into Council.

These are the actions of someone who is paying attention to the law only because she sees the brass ring within her grasp. She has already inquired where she will sit in the Council chamber as representative of the Fourth District. Michael Nutter resigned the seat to run for mayor.

Savage, leader of the 23rd Ward, is running for the seat vacated by Democratic Councilman Rick Mariano, who is serving a 61/2-year sentence in federal prison for corruption and fraud. Greenlee is hoping to win the at-large seat of his longtime boss, the late Councilman David Cohen.

The Republican candidates know they face long odds. The most promising is Cummings, who leads one of the city's largest civic groups. A father of three, Cummings, 44, has a laudable record of trying to improve his community.

Gembala is an attorney and part-time law professor who has waged uphill battles before, for Common Pleas Court judge and city controller. Grisafi, a professional musician who lost two bids for the state House, appears to be the least attractive of the GOP candidates.

It would be a political miracle for any one of these Republicans to win the special election, and they know it. In all likelihood, the city's Democratic machine will again prevail.

But voters who are tired of the way Democratic leaders have taken them for granted should strongly consider voting for Republican Council candidates - as a wake-up call to leaders who regard democratic process as their personal plaything.

Next year, when the entire Council is up for election, let's see some real, open competition in the Democratic primaries, particularly in the Council districts where this fall's insider trading occurred.