A Dear John (and Larry too) letter
Dear John and Larry,
Well, it’s over. Months of campaigning, a lot of money spent, and you, Larry Farnese, beat you, John Dougherty, in the 1st senate race. So now what?
Well, John, you sent out an email last week that left me wondering. You said:
We will continue to be a force to be reckoned with and will demand accountability and transparency from those elected officials who represent us, here and in Harrisburg. In other words, we'll be watching. And waiting.
Does that mean you are going to run again in 2012?
The count in last week’s election was close, but it wasn’t that close: Larry won the race decisively. It’s your right to run for office, but if you already know you plan to run again, it means you are going to spend a lot of time in the next four years trying to run Larry down.
And that is business as usual right? Dougherty vs. Fumo (with Larry as a proxy)?
That may be the way things have always been, but this fight is getting really, really tired, mostly because you both have more much important stuff to be doing:
Larry. Nobody was harder on you in 2006--at least online--than I was (except maybe Dan). I did not want to see you unseat Babette. And since then, I have gotten to know you better, and I like you--I’ll never forget how you went above and beyond for Philly Against Santorum from tabling in the square to getting me into highrises to speak (your help was especially notable to me as I had written some pretty harsh stuff about you in your 06 election).
So, among the folks who will crawl out from under rocks to tell you, soon-to-be Senator Farnese, how great you are, you can trust me to tell you the truth.
Here it is: there are voters who worry about your ties to Vince Fumo. He is in fact being indicted. Although I think there is a real argument to be made that, despite skimming some off the top for himself, Fumo ultimately brought more money and services to his district than any other Senator in the state, the fact is there is a significant cohort of voters who are tired of Fumo's fiefdom. Fair or not, you are going to need to prove that you are not beholden to Vince Fumo and his political supporters.
Beyond that, you need to vote for, sponsor and shepherd good legislation through the Senate (something Sen. Fumo was often a leader on), and you need to help elect other progressives. There are after all big fights coming up in the State Senate this year like the Philly gun laws, a same-sex marriage ban, healthcare, property taxes, and hey, maybe you can do something about that stupid uniformity clause.
Most important, you have a district that contains some of the wealthiest zip codes in the city, and some of the poorest, and a lot of people in the middle. They all want more services and amenities. But there are some competing interests that have produced racial and class tensions that need to be addressed and, as much as possible, healed.
Your attention being diverted to the Fumo-Doc feud can’t help that healing, or enact any of the other goals above.
As for you, Doc...you have a lot of hiring to do!
According to Tom Ferrick, if we leave out the Laborers, only 1/3 of all building trades members live in the city, and 80% are white, and nearly 99% are men. Meanwhile, 1/3 of all Philadelphians, a larger proportion black than white, live in poverty.
What is wrong with this picture?
I can’t get over the fact that a guy as powerful as you, who built up a union whose membership had been falling, hasn’t done more to hire women and people of color. I know you’ll tell me you’re doing better than some, but the fact is you lead one of the most powerful local unions, (in a sector of employment that’s not portable) and you owe it to the residents of this city, many of whom subsidize local development through their tax dollars, to hire many, many more women and people of color.
Since you won’t be going to the Senate, maybe you can focus all the extra time you had set aside for that on this problem? In this arena, you are more powerful than a State Senator and have the privilege to make real change.
Here are some other things you can do now to demonstrate your leadership:
1) Get all the trades in the state to stop opposing RxforPA. Elected officials listen to you. Lots of people don’t have healthcare. Something needs to be done.
2) Stop propping up Republicans like Mario Civera and Rick Santorum. Your support of Santorum, for dredging or not, was unforgivable in my eyes.
3) Withdraw your current challenge to campaign finance laws, and don’t challenge any more.
Doc, before you pick up the phone to call me, I am not writing this to communicate between you and me, so much as to air the thoughts and ideas I have been hearing from a lot of people in the past few days. I had plenty of chances to say what I thought to your face during the campaign, but speaking on behalf of a larger set of interests, I do challenge you to make significant progress on these issues before you raise the specter of running against Larry in 2012,
The bottom line is that, if you Larry, and you John, both do your jobs well, the people who live in the 1st will benefit. And those citizens need help from both you much more than they need a constant skirmish lasting until the next election (whether for Larry’s seat in 2012, or in a proxy like the 1st councilmanic seat in 2011, DA next year, or maybe a fight against Brady in 2010).
After all, no matter what Anne Dicker did or didn’t do well or right in her own campaign, the 18% of voters who supported her mostly did so because they were sick of voting for either Jets or Sharks, and they want and need real change in their neighborhoods.
The district you live in, and the city you both want to serve, needs more action, and less feuding. As wounds are still healing from the campaign, I hope you’ll both consider that.
Respectfully yours,
Ray
Agreed, you two need to do your thing
Ray sets up a really good agenda here. Doc would be miserable in H'burg. He'd hate the fact that he'd have to climb back up the power ladder once again and he might not even do it. He might just coast and come back to Philadelphia as often as possible to be somewhere that he's got serious clout.
We just lost one of the most powerful Senators in PA. If his district (and its leaders) get behind Larry, we could at least have a moderately powerful Freshman to look forward to next year.
Ray's right... if you assume that Anne's voters were more likely to vote Larry than Doc if she hadn't been in the race, it was a blowout. This is not a fight that's worth fighting, Doc. Do right by the city and let it go.
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For Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Nomination for President.
This Too Will Pass, for the guts in your cerebrum.
Well said.
Well said.
Doc is done at the RDA
From the Inquirer:
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Check out my website!
What "regular people" are saying
Ray,
Although I am taking time off from politics (after 5 years of campaigning, Simon & I need a break) I think you are reading results of voters incorrectly.
Your diagnosis of why people voted for me is very different from the response I've been getting ever since Tuesday night, both online and off. I'm truly honored to have had such wonderful supporters...In the end, I got whallopped by running an admittedly ineffective campaign against an ever changing field, having voter turnout double what I had forecast when I first jumped in the race - making it far more expensive, and an inability to raise a million dollars from a union or some very generous senators from Western PA.
In any case, I want to share with you what people who don't live and breathe local politics have been saying:
"I voted for you, and think that if you keep up the fight you will eventually win. You were, without a doubt, the best candidate."
"I do hope you will run for office again because the city and the state need your commitment, energy and ideas."
"You were so courageous to run against all those folks! Now you have established your identity I hope the occasion will arrive for you to run for another post.You are the kind if person Philly really needs and occasionally elects ( aka Nutter) so do consider your future with us and for us."
"Please let Ann know that, as far as I'm concerned, she did great! I hope she will continue to try for office as well as working for a better Philly in other ways."
"You blew them away in my division. Honored to have supported and rooted for you."
"YOU are to be commended. You made a good showing in a tough race. You raised the issues and kept the spotlight on them."
"Again, it was an honor to have helped you in a very small way, and I look forward to a future opportunity."
"You made us all proud."
" You had huge balls entering the race and INITIATING the fight against Goliath for that you will always be
respected and admired!"
" I admire you for running. Hope you will try again."
"I think you should change your party affiliation to independent and run for the Senate office."
"I will support you in your next endeavor...just let me know!"
Anne Dicker
cheerful, but vanquished candidate for State Senate
Anne, maybe I am reading it
Anne, maybe I am reading it different than you are, but I don't see how what you write disagrees with this:
Some things I would like to see the state work on
1. Well two and they are both quite obvious as both Anne and Larry campaigned on heavily both - resiting the casinos and some form of universal health care for Pennsylvanians
2. More equitable education funding statewide but also a commitment to greater transparency and accountability from the SRC in how it spends what money it does have . Also greater accountability from the Philadelphia Parking Authority in terms of funding it should be providing to the Philly Schools.
3. Dedicated transit and infrastructure funding that draws on revenue from somewhere else other than tolling one road that many of us never use. Sorry but there are at least some legitimate concerns for the people in NW PA about them being tapped for the revenue source for distant transit projects. Transit benefits the entire economy of Pennsylvania but the I-80 plan feeds regional divisions and is still an implicitly awkward solution to the dedicated funding problem.
4. State funding for their portion of the cost of Philly's courts because the court system in its current state does a disservice to the accused, to the victims of crime, to potential witnesses and to law enforcement. Lumped in with that is a call for programs at a state level to much more effectively deal with reentry and careful reforms in how to make it easier for those brave enough to testify in homicide and violent drug related cases to stand up and do their civic duty. "Stop snithin'" is not a progressive value and there is no reason to entirely cede smart discussion of how to restore the public's trust in the court system to the reactionary wing of the "tough on crime" crowd. That said its also time to look a state support for programs that prioritize alternative processes for non-violent, lesser drug crimes while going after violent crimes more effectively. I say this because if progressives don't establish their own agenda for tackling these thorny issues, conservatives will write an agenda for us - and it won't be an agenda to develop real solutions or to help progressives get elected in "swing" suburban areas.
5. Another slightly oddball one - a new look at economic development - specifically about reinventing how the state gets involved in encouraging economic development i.e moving it more in favor of "Main Streets" - both in urban neighborhoods but also in small towns and small towns in the midst of being engulfed in suburbs. Smart policy here can go along way to making Dems and progressives competitive in the burbs and in small cities while also guiding whats wrong with how Philly approaches "redevelopment" and "economic renewal". Keystone Opportunity Zones are fine and dandy but more often then not they to be finest for the big corporate players and not for mom and pops- and interestingly in terms of political alliances - policies that help save small town Pennsylvania from Wallmart sucking the economic lifeblood out of small downtowns also tend to be kind to mom-and-pops on the long suffering commercial corridors in the 'hoods of urban Philadlephia. And mom-and-pops recirculate more money in the local economy (both urban and small town) than the big corporate chains do. This isn't simple one but more a "big-picture" approach to work on developing that might help build interesting state-wide alliances while touching on sprawl concerns in areas of increasing Democratic influence in the burbs.
I'm too tired of Jets vs. Sharks to give it much thought right now - except to underline again that "how" Larry won means no matter what, even if Larry aspired to merely rebuilding the old empire and reengaging the old feud - it wouldn't work. New times, new political coalitions = time for an adapted, reconstituted approach. "It's a new day" to coin a phrase. The Jets have to adapt to the times anyway so let us progressives set about the business of showing them both how much they need us to succeed anyhow and how much better off they are with us as part of an um new Town Watch than the same old warring street gangs.
-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.