I don't have much time to write the blog post that I want to write today, but I do want to clear up a few things. (Simon and I are cleaning up the campaign office and want to leave it sparkling for the next tenant.)

1. I want to thank all of the 200+ volunteers that worked so hard on election day on my behalf. You did a fantastic job, and I've heard from many "professional" committee people that you made a huge difference. Summer BBQ announcement to follow soon!

2. I ran an independent campaign and an independent campaign to win. I believe that I had more donors in the campaign than any other candidate (over 500) - and only a handful of them gave $500 or more. In the end I raised over $130,000, which under other circumstances, might have been enough.

Next week, I am voting for Larry Farnese for State Senator. Till then, I am mentally checking out of the First District race.

I have said plenty about Doc. While I think he has some legit good qualities: ie, a true Philadelphia populist streak- they are far outweighed by all the negative stuff. Plus, I think he will be indicted, which will just be super for our district.

Until recently, I have stayed somewhat silent on Anne v. Larry. I always thought Larry, with his Fumo money, had a better chance to win, and to me, beating Doc is paramount. But, considering that I have volunteered for Anne in 2006, know her reasonably well and think she generally has progressive instincts, I told her on email I was not going to openly criticize her on the blog as I made up my mind.

But, Anne really screwed up with all the stuff that has gone down. There is too much smoke surrounding her meeting with the Doc team to not believe what is being rumored: that after a meeting with them, she has decided to go right after the base of Larry. Now, has sent emails around (or emails from her address) which also basically chide any progressive for thinking about not voting for her, and preemptively blame them for any loss.

Forget whether her new strategy is magically going to make her win (which it won't). To me, it simply shows a lack of judgment to take advice from the Doc campaign, and it was not something we ever would have heard about except it was in the paper. And, it follows a pattern (like with backing Tom Knox) that I am uncomfortable with, in someone who self-identifies as a leader of the progressive movement in Philly, and who's bff calls "one of the most important people of the last 20 years." I don't think she has the staff or money to win, and I don't think she is particularly trying anymore, and is instead going for second place.

As for Larry, I have no illusions that he is a progressive dynamo, or that he is not deeply connected to the Fumo machine. And, I doubt you would find a website that was more critical of him in 2006 than this one. But, since 2006, what I have seen from him is that while he may not always be as progressive as we like initially, he will work very hard, and that he legitimately believes in representing the interests of his district. If he wins, I think the progressive community can help him become a pretty good Senator.

So, I am done. I will even lay off of Doc for a couple days. Instead, I would like to focus on other issues, and other candidates (like Byron Davis, Tony Payton and Vanessa Brown), where I think we can make a real difference.

When thinking about Larry Farnese these days, I keep thinking about the old Moody Blues song 'Every Good Boy Deserves Favour.' In this case, however, it's 'Every Good Boy Does NOT Deserve Favour.'

Farnese may be a decent guy with decent progressive views, but there are a lot of arenas where he could bring those positives into use. I don't think elected politics is one of those arenas. Not every progressive has what it takes to be an elected official.

The seeds of my doubts about him were planted last Fall, and ever since, his actions have only served to reinforce my doubts.

Bumped back up. -Dan

As someone who was somewhat agnostic about what to do about the Doc-Dicker-Farnese First District race, I am stunned by this:

THE TOP TWO aides to state Senate candidate Anne Dicker left her campaign over the weekend, following several days of intrigue over the possibility that she or attorney Larry Farnese would get out of the race.

Dicker said yesterday that she'd fired her campaign manager, Karim Olaechea, after a series of disagreements on the direction of her campaign - and a conversation with political consultant Larry Ceisler, an adviser to the third candidate in the Senate race, union leader John Dougherty.

Dicker's finance director, Matt Goldfine, decided on his own to follow Olaechea out the door.

First, it is widely understood that a 3 person race benefits John Dougherty. The idea that Anne is getting campaign advice from Larry Ceisler- who has long worked for Doc- is totally bizarre. We can all agree that that is not particularly normal campaign behavior, right? Good.

And what was that advice that Anne got from the Dougherty campaign that she bought into? Apparently, it was... to go hard after the votes of Larry Farnese. Huh?

Now, we can all understand why Doc would want Anne to go after Farnese, and therefore seal a Doc win. But, for someone like me, who generally understood that with no Fumo, the least desirable outcome was a Doc win, this raises serious questions about the judgment of Anne Dicker.

Let's remember, she got a lot of crap from the progressive community when she supported Tom Knox in the Mayoral election. Now, with a whole host of progressive groups endorsing her, she is trying to help John effin' Dougherty? I doubt she told PfC et. al. that was going to be her fallback strategy. (I would say this calls into judgment the whole Dicker campaign, but her campaign staff appears to have quit in protest that her new goal has shifted to cutting down Farnese. Now, because they have principles, they are in the newspaper as being 'fired.' Hey guys, keep your head up.)

This campaign has gone from a mess, to a total joke.

The national board of Democracy for America has endorsed Anne Dicker for First District State Senate and will begin mobilizing volunteers and fundraising across the nation to support the only real reformer in this race. DFA has a national membership of 675,000 supporters and has played a key role in electing progressive Democrats around the country.

Arshad Hasan, Executive Director of DFA, personally flew down to Philadelphia to make the endorsement.

Help out by making a contribution to Anne's campaign!

Some random things to note:

1)The WIP Primary. If Angelo and the morning crew are any indication, Obama is going to do pretty well in the white guy from Philly demographic. For those who don't know, following the Rev. Wright controversey, Obama went on 610 WIP (Sports talk) morning show, and became buddies with the morning crew. This morning, he was back on again. Smart move for Obama.

There is probably very little that could brand you as acceptable to a middle-class to working-class white guy in Philly than to have Angelo constantly singing your praises.

2) My favorite guy, and likely next State Senator, John Dougherty is emailing around a poll showing him ahead of Anne Dicker and Larry Farnese. I will have more on Doc later today, because the ethics board responded to his stupid campaign finance challenge with a brief that basically destroys him.

But, anyway, for now Doc says it goes like this (last month in parenthesis):

Dougherty: 31 (14)
Dicker: 18 (13)
Farnese: 14 (4)
Undecided: 37

The earlier numbers are with Fumo in the race, so, Larry seems to have benefited the most from the exit of Fumo. If people want to beat Doc, given his lead, the only way it seems possible is to somehow pick between Larry and Anne. I have some, uh, personal experience with that type of scenario, and I can tell you how unlikely that is. And, progressive groups are already split (like Philly for Change vs. Liberty City).

Meanwhile, for Doc, rumors about grand juries swirl, and Farnese is about to hit him directly with corruption stuff.

3) We're number 1, we're number 1! Oh, crap, number one for this:

Philadelphia has the highest rate of incarceration in jails in the country, according to a new study from the Justice Policy Institute.

In Philadelphia county, 602 people were in jail for every 100,000 in 2006, according to "Jailing Communities: The Impact of Jail Expansion and Effective Public Safety," a study by the institute, a Washington, D.C., criminal-justice think tank. That's up from 369 per 100,000 in 1996, the study says.

Two Tennessee counties followed Philadelphia: Davidson (includes Nashville), with 596 per 100,000, and Shelby (includes Memphis), with 594.

Obviously, that is a shockingly high number. However, we might not really be number one, because the article ignores that it is misleading to compare Philly to other counties in the US. The article- certainly the headline at least- really wants it to look like Philly is special. But frankly, we do not know that to be the case.

If I am not mistaken, we are either the only, or one of the only Counties, to have its borders exactly match the City borders. So, Pittsburgh might be just as bad, but the suburbs of Allegheny County will help their numbers. Same goes for Detroit, et. al.

If we really want to see how Philly stacks up, we would need to see a City, not County, comparison. The article itself- talking about the overall rise- is important. But, c'mon Daily News, if that is your headline, you should at least acknowledge the obvious: as a City (who thinks of us as a County, anyway), we might not actually be number one.

OK, YPP soon won't have Vince Fumo to kick around any more. I can see why he dropped out of the race: combine his heart issues with the massive indictments against him, and he probably figured it wasn't worth the trouble to keep fighting.

The big question is: who does this help? You've gotta think that the favorite now is John Dougherty, given his already high profile. Then again, either Anne Dicker or Larry Farnese could easily focus on Dougherty's faults as a candidate, and take him down a few notches. But could Dicker + Farnese, in effect, split the 'reform' vote, giving Johnny Doc an easy win?

Looks like lots of fun + games in the 1st PA Senate district,
-Z

Dicker Benefit Concert to Mobilize Youth Vote and Progressive Supporters

On Wednesday March 12th, the Anne Dicker for State Senate campaign will be throwing a benefit concert for Anne Dicker called "Progressives for Anne Dicker". The event will take place at Johnny's Brenda's in Fishtown, a popular venue for acclaimed bands both local and national. Doors will open at 7 PM. Tickets are $15 online and $20 at the door. All proceeds go to benefit Anne Dicker's candidacy.

The Dicker campaign is taking advantage of the swell of political interest amongst young voters that has been caused by the presidential campaign coming to town. As the only progressive candidate in the race, Ms. Dicker has become the natural candidate for the under 40 demographic.

Love them or hate them, the two state races sucking all the air out of the room (besides of course the Presidential race) will both be the subject of one of the only neighborhood head-to-head candidate forums of the season.

Come See the 1st Dist. State Senate Debate on March 12th
A THRILLA IN SOUTH PHILA!

Candidates Night

Wed. March 12th
Palumbo Recreation Center
10th and Fitzwater Street

7:00PM

State House Candidates at 7PM sharp!
Peggy Banaszek, Bob Gormley & Babette Josephs

State Senate Candidates at 7:30 PM sharp!
Anne Dicker, John Dougherty
Larry Farnese, Office of Vincent Fumo
& Jack Morley

Come with your questions,
concerns and comments.

Brought to you by
Bella Vista United Civic Association
www.bvuca.org
267- 872- 4686

Now that Anne's on the ballot for the primary, she needs your help getting the word out in every community, registering new voters, and telling people where they can vote.

This Sunday, her campaign will be holding its first "bring your own phone" phonebank and lasagna party. We hope to see you there!

When: THIS SUNDAY, March 2
Where: Campaign HQ 806 E. Passyunk (near S. 6th and Catharine)
When: From 4pm to 8pm
How: Bring your cellphone and we'll teach you the rest!
What else? Bring a friend!
RSVP: info@annedicker.com

Matt Goldfine
Anne Dicker for State Senate
www.AnneDicker.com
215-625-2717

Right now 1.2 million Pennsylvanians lack basic health care coverage. Those of us who are insured face rising premiums, shrinking coverage, and bureaucratic obstacles to treatment. Prescription medicines are too expensive and preventative health care has become a thing of past. Those families that are unfortunate enough to be struck with a serious illness or a health emergency often face financial ruin and bankruptcy.

We’ve entered an ugly phase in the fight against casinos. Our lame duck mayor has tried to paint the city into a corner through backroom deals. The casinos, desperate to break ground before Mayor Nutter takes office, have their public relations machines beating the drums of inevitability in the hopes that the citizens will simply give up. Furthermore, a recent spate of articles have attempted to brand those of us who continue to oppose these casinos as a bunch of crazies who care more about traffic congestion or saving the “soul” of the city than cutting property taxes and creating jobs.

I usually enjoy Mary Patel's "Political Notebook" in the City Paper, but today's issue just gets some basic facts dead wrong about the race for Fumo's seat.

Patel writes:

Another female grassroots activist could soon enter the picture, as Sheila Ballen is said to be planning a run. Ballen, the state Department of Education's spokeswoman, ran unsuccessfully in 2004 against then-state Rep. Marie Lederer. Ballen and Dicker may wash each other out, and possibly draw from the same money pool of supporters.

The problem with this claim is that it's totally false, and has been so since ray Murphy posted about it LAST WEEK.

Dear friends,

As many of you have heard, State Senator Vincent Fumo recently put his Fairmount area mansion up for sale. The asking price is a whopping $6.95 million dollars. According to the listing on Fox & Roach's website, the property has been "restored to it's original grandeur" with elevators on all 6 floors, a brick oven and spa, wine cellar, 7 fireplaces, 3 powder rooms, a large custom vault, and a state of the art security system.

However, the City of Philadelphia has the value of this famously opulent home listed at only $250,000. Accordingly, Fumo only pays $6,611 in property taxes--a tiny fraction of what he would owe if the building were taxed at its current sales price. On Thursday, in a vote that stunned reporters and drew widespread outrage, the BRT upheald the current listed value. The property will not be reassessed until 2009.