Philadelphia’s official religion is politics — at least twice a year.
In the spring it’s the primary and each November it’s the general election but, if it’s a municipal election — like it was this week — it’s the primary that really counts, since the city has an overwhelming Democratic majority, 7-1. That means Democratic candidates have just two possible ways to win: through the Democratic Party endorsement or by building their own coalition.
For the LGBT community, this week’s election should be seen as a path for the future.
Here are the surprising results: Of the five LGBT candidates running in Philadelphia, three were endorsed by the Democratic City Committee: Sherrie Cohen for City Council-at-Large and Abbe Fletman and Chris Mallios for Court of Common Pleas. We also had two candidates not endorsed by party leaders: Paul Steinke for Council-at-Large and Leon King for Court of Common Pleas.
The numbers show it all. Of the three endorsed LGBT candidates, two, Fletman and Mallios, won, and Cohen lost, by about 3,300 votes (with about 2 percent of the vote not counted as of presstime).
Candidates without party endorsement didn’t fair as well, with Steinke coming in 10th and losing by about 12,000 votes to the fifth-place vote-getter, and King trailing further behind in his race (again with about 2 percent of the vote not counted).
So where were the 3,300 votes that Cohen needed to be victorious or, even further down, the 12,000 votes that Steinke needed?
Organized labor for the most part went out strong for Helen Gym (as of presstime, she was in fifth place, and if all holds out, she’ll win), and the great Marian Tasco/Dwight Evans/Cherelle Parker Northwest Philly machine brought Derek Green in at number one.
Both groups were focused like a laser on their candidates while the LGBT community split its resources and, in many places, its votes, even though you had five votes in that race. Without unity in the LGBT community, labor and the Tasco/Evans/Parker organizations felt they could advance their candidates and cut ours out without retribution. And they did.
And there’s that lesson: You must run citywide, not just in Center City. Cohen reached out and was victorious in all parts of the city; I must give a special shout out to the 21st Ward in Roxsborough, the 48th Ward in South Philly and the 63rd Ward in Northeast Philly, who all came out strong for Cohen.
On the lighter side, my favorite ballot of the day was one that was passed out in Northeast Philadelphia, which proves Philadelphia’s commitment to diversity, sort of. It was the Pentecostal Clergy Political Action Committee-endorsed slate. And for City Council-at-Large, the clergy endorsed Cohen.
Any of you who helped any of our candidates deserve praise for your time and effort. Take pride in knowing that you help make our community stronger.