What to watch in Philadelphia mayoral race
Sarah Westwood
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Democratic voters in Philadelphia will have a chance Tuesday to fire the next shot in the battle between left-wing and centrist liberals wrestling for control of their party’s approach to the key issue of crime.
Philadelphia, which voted 81% for President Joe Biden in 2020, will almost certainly elect a Democratic mayor in the general elections this November.
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That means whichever candidate emerges victorious from the primary on Tuesday is virtually guaranteed to become the city’s 100th mayor, at which point he or she will be saddled with the enormously complicated task of restoring order to the streets.
Here are some things to watch in Tuesday’s primary.
WILL STOP AND FRISK BE STOPPED?
Philadelphia police ended a controversial law enforcement policy, known as stop and frisk, years ago amid concerns there and in New York City about the disproportionate focus on people of color.
In recent months, some City Council members and Democratic mayoral candidates have discussed the prospect of reinstating the practice, which generally gives police officers the discretion to stop, question, and even search pedestrians they suspect are involved in illegal activity.
Cherelle Parker, one of the highest-polling Democratic mayoral candidates, has said she would support giving police more authority to conduct such stops.
“The constitutional use of stop and frisk is a tool law enforcement needs to protect and serve us,” Parker said at a recent candidate forum.
Many other mayoral candidates have said they would oppose the use of stop and frisk, including Helen Gym, who polled slightly above the rest of the field earlier this month.
The divide on stop and frisk represents the broader split between Democrats who see stronger law enforcement as the answer to rising crime and those in the party who want to double down on a strategy that looks to law enforcement alternatives as the answer.
PHILLY’S GLASS CEILING
The City of Brotherly Love has never elected a woman to lead its government.
That could change this year; the top three candidates in the Emerson College poll this month were women.
Gym, Parker, and Rebecca Rhynhart led the field, while Allan Domb and Jeff Brown rounded out what analysts believe to be the group of five most viable candidates.
Rhynhart has already shattered one of the city’s glass ceilings, becoming the first woman to win a race for city controller in 2017.
A COMING KRASNER CLASH?
Philadelphia’s liberal district attorney is perhaps one of the best-known prosecutors still pushing a progressive criminal justice platform.
District Attorney Larry Krasner was elected in 2017 with the backing of liberal megadonor George Soros, and he has presided over a steep increase in violence while pushing for most offenders to receive less jail time.
The next mayor could find themselves clashing with Krasner.
Amen Brown, a state representative and one of the candidates considered viable in the mayoral race, has run as a more centrist Democrat.
Brown has proposed reforms that directly contradict Krasner’s policies. For example, in the state legislature, Brown advocated a bill that would impose mandatory minimum sentences for repeat offenders caught carrying illegal guns.
Krasner called the bill “an absolute outrage.”
Krasner has also advocated forcefully against stop and frisk, which the City Council began discussing as a potential solution to the crime problem last year.
That could put him on a collision course with Parker if she were to become Philadelphia’s next mayor, as she has expressed support for reviving the policy.
While Krasner has not endorsed any candidate in the mayoral primary, his universe of supporters and allied groups overlaps most closely with Gym’s, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Whoever becomes mayor will have to contend with a DA that has fought to reduce the law enforcement footprint even as homicides climbed to a record high in 2021.
DISTANCING FROM ‘DEFUND’
Several candidates running for mayor have distanced themselves from their previous support for cutting police funding in the wake of civil unrest in 2020.
Three of the top five mayoral candidates, all former City Council members, voted in 2020 against a police budget increase requested by the city’s Democratic mayor: Parker, Gym, and Domb.
Gym has said she would not gut the police force while maintaining her position in the race as the progressive candidate. Parker has swung more explicitly away from the defund stance, proposing the addition of hundreds of police officers to the force.
Democratic voters concerned about safety have forgiven former advocates of defunding the police recently.
In Chicago, Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson successfully navigated a divorce from his previous statements of support for defunding the police. While his opponent in the Chicago mayoral contest attempted to use those statements as a weapon, Johnson was able to deny any lingering affinity for the unpopular movement.
MINORITY MAY RULE
With such a crowded primary field — there are nine candidates running — the Democratic nominee could clinch victory with a small percentage of the electorate.
The candidate with the most votes will win outright, unlike other jurisdictions that require candidates to surpass 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff.
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In the most recent poll of the field, the top candidate had just over one-fifth of the vote.
That means the winner, especially in a low-turnout situation, could be on the path to winning control of the city with support from a small proportion of voters.