I have been checking around and talking to some folk who have been around longer than me, calling myself “fact-checking” on an event and to the very best of my knowledge, a gathering of political candidates for Mayor just days after the May 16, 2023, primary election in PA, is something the likes of which I don’t recall witnessing in a very long time, if ever.
So here’s what happened. On Wednesday, May 24, Democratic Mayoral nominee Cherelle Parker hosted a victory breakfast where she invited all of her opponents to join her. After having a chat with a longtime trusted friend and political history source, W. Wilson Goode, Jr., he reminded me (of the fact) that in the 1980s, for example, during a primary election, there were usually only two Democrats running against each other. It is very likely that after the primaries in the 80s, whoever won the race, invited their opponent for a sit-down and chat. Very likely.
By the way, forty years ago, when W. Wilson Goode and Frank Rizzo ran against each other, and W. Wilson Goode won the race, ultimately, Frank Rizzo did endorse Goode for Mayor. Whether they ever had a Unity meal together, I don’t know about all that. But Rizzo did endorse Goode.
I think the difference now is, as we fast forward to the year 2023, having some ten candidates in the race for Mayor at one time is something we haven’t seen before in the history of Philadelphia politics. If I were to include the Independents, green party, communist party, and working families party candidates in my count, Lord, I guess we could say the number of announced candidates for Mayor in 2023 was over 15 people. As history would have it, some of those candidates for Mayor ultimately dropped out before primary election day. However, there were still a determined group of men and women who vied for the Democratic nomination until the last votes were counted on election day.
Those that attended Cherelle Parker’s Unity Breakfast included Jeff Brown, Alan Domb, Helen Gym, Amen Brown, James DeLeon, and Warren Bloom. Rebecca Rhynhart was also invited to attend, but she was out of town traveling. After a grueling and hard-fought campaign like the one we all just witnessed for the Democratic nomination, I think all the candidates deserved some time off to regroup and catch their breaths. Because I believe almost all of the candidates are highly intelligent, I’m thinking they already have their next steps planned and were astute enough to have a plan B, C, and D, just in case they didn’t win the election. Also in attendance for the gathering were Mayoral candidates Derek Green and Maria Sanchez Quinones. My best guess is that we may well see both of them working in the Parker Administration (Just a guess, no one told me that).
During the Unity Breakfast, Cherelle Parker invited each of her opponents up to the microphone to share some thoughts.
Derek Green was first up. “First and foremost, number one, I want to thank our future Madame Mayor, Cherelle
Parker for bringing all of us together. This was a very spirited and engaging campaign. Every one of the candidates that ran for Mayor brought passion and energy to the campaign. They all believe in the city of Philadelphia, and that’s why we all came together this morning to demonstrate unity in this coalition. We have a lot of work to do in Philadelphia.”
Maria Quinones Sanchez stated, “It was not lost on me as a woman that we were at a historical moment in Philadelphia with this campaign. The voters proved we are ready to have women leadership here in the city of Philadelphia. One of the things that Cherelle and I have talked about continuously is she cannot do this alone. We all have to be part of the solution if we are going to motivate and get people to believe in their government again.”
Alan Domb stated, “I want to congratulate my colleague Cherelle Parker. I sat next to her for four years on city council, and we’re friends. I have tremendous confidence that Cherelle is going to be able to pull this city together. She is a coalition builder. I watched her very closely on council, do that. Cherelle, whatever I can do to be of help, I’m here for you.”
Helen Gym commented, “I want to congratulate …
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