Philadelphia Inquirer (PA)
Copyright 2006 The Philadelphia Inquirer
September 17, 2006

By Marcia Gelbart, Inquirer Staff Writer

Near nightfall, in a room behind a closed door inside the Walnut Street headquarters of the Democratic City Committee, the 69 are expected to bestow some of the city's biggest political prizes - three seats on City Council - to three of their own.

And in this Democratic town, with that blessing those three ward leaders will receive their virtual tickets to Council.

The rest of the city's 945,913 registered Democrats will get the opportunity, on Nov. 7, to say only aye or nay to the three ward leaders selected for them.

That's how it works in a city ruled by machine politics. It's an insider's game.

"Look, we have a job to do. When they change the law, they change the law. Right now, this is what the law says," U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, the party chairman, said Friday.

The process was initiated in late August when Council President Anna C. Verna decided to hold special elections to fill a rare trio of Council vacancies. The state election code leaves it to the political parties to select nominees - and in Philadelphia, party rules call for ward leaders, not voters, to decide.

The process has taken place time and again in the city, and has been used for decades as well to fill local vacancies in Congress and the General Assembly.

In this case, the seats include the at-large position held by David Cohen until his death in October; the Fourth District seat of Michael Nutter, who quit in July to run for mayor; and the Seventh District seat that Rick Mariano resigned after his federal corruption conviction.

The favorite for the at-large seat is William Greenlee, the 15th Ward leader and a former Cohen aide, while Fourth Ward leader Carol Campbell is expected to fill the Nutter seat.

The fight for Mariano's seat has been more fractious, a tussle among ward leaders Daniel Savage (23d) and John Sabatina (56th), and Marnie Aument Loughrey, daughter of Donna Aument, the 33d Ward leader.

It was uncertain Friday whether the 12 ward leaders in Mariano's district would vote tomorrow or later in the week. "Things are very volatile," Sabatina said Friday.

For weeks, the nominating process for all three spots has generated criticism, particularly from progressive groups that largely operate outside the ward system and are struggling to get one of their own elected.

The uproar is new to Brady, party chairman for 20 years, and Michael P. Meehan, the longtime Republican Party general counsel. Both say the squawking is coming from people who simply can't get what they want.

"They don't like ward leaders picking, so be a ward leader," said Brady, who initially won his U.S. House seat through a special election. "If there's criticism, so be it."

Similarly, Meehan said, "To say that the Democratic and Republican ward leaders are not entitled to endorse somebody - well, that's ridiculous. Why would you need organizations if we just had a lottery and determined positions by lot?"

For their part, Republican ward leaders - not the 159,154 registered Republican voters - gathered quietly Tuesday to pick their party's Council candidates.

The at-large nominee is Mayfair Civic Association president Scott Cummings, a former Donald Trump bodyguard who is on leave from a management job with the Philadelphia Parking Authority.

Lawyer Joseph Gembala, the 14th Ward leader, will try to capture Nutter's seat. And Gary Grisafi, twice an unsuccessful state House candidate, is the GOP candidate in Mariano's district.

Zack Stalberg, president of the good-government Committee of Seventy group, seemed resigned last week to the nomination process, but not for long. Looking ahead, he said, "There may be a way to fix this problem over the long haul."