Brady, Fattah Extend Mayoral Losing Streak for House Members
The outcome of yesterday's mayoral primary in Philadelphia illustrates a harsh political reality that the path to City Hall rarely is through Capitol Hill.
Two House members who represent parts of Philadelphia -- Reps. Bob Brady and Chaka Fattah -- failed badly in their bids to secure the Democratic nomination for mayor of Philadelphia. Their showings amounted to a tie for third place by gaining less than 16 percent of the vote each.
Once considered potential frontrunners, Brady and Fattah were swamped by more than two-to-one by former City Councilman Michael Nutter. With a five-to-one registration edge for Democrats, Nutter almost certainly will become the next mayor of the City of Brotherly Love, sweeping to victory on a message of eliminating corruption at City Hall and fighting a surge in violent street crime.
But Fattah and Brady couldn't even keep pace with insurance executive Tom Knox, who ran his first race ever and spent an estimated $10 million of his own money to score a second-place finish.
Fattah, a seven-term House member whose district cuts a wide swath across the city, was considered a top prospect to win the mayor's office six months ago. Charming and dynamic - he's married to a local TV news personality - Fattah seemed perfectly positioned for this race and held early leads in the polls.
Brady, who has long served as the local Democratic Party boss, has very close ties to labor unions and is viewed as an expert behind-the-scenes negotiator.
But the congressmen join a list of recent House members who have been unable to turn their work on Capitol Hill into success back home in mayor's races. Waging a campaign for the mayor's office from the House of Representatives may be as much of a long-shot as mounting a drive for the White House from the Senate.
House members trying to become mayor repeatedly have lost out to candidates with political roots firmly planted in the city, not on Capitol Hill. The issues that House members are focused on, such as the war in Iraq, combatting terrorism and immigration reform, don't readily translate into big-city votes.
In 2005, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) lost the Democratic nomination for mayor of the Big Apple, with former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer winning (and eventually getting swamped by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the general election). In 2001, Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) finished fifth in the nonpartisan mayoral election in Los Angeles.
In 1999, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) challenged the Daley Machine in Chicago and won less than 30 percent of the vote in a primary against incumbent Mayor Richard Daley (D). That race went so poorly for Rush that local Democrats thought he'd weakened himself and a little-known first-term state senator with a funny first name challenged Rush in the 2000 primary for his House seat. Rush successfully beat back the challenge and handed now- Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) the only defeat of his career.
Members of the House haven't always had such trouble securing the mayoralties of major cities. Philadelphia elected William Green mayor in 1979 straight from the House, and two of New York's most storied mayors used their seats in the House as political springboards to Gracie Mansion -- Fiorello H. LaGuardia in 1933 and John Lindsay in 1965. In 1953, then-Rep. Norris Poulson won the mayor's race in Los Angeles, holding onto the post until he lost to a former House member, Sam Yorty, in 1961,
In fact, current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is the daughter of the late longtime Baltimore Mayor Thomas J. D'Alesandro Jr., who served in the House for more than eight years before becoming mayor in 1947.
The current drought of representatives-turned-mayors doesn't appear ready to change any time soon. In Chicago, Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D) and Luis Gutierrez (D) both talked about jumping into a challenge to Daley this past spring, but both balked at the tall task.
The most likely next House member to take the plunge is Weiner, who is eyeing a bid to succeed Bloomberg when term limits force him out of office in 2009.
Voters will be watching Weiner to see if he can connect locally in a way that mayoral candidate Fattah apparently never did. One local GOP strategist summed up Fattah's campaign to the Philadelphia Daily News this way: "His operating slogan seemed to be, 'I'm here, and aren't you lucky.' His words were right, but there was no oomph behind them. You couldn't hear the music."
By Paul Kane |
May 16, 2007; 1:45 PM ET
House
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Posted by: Bill | May 16, 2007 2:13 PM
The right man won in Killadelphia last night. I hope Nutter can build on the dissatisfaction with the Street machine and get the city turned around.
Posted by: dirrtysw | May 16, 2007 4:41 PM
In 20th Century San Francisco, Representative Franck R. Havenner (elected in 1936, 1938, 1944, 1946, 1948, and 1950) was defeated for mayor in 1939 and 1947. Representative John Francis Shelley (elected in a special election in 1949 vice Richard J. Welch, deceased) and every two years from 1950 to 1962) was elected mayor in 1963. He resigned and representative A. Phillip Burton was elected to succeed him. Upon Phil's passing, his widow, Sala G. Burton was elected but she also passed. Nancy Pelosi was elected to succeed her. No other representative contested the mayoral office in the twentieth century.
Posted by: Paul Rosenberg | May 16, 2007 7:38 PM
The Phil. Inquirer published an article about Fattah in which they contrasted his status as a preeminent golfer among Congressman with his dismal attendance record for votes. It was a pretty devastating commentary on his life in Washington.
Brady has all the grace and tact of a box of hammers. He may technically be a Congressman, but to Philly he's the heart of the local Democratic machine... and thats not a positive endorsement for most.
Nutter deserved this win, and I hope he lives up to his word.
Posted by: Patrick Huss | May 17, 2007 2:20 AM
Article by Steve Goldstein
Posted by: Patrick Huss | May 17, 2007 2:26 AM
This is such a Washington view of the Philadelphia mayor's race. Up here, we care that the best candidate won the race for a change. There is a lot of hope in this city with a new mayor to replace the current ethics-challenged administration. An article on the future of the nation's fifth largest city would be appreciated. The only other article I see on the mayor's race online in the Post is a Reuters article.
Posted by: Roland Dunbrack | May 17, 2007 3:23 AM
Don't forget Harold Washington in Chicago, as U.S. Congressman elected mayor in 1983.
Posted by: Chris DeRose | May 17, 2007 9:13 AM
Wasn't Abe Koch a member from New York before being elected mayor of NYC?
Posted by: Pat Andrews | May 17, 2007 9:36 AM
Another aspect of the Philadelphia vote is that elected officials of the Philadelphia government are required to resign from office before seeking another. The first great example of this was when reform mayor Richardson Dilworth resigned in 1962 to (unsuccessfully) run for governor, ushering in the hack Democratic machine ten years after Joe Clark and Dilworth had ended 50+ years of Republican machine rule.
In fact, a ballot question to remove this restriction was defeated the same day Michael Nutter won the primary. Perhaps his willingness to quit a 14-year safe seat in City Council registered with voters, in addition to his other qualities.
One wonders if either Fattah or Brady would have resigned from Congress, if they had been required to do so, or foregone the run for mayor. Perhaps they would have fared better if they had shown the same dedication and resigned anyway.
Posted by: judgito | May 17, 2007 2:23 PM
I think judgito raises an interesting point. Although I'm not sure how much of a factor Nutter's resignation played in the minds of the voters, it is interesting to speculate whether or not Brady and Fattah, would have even run for mayor, had they been held to the the same standard.
In the end, the fact that Brady and Fattah are still representing the city in Congress probably makes Nutter's win the best possible scenario. It would have taken years for a replacement to represent the city's interests at the level Fattah and Brady can today.
Posted by: Patrick Huss | May 17, 2007 4:19 PM
Chaka Fatah should consider it a badge of honor that the same majority of morons who elected that crook and glorified street thug John Street twice(!) were - unsurprisingly - unable to discern Fatah's integrity, leadership, and vision for the city.
Posted by: Griff | May 17, 2007 5:21 PM
Yeah. They were unable to discern what he was unable to communicate. As for his vision for the city, it was discerned and rejected. People who are sick of the guns and the murders realized there wasn't much he was willing to do for them.
He did spend a lot of time claiming Michael Nutter wasn't black enough to represent Philadelphia. Thats his badge, and theres no honor in that sort of politics.
Posted by: Patrick Huss | May 17, 2007 7:26 PM
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Actually, William Green was an ex-Representative when elected mayor. He lost the 1976 Senate race to John Heinz.