Philadelphia Battlefields: Disruptive Campaigns and Upset Elections in a Changing City

by John Kromer

Should the surprisingly successful outcomes achieved by outsider candidates in Philadelphia elections be interpreted as representing fundamental changes in the local political environment, or simply as one-off victories, based largely on serendipitous circumstances that advanced individual political careers? John Kromer’s insightful Philadelphia Battlefields considers key local campaigns undertaken from 1951 to 2019 that were extraordinarily successful despite the opposition of the city’s political establishment.  Kromer draws on election data and data-mapping tools that explain these upset elections as well as the social, economic, and demographic trends that influenced them to tell the story of why these campaign strategies were successful. He deftly analyzes urban political dynamics through case studies of newcomer Rebecca Rhynhart’s landslide victory over a veteran incumbent for Philadelphia City Controller; activist Chaka Fattah’s effective use of grassroots organizing skills to win a seat in Congress; and Maria Quiñones-Sánchez’s hard-fought struggle to become the first Hispanic woman to win a City Council seat, among others.  Philadelphia Battlefields shows how these candidates’ efforts to increase civic engagement, improve municipal governance, and become part of a new generation of political leadership at the local and state level were critical to their successes.

344 pages, Paperback

Published August 21, 2020

Reviews

[David R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Im a born/raised Philadelphian. Lived in Olney and briefly in northeast Philadelphia. Loved Philadelphia politics as a kid - had a Democratic hero, John White, Jr. (and David Cohen), and a Republican hero, Charles Dougherty, though I had thought that Fran Weston would wind up a serious Republican candidate for Mayor. Much of the stories about political campaigns that Kromer talks about in this good book I fairly much knew except for the most recent campaigns. He focuses on Democratic Party campaigns, given the dominance of that party in the city from the 50s onward During which time the Republican Party in Philadelphia ossified. his intent is to discuss campaigns that went against the system, broadly defined as the Democratic Party apparatus. Unfortunately, he doesn’t really go far enough in talking about how the Democratic Party apparatus might be fraying at the seams now but given the relative Noncompetitiveness of the Philadelphia Republican Party there isn’t an incentive to change unless there is intra-party competition. He has said this and gives examples of how some recent campaigns have demonstrated the party apparatus weakness. He also demonstrates how there are weaknesses with respect to the governing home rule charter and how that possibly should be changed to reflect new realities in Philadelphia government.

This is a book I have been openly waiting for and quite some time on Philadelphia politics and I am surprised it’s taken so long to be published. I once asked some faculty members that I knew why there wasn’t more publications on Philadelphia politics and I was told pretty one way that it was because if that was done they were always research money opportunities.

Curiously, he focuses on a couple of members of the current Philadelphia City Council who have been openly predicted as potential candidates for mayor in the next mayoral election. I think he missed an opportunity by not focusing on some campaigns that, while they were not successful, were regarded as being respected campaigns – notably the mayoral primary campaign of Doug Oliver and also Peter Hearn for mayor, and Andrew Stober for City Council at Large. He also did not focus on the candidacy of Kendra Brooks as a Working Families Party candidate (which the Stober candidacy four years earlier set the stage for), who was elected as an at large City Council member and in doing so displaced a Republican as one of the two minority party at large candidates with the first time ever. But a good will be there when he was working on the book he didn’t see the Brooks candidacy as being viable to the point of winning the way that she did. He does demonstrate how the progressive political influence has made some inroads in Philadelphia politics in recent years.

Because I studied politics in graduate school I finished this book pretty quickly given that I have always sucked up any publications on Philadelphia politics in Philadelphia history. It’s a good read and well worth your time if you are interested in urban politics and specifically Philadelphia political history.

[Alec Pompeo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great guide to the intricacies of local Philadelphia politics. Anyone interested in local urban politics should give this a read, especially those who live in Philly. Beyond being informative and surprisingly readable, this book also serves as a call to action- for people to become more involved in their communities, and for Philadelphians to demand better political representation in a city that has effectively become a one party system. Kromer knows that Philadelphians deserve better than the current and historical state of the Democratic Party, and paints a path towards how this could be achieved.