Andrew Stober and Some Also-Rans File for Long Shot Mayoral and Council Runs
There will be no Bill Green or Sam Katz City Council run. There is no last-second mayoral candidate with a big name and big checkbook. Just a handful of third party and independent candidates, headlined by Andrew Stober, the architect of Indego who quit his job with the city in a bid to land one of seven City Council at-large seats.
Monday was the deadline for independent candidates to file nominating petitions for November’s election. The Democratic and Republican nominees were already set, of course, in the May primary election. The assumption this year — as in most years for the last half-century or so — is that the Democrats will sweep every office, and Republicans will be left to pick up the crumbs set aside by the city charter for non-majority parties (namely, two of the seven at-large Council seats).
Stober’s Independent candidacy is the first real test of that model in a long time. He’s got a strong resume, he’s running a real campaign, and he has a base, albeit a small one. Stober has no chance of beating any of the five Democratic City Council at-large candidates. But he doesn’t need to. He just has to place sixth or seventh to claim one of the two positions that typically goes to Republicans.
Make no mistake. Stober is still a long shot. But he is the bluest of blue chips compared to the other Independents and third party candidates who filed in time to meet Monday’s deadline.
Tricia L. Nadolny reports for the Inquirer that Jim Foster, a Mount Airy newspaper publisher, and Osborne Hart, a Walmart employee, are joining the mayoral race alongside GOP nominee Melissa Murray Bailey and Democratic candidate Jim Kenney. Also running for mayor? Boris Kindij, Newsworks reports. It’s ok if you don’t know who Boris is. At this point, for Kenney, the election is little more than a formality, although to Murray Bailey’s credit, she’s not treating it that way.
Also filing petitions…
City Council
- Kristin Combs, Green Party. City Council at-large.
- John Staggs, Socialist Workers Party. City Council at-large.
- Bobbie T. Curry, Independent. City Council ninth district.
- Leah Wright, Free Dominion Party. City Council fifth district.
- Michael Galganski, Free Dominion Party. City Council eighth district.
City Commissioner
- Glenn Davis, Green Party.