Allan Domb Goes On the Attack, Launches Anti-Jeff Brown Website
Plus, yet another reason to hate the PPA. And one thing nobody hates: free Rita's water ice.
Philadelphia mayoral candidate Jeff Brown, as seen on a new anti-Jeff Brown website launched by the Allan Domb campaign
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Allan Domb Unleashes Anti-Jeff Brown Website
It can’t be easy to be Jeff Brown right now. The ShopRite mogul (and, more importantly for our purposes here, Philadelphia mayoral candidate) is under attack. As the Inquirer put it in a Friday headline: “Jeff Brown Rivals Slam Him for Ethics Investigation …” (Read more about that ethics investigation here. Brown’s campaign has said the campaign has done nothing wrong.) And now, Allan Domb has launched an anti-Jeff Brown website.
“JEFF BROWN DOESN’T TELL THE TRUTH,” proclaims the bright orange all-caps header of TheRealJeffBrown.com. “AND HE ISN’T QUALIFIED TO BE PHILADELPHIA’S MAYOR.”
The site mentions the ethics investigation and flat-out calls Brown’s campaign “unethical.” The site goes on to proclaim that Brown “just isn’t honest.” What else? “He’s not ready for the job.” And the site also delves into the controversy over the Brown campaign ad that featured Michelle Obama, even though Obama has nothing to do with the Brown campaign. Obama’s office said the Brown campaign was “manipulating old appearances” to help boost his campaign.
I asked Brown’s campaign to respond to the site and its contents. Here’s what they sent me on Monday morning:
Jeff is clearly the front runner and you can see why. The political hacks have no accomplishments to speak of and are largely responsible for our city’s violent crime epidemic. They are doing what political hacks do, run negative campaigns, because they have nothing to say. Jeff’s focus will continue to be on sharing his vision of change. We’ll let Philadelphians decide who to believe.
Domb launched the site on Friday. As of Monday morning, it wasn’t showing up in Google searches (at least not on the first page, the front page being all that matters). But Domb’s campaign has signaled that it will be doing a Google AdWords buy to fix that.
“Philadelphia has major problems and we need a mayor who is going to be honest and forthright,” Domb told me.
Speaking of Jeff Brown …
The Inquirer dives into the $18.7 million in taxpayer support Jeff Brown got to open some of his ShopRite locations. Nice work if you can get it.
As If You Need Another Reason to Hate the PPA
Here’s a good PPA horror story to start off your week.
By the Numbers
$450,000: Amount SEPTA has continued to pay an executive who left in 2021.
68: Supposed high temperature this week.
8 p.m.: Time the Rita’s near me closes today, the first day of spring, aka free Rita’s Water Ice day.
0: Amount of time I’ll spend waiting in the giant line at Rita’s, instead just waiting until tomorrow and buying my water ice.
38: Number of Rita’s water ice flavors we once ranked.
My Arts Pick for the Week: SIX the Musical
Six as in the number of wives of King Henry VIII. The premise: It’s modern times and those doomed wives are part of a sort of pop-singing competition where the wife who convinces the judges that she suffered the worst at the hands of ol’ Henry wins the big prize. The show, which opened on Broadway right before COVID shut Broadway down, comes to the Kimmel Center this week. My daughter saw it on Broadway and gives it two enthusiastic 15-year-old thumbs up.
If you need other ideas for things to do this week, here are a bunch.
And from the Eight’s-Not-Enough Sports Desk …
For Rhys Hoskins’s 30th St. Patrick’s Day birthday on Friday, the Phils came out hitting again, beating the Blue Jays twice, 4-2 and 8-1. On Saturday, they dropped one to the Braves, 5-1 — the first game in a while where the offense has been lacking. Sunday was no picnic in the park, either, as the Phils got smashed by the Red Sox, 9-5, thanks to a grand-slam homer by Sox outfielder Greg Allen (but see the World Baseball Classic item below for another grand slam). They play the Orioles today at 1:05.
Also on Friday, the Sixers were in Charlotte to take on the Hornets. Joel Embiid had butterfingers to start, but a last-second three by Maxey gave the team the lead at the close of the first quarter, 31-29. Oh my goodness, look who’s finally been put in the right place:
https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1636794528366571520
The Sixers heated up in the second, and some folks got fancy.
https://twitter.com/ESPNNBA/status/1636876248155852800
Even the Charlotte crowd was chanting “MVP!” At the half: 66-55. In the third and fourth, things got even further out of hand. Well, no one could say this wasn’t a relaxing game to watch — and one with plenty of time for the second-teamers and even the third-stringers. Final score: 121-82. Whew. Seven in a row. On to Indianapolis on Saturday!
James Harden and P.J. Tucker were out for that game, so Melton, Maxey, Danuel House Jr., Joel and Tobias started. In the middle of the first quarter, a 14-2 run made it 18-12 Sixers, though Joel had yet to score. Close of the first: 34-24 as De’Anthony finished it with a slam. The Pacers made some progress in the second quarter, but there was a lot of playing time, again, for our subs. At the half: 72-61.
That’s about where the lead stayed through the third, with good work from Shake Milton and Melton, among others. Going into the fourth, we led 108-95; a last-minute three by the Pacers didn’t count because the buzzer had sounded. On to the fourth, when Joel came out for a breather and Paul Reed came in. The Sixers promptly went on an 11-0 run to stretch their lead to 117-97. Final: 141-121.
https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1637267389921230853
They finally return from their road trip and play the Bulls at home tonight at 7 p.m.
The Union tackled Montreal in an away game at 7:30 on Saturday, and it was a shitfest. Montreal scored right off the bat, and the Union trailed until Mikael Uhre scored a brace in the second half. The Union’s Julian Carranza got sent off for two yellow cards just minutes into that half, so our guys played the last 35-plus minutes a man down. Not surprisingly, Montreal scored again, and their coach got carded for protesting a review that reversed the goal, but there was another review, and the reversal was reversed: tie game. And then, with about 85 minutes of overage, Montreal put one last goal in. Phooey. Union lose, 3-2. We wuz robbed.
In the women’s NCAA tourney, Maddy Siegrist’s record-breaking 35-point performance paced fourth-seeded Villanova to a 76-59 win over 13-seed Cleveland State on Saturday; they’ll play 12-seed Florida Gulf Coast tonight. Was that Gritty at the game at ’Nova?
The @WSUCougarWBB band came prepped with their own @GrittyNHL heads. It him! pic.twitter.com/VW1nL6udsE
— Dan Gelston (@APgelston) March 18, 2023
In the World Baseball Classic, the USA played Venezuela Saturday night in the quarterfinals and went up early but couldn’t hold onto the lead; Venezuela was up 5-2 and then led 7-5 going into the eighth. That’s when Trea Turner (new Phillie!) hit a grand slam that made the final score 9-7. Woo-hoo! USA then faced Cuba on Sunday and crushed them, 14-2, to earn a berth in the final. Know what helped? Two Trea Turner homers, chipping in another four RBIs. What a team, what a team.
The Flyers also played.
All Philly Today Sports Desk coverage is provided by Sandy Hingston.
