The Brief
The Brief: Ed Rendell Endorses Candidate for … Council?
1. Ed Rendell Throws His Weight Behind Council Contender Paul Steinke The Gist: Former Gov. and Mayor Ed Rendell is backing Democrat Paul Steinke, a past general manager […]
The Brief: Finally, A Real Debate About Education Funding
1. The Nutter Administration Launches Second Strike Against Candidates’ School Plans The Gist: The Philadelphia School District says it needs an additional $103 million from the city this […]
The Brief: Lynne Abraham’s Racially Loaded Remarks From 25 Years Ago Are Back in the News
1. An Old Philly Mag Quote Comes Back to Haunt Lynne Abraham The Gist: Al Dia went into the archives and unearthed a politically problematic […]
The Brief: How Some Charter Schools Keep Out the Riff-Raff
1. How Some Charter Schools Keep Out the Riff-Raff The Gist: This is an important, well-reported story from WHYY’s Kevin McCorry, that’s not easily condensed […]
The Brief: $1 Million Reasons Why Tony Williams’ Star Is About to Rise
1. Pro-Williams super PAC ups ad buy to a cool $1 million. The gist: Dave Davies reports for Newsworks that the American Cities Super PAC—that’s the […]
Lynne Abraham Says “I’m Just Going to Charge and Surge”
Thursday was a little weird for Lynne Abraham. On the one hand, she released an internal poll that claims she has a big lead in the mayoral […]
The Brief: Philly’s GOP Representation in Harrisburg Doubled Overnight, as Martina White Wins Special Election
Republican elected officials are all but extinct in Philadelphia. True, you have State Rep. John Taylor and 10th District Councilman Brian O’Neill, but, until yesterday, […]
The Brief: Can Jim Kenney Unite Old & New Philadelphia?
One of the many intriguing questions raised by Liz Spikol’s terrific new profile of mayoral candidate Jim Kenney is this: Can Philadelphia’s labor movement and Center City progressives […]
The Brief: Dems Ditch Council Candidate with Crazy Facebook Page
It seems even Philadelphia’s Democratic City Committee has its limits. Manny Morales, who is challenging 7th district City Council incumbent, Maria Quiñones Sánchez no longer has […]
The Brief: Why Have City Dems Endorsed a Council Candidate Whose Facebook Page Compared Gay Men to Flatworms?
María Quiñones-Sánchez is one of the more consequential members of Philadelphia’s City Council. She was the driving force behind the new land bank. She’s gotten […]
The Brief: At Last, Real Substance in the Philadelphia Mayor’s Race
We’ve been thumping the mayoral candidates pretty hard over the lack of substance—and by that we mean fresh new ideas, policy proposals, general command of […]
The Brief: Stop Waiting For Superman, the Mayoral Field Is Final
The mayoral table-setting is almost over. Nominating petitions—that first, formal hurdle candidates must clear—were due yesterday. And now the field has jelled. The deadline proved too […]
The Brief: Why Aren’t the Mayoral Candidates on TV?
By March 9, 2007, Philadelphians were already growing tired of seeing Tom Knox’s mug on television. They’d heard about Dwight Evans, and his metaphorical table, […]
The Brief: Mayor Nutter’s Last Tax Hike Is a Whopper
When Michael Nutter was sworn-in, waaaay back in 2008, the assumption in Philadelphia’s tax-cutting crowd was that one of their own was in the mayor’s office. After […]
The Brief: Wolf Primed to Blow the House (and Senate) Down?
All eyes on Tom Wolf. At 11:30 a.m. this morning, Pennsylvania’s new Governor will propose a budget—really a governing agenda—that is expected to be more […]