Fight of the Conquered

An odd brand of politics has Eighth District council challengers scrambling for their political lives.

by Doron Taussig

politics

In late August, the Daily News reported that the three challengers for Donna Reed Miller's Eighth District City Council seat were considering an arrangement. "Miller's three opponents ... are exploring the possibility of two stepping aside to allow for a one-on-one contest," the story said. It went on to explain that a single challenger would have a much better chance than three separate ones, who would split the anti-Miller vote.

As the election approaches, however, a complication has arisen: Each challenger, it seems, would still be amenable to backing a single candidate — so long as that candidate is him.

"I would make a case that I'm probably the strongest candidate," says the Rev. Jesse Brown, an independent candidate.

"I have the qualifications. ... I have greater insight into the community," counters Germantown business owner Jim Foster, another independent.

"I don't think the other two are offering the kind of change that I am," offers Brian Rudnick, a Green Party candidate from Chestnut Hill.

To political watchers, this song and dance is familiar — a sort of traditional "Eighth District Jig." Just a few months ago, when the incumbent Miller faced three opponents in the Democratic primary, there were rumors of the challengers joining forces. It didn't happen, and Miller won the nomination with 31.6 percent of the vote. In fact, over the course of her three terms, Miller has never faced fewer than two candidates, and never garnered a majority in a primary (the election that usually matters most in Philly).

This year's general election has been quiet thus far in the Eighth, with Miller, the press and apparently a good number of voters assuming the real action is behind us. But as Nov. 6 approaches and the incumbent nears the end of an electoral cycle in which she may very well face down six(!) opponents, a few questions come to mind:

• Why do so many people run against Donna Reed Miller?

• Why can't these challengers cohere into a single, meaningful opponent?

• What's going on in the Eighth?

Compared to some of the insanely gerrymandered council districts of Philadelphia, the Eighth can seem less than completely bonkers. Held together by the "spine" of Germantown Avenue, the district hasn't changed dramatically since Miller took office. But it's still confusing political territory.

The Eighth stretches through several distinct, and disparate, communities: from the beat-up row homes of Tioga, through the larger but sometimes dilapidated houses of Germantown, into the green streets of Mount Airy and all the way to the gray brick mansions of Chestnut Hill.

These communities, says Marc Stier, a Mount Airy activist who ran unsuccessfully for City Council at-large this past spring, "have very different expectations from their councilperson." Consequently, the district contains numerous political power bases, and numerous factions jockeying for control.

Donna Reed Miller came to power in 1995. A rare politician who prefers to stay out of the media spotlight, she had worked for years as a staffer to state Rep. David Richardson. According to an old City Paper column [News, "Political Notebook," Feb. 20, 2003], she "made the scene" with him during her first campaign, inherited his Germantown base and triumphed in a three-way primary. In the three elections since, she's run against candidates from numerous neighborhoods and political camps, including Marc DeBeary, the son of former Eighth District councilman Herbert DeBeary; Cindy Bass, a staffer for U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah; and, thrice, Germantown activist Greg Paulmier.

But the wealth of opposition Miller has faced can't be attributed solely to political diversity. To take on an incumbent, challengers need to actually want that incumbent replaced — and to believe they have a legitimate opportunity to replace her. In the Eighth, both conditions apply.

Miller's opponents claim that the councilwoman is good at taking care of her friends, such as the nonprofit Germantown Settlement, which she used to chair. Other than that, they think "the councilwoman's office is not there, it's basically out to lunch," says Rudnick. Brown alleges that Miller's "staff are rude and impolite." Foster regards the office as deeply corrupt.

In 2005, Miller's chief of staff, Steve Vaughn, pleaded guilty in a pay-to-play scandal, for skimming money from a property tax payment. (Miller claimed no knowledge of Vaughn's activities.)

Miller's opponents have also, historically, viewed the incumbent as eminently beatable. They look around their own neighborhoods, see their own bases and think they can compete. Then they look at Miller, who, again, has never garnered a majority in a primary and keeps sneaking by in multiple-candidate races, and, says Brown, "everybody sees an opportunity to move."

Predictably, Miller's people see things differently. Miller was unavailable to comment for this story, but Michael Quintero-Moore, her special assistant for public relations, acknowledges that the Eighth is a complicated place to serve.

"The old adage 'You can't be everything to everybody' [applies]," he says. Still, he adds, "I don't think [all the competition] is about the Eighth so much as [the challengers'] disdain for the councilwoman."

He points to accomplishments such as the funding of recreation centers and building improvements, and rejects the conventional wisdom that Miller would be a former councilwoman if she had to face a single opponent. "I highly doubt that's the case," he says.

It may be true that not all votes for someone other than Miller are anti-Miller votes. But it is also true that, in this year's primary, Paulmier's 4,999 votes would have easily put either Irv Ackelsberg (25.2 percent) or Cindy Bass (26.7 percent) over the top. Miller's victory wasn't decisive.

This isn't her problem, of course. If the various contenders in the Eighth all think unseating the incumbent is so important, shouldn't it be their responsibility to create a situation where that's possible? Why doesn't anyone ever bow out?

Some say the problem is simply Paulmier. The Germantown ward leader has run against Miller in three primaries, and some feel he should have gotten the voters' message after his second defeat. But Paulmier is just one of the candidates who has complicated matters. In the upcoming general, for instance, he won't be running, but Miller still faces three opponents.

The simple reality is that most politicians are, by nature, ambitious. Stepping aside goes against their instincts.

"It's hard, when you have a candidate who's put in the research, built a team, to say to that person, 'I don't think you should run,'" says Bass.

The candidates know this about themselves, and tend not to begrudge one another their right to run. Rudnick, for instance, says he doesn't "believe anyone should be in a position to make that decision."

"We don't have a good process to weed people out," agrees Brown.

And here, perhaps, is the salient point: In the Eighth, people have taken to blaming uncommon diversity, Paulmier or, in the case of one Chestnut Hill Local post-primary editorial, voter turnout for the district's unconvincing elections. But the real problem is the process.

As City Paper reported earlier this year, municipalities around the country are experimenting with more sophisticated forms of democracy [News, "Diminished Returns," Doron Taussig, Feb. 22, 2007]. The measure that would best address the Eighth's particular situation would be instant runoff voting, a system in which voters would indicate their first and second preferences, and a computer would eliminate candidates and hold runoffs until someone secures a majority. This past primary, Paulmier would have been eliminated first, and his second-place votes would have been split among the remaining candidates. Eventually, residents would have known which candidate most of them truly preferred. Instead, we have spectacles that make the whole process seem like a fraud.

Late last month, a district council candidate forum was held at the Germantown Presbyterian Church; there were only about 20 people in the audience, and Miller did not attend. The three challengers took turns lamenting the incumbent's absence, claiming that she should be taking the general election seriously, because the district hasn't truly selected her yet.

They may be right about this, and they may be wrong. Wouldn't it be nice to know for sure?

(doron@citypaper.net)