The six kinds of Philly Democrats | Morning Newsletter
And the suspect in the murder of the Temple officer made bomb threats at a high school.
The Morning Newsletter
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Showers are likely today. It’s also looking like a breezy day with temperatures hitting the high 50s.
In case you didn’t know, today is the launch of our weekly pop-up newsletter for the Philadelphia mayor’s race. It’ll feature news, analysis, and explainers of the high-stakes election. Sign up here to subscribe to The 100th Mayor, written by Anna Orso and Sean Collins Walsh.
Philadelphia is a blue city. The candidate who wins the crowded Democratic primary in May is likely to become mayor. But becoming the Democratic nominee means candidates need to build coalitions and attract voters across different communities.
Philly Democrats vote overwhelming along racial, economic, and geographic lines.
The Inquirer examined the results of the last eight primary elections, revealing the six distinct groups of Philly Democrats and how they vote. 🔑
If you see this 🔑 in today’s newsletter, that means we’re highlighting our exclusive journalism. You need to be a subscriber to read these stories.
— Taylor Allen (@TayImanAllen, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
🎤 And now I’m handing over the mic to politics and data reporter Aseem Shukla, who worked on the analysis with fellow reporter Julia Terruso:
With a crowded mayoral primary coming up, we wanted to see if we could help readers understand who each candidate would have to appeal to in order to win. That gave us the idea to categorize Philly’s neighborhoods by how they vote in primaries. We had a hunch that neighborhoods would vote for similar candidates based on their common interests.
We had a lot of work to do in compiling past election results and shoehorning past results into present precinct boundaries. When we finally had that, we handed the results over to a clustering algorithm.
The results staggered us. Even though the algorithm wasn’t told anything about race or class, it found those patterns anyway.
That was a remarkable result, especially considering how monolithically Philly supports Democrats. But which kinds of Democrats different communities support break down on demographic lines.
Because that finding is so stark, we plan to use these groups in a lot of our coverage of the mayoral race, particularly when we’re discussing who candidates have to appeal to. 🔑
Miles Pfeffer, 18, is charged with murdering a Temple University police officer Saturday night.
Around this time last year, the teenager was arrested for sending anonymous threats to a Bucks County high school, according to three law enforcement sources.
He was one of three students who used an online reporting tool to alert Central Bucks South High School in Warrington that a homemade pipe bomb was going to detonate in a bathroom. A second report alleged that a student planned to bring a gun to school.
The threats forced students to shelter in place before they were sent home for the day. A sweep of the building found neither weapons nor explosive devices.
Pfeffer was sentenced in juvenile court to one month’s probation for the threats.
Keep reading for the latest news and updates as our Inquirer reporters piece together the tragic Saturday evening.
What you should know today
In the wake of the Tyre Nichols killing, Memphis will consider a version of Philly’s driving equality law that bans minor traffic stops.
Philly roller skaters and skateboarders came together at Paine’s Park to support each other and honor Tyre Nichols, an avid skater.
The Roots Picnic will return in June with headlining sets by Diddy with The Roots, Lauryn Hill, and Lil Uzi Vert.
It didn’t take long for Matisse Thybulle’s mural tag on the side of Garage Fishtown to be defaced.
At 18, Steven Leslie is Philly’s best teen bowler.
Chicken liver mousse just might be 2023′s culinary sleeper hit on Philly’s restaurant menus. 🔑
🧠 Trivia time 🧠
A nearly century-old Gulf gas station done up in Spanish terracotta trappings at 20th and Arch will be relocated.
Where is it going?
A. Fairmount Park
B. Aviator Park on the Ben Franklin Parkway
C. FDR Park
D. None of the above
Find out if you know the answer.
What we’re...
👀 Watching: The Supreme Court heard the oral arguments in Gonzalez v. Google, a lawsuit that argues tech companies should be legally liable for harmful content their algorithms promote.
🎧 Appreciating: The legendary sports radio personality Angelo Cataldi in light of his retirement as the lead host of WIP-FM’s Morning Show.
🏙️ Perusing: The Philly region’s most obscure and bizarre mascots. The Please Touch Museum’s Squiggles might be my favorite.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram 🧩
Hint: A Philly award-winning mosaic mural artist
ASHIA GRAZIA
We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Send us your own original anagram to unscramble if you’d like. Cheers to Shari Hughes, who correctly guessed Monday’s answer: John Middleton. Email us if you know the answer.
📷 Photo from our archives 📷
And that’s it from me. I’m beginning my day catching up on The Last of Us 🍿. Thank you for starting yours with the Inquirer.