For good and for ill, resign-to-run keeps City Council ambition in check | Shackamaxon

In this week’s column, resign-to-run remains, Councilmember Cindy Bass tries her hand at redevelopment, and will Pennsylvania have a real governor’s race?

Fans of resign-to-run can rejoice — the City Charter provision is sticking around. At least for now. The rule, which prevents elected officials and municipal employees from running for public office without first quitting their current positions, is popular with voters. It can also lead to political stagnation.

The tenet is likely why the field for U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans’ seat has attracted three state legislators, but no members of City Council. State Sen. Sharif Street and State Reps. Chris Rabb and Morgan Cephas did not have to risk their current jobs to run.

Council has never liked the fact that their positions are treated differently from other public offices. They have twice asked the city’s voters to eliminate the provision, and twice they’ve been rejected. Another attempt to put the matter before voters as soon as the May primary was approved by Council earlier this year, only to be retracted by its sponsor, At-Large Councilmember Isaiah Thomas.

Under Thomas’ plan, members would still have to resign to run for mayor. Thomas also worked with the city’s ethics board to mitigate concerns about public employees acting in their personal interests. Still, he ended up repealing his own bill, citing concerns that voters may balk. The Committee of Seventy, Philadelphia’s longtime civic reform advocates, was opposed to the changes. Although its statement did not close the door to change entirely.

Instead, the good government group suggests an obvious compromise: In exchange for the right to run for higher office, Council members must agree to some restrictions, specifically, pairing the change with term limits. This would make repealing resign-to-run much more balanced. Back in 2020, then-Council President Darrell L. Clarke proposed a similar measure. If Council wants the right to compete for congressional seats or statewide positions, giving up the right to what, in practice, can amount to a lifetime appointment (10th District Councilmember Brian J. O’Neill is currently serving his 12th four-year term) should be part of the pitch.

While I understand why many Philadelphians firmly support resign-to-run, I do wonder if the restriction is partly to blame for our lack of local political imagination. A more ambitious City Council might discover an interest in swinging for the fences instead of the minutiae that often dominate hearings. Just look at Mr. Get-Stuff-Done himself, Josh Shapiro. There’s a reason I call him the Ambitious Abingtonian. As a state representative, Montgomery County commissioner, attorney general, and now governor, Shapiro’s name was often mentioned as a potential candidate for higher office. If any of these campaigns worsened his job performance, voters didn’t seem to notice, let alone care. As it stands, any ambitious Philadelphian is better off making the trek to Harrisburg than serving the city at Broad and Market.

Nothing encapsulates the minor-league thinking that dominates City Council more than their devotion to councilmanic prerogative. Recent examples abound.

The veto power over land-use decisions has been used by Quetcy Lozada to stymie workforce housing, Jeffery “Jay” Young to derail a library renovation and affordable senior housing, Kenyatta Johnson to cancel a street safety project, and Jamie Gauthier to eradicate market-rate development.

It is in Germantown, however, where the most visible monuments to the tradition exist.

Eighth District Councilmember Cindy Bass has used her power to block redevelopment plans for the former YWCA, the Ada Lewis School, dozens of rowhouses formerly controlled by Germantown Settlement, and Germantown Town Hall. The result is that many of the neighborhood’s most iconic buildings remain empty and unused, a magnet for crime instead of the civic assets they should be.

Bass claims to have found a way forward, at least when it comes to the former town hall. One of her preferred developers, Anthony Fullard, has plans to turn most of the property into a YouthBuild Charter School, aimed at older teens and young adults who have struggled in traditional classrooms. Bass, Fullard, and the development team are presenting the project as a win for the community. Neighbors, however, are more skeptical. Especially given Fullard’s daughter, Antoinene, currently works for Bass’ office. (According to Bass, the younger Fullard won’t be working on anything to do with this project.)

Worried neighbors have a point. Bass’ preference for hand-selecting developers she has preexisting relationships with has not served the neighborhood well in the past. KBK Enterprises, chosen by Bass to renovate the YWCA, has failed to make progress on that building for years.

In a less dysfunctional city, these decisions would not be made by any single person, let alone one who has repeatedly failed to get the ball in the strike zone. In Philadelphia, however, City Council seems content to let Bass call her own pitches, come what may.

Four years ago, Pennsylvania Republicans nominated Doug Mastriano for governor. A Gulf War veteran and state senator representing South-Central Pennsylvania, Mastriano is known for his obsession with chemtrails, bizarre social media posts, support for election denialism, and dressing up as a Confederate soldier for a faculty photo session.

When Mastriano lost to then-Attorney General Shapiro by nearly 800,000 votes, political strategists cited his extreme views and lack of fundraising as reasons for his defeat. To avoid a repeat, state GOP leaders cleared the field for Stacy Garrity, the state’s treasurer. The thinking was that Garrity’s two statewide election wins meant voters found her more palatable than the bombastic Mastriano.

So far, the idea has not panned out. A recent Susquehanna University Poll has Shapiro at 58%, while Garrity earns just 36%. That’s an even bigger spread than his win over Mastriano.

The race is also lopsided when it comes to money. Shapiro’s campaign announced that it has raised $10 million so far this year, adding to the $23 million it raised last year. Garrity, by comparison, raised just $1.5 million last year. She has yet to release this year’s sum.

All of this is great news for the Ambitious Abingtonian, who would surely love to boast of a big win in the country’s biggest swing state ahead of his expected 2028 run for the presidency. Still, I can’t help feeling that Garrity, despite her impressive win in the treasurer’s race, is simply not a genuine contender.

Beyond the anemic fundraising, she simply isn’t that much different from Mastriano. Sure, she may not have joined Mastriano on the bus convoy to Washington for the Jan. 6, 2021, riots, but she did go to a Jan. 5 pep rally at the state Capitol.

Even as President Donald Trump’s approval ratings tumble into the low 30s, she’s tied herself ever closer to his administration. Pennsylvania Republicans have held the governor’s office for just one term this century. Until they prove willing to embrace consensus-building candidates instead of partisan culture warriors, this trend is likely to continue.