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Bankrupt Chester’s beleaguered mayor is overwhelmingly defeated

Thaddeus Kirkland said the state receiver's actions "had a lot to do" with his defeat. He has accused the receiver of meddling in city politics.

Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland (left) and Councilmember Stafan Roots (right), rivals in the Chester Democratic mayoralty primary, are in accord at a council meeting last month honoring a group of Chester young people. Roots defeated Kirkland by nearly a 3-1 ratio in the pirmary.
Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland (left) and Councilmember Stafan Roots (right), rivals in the Chester Democratic mayoralty primary, are in accord at a council meeting last month honoring a group of Chester young people. Roots defeated Kirkland by nearly a 3-1 ratio in the pirmary.Read moreAnthony R. Wood/Staff photo
    by Anthony R. Wood
    Updated 
    Published 

Democrats in bankrupt Chester, which state officials had warned might cease to exist by year’s end, have voted overwhelmingly to oust incumbent Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland and two of his political allies on the four-member City Council.

In unofficial results from the primary balloting, first-term Council member Stefan Roots polled 61% of the votes compared with 22% for Kirkland. City zoning board member Pat Worrell finished third with 17%.

In effect, the primary was the mayoral election: No Republican was on the ballot.

Roots, 62, author of the popular “Chester Matters” blog and the city’s director of parks and recreation, said Wednesday it was his intent “to turn the city around. Some problems need to be fixed … some relationships need to be mended … some money needs to be found.”

» READ MORE: Chester's bankruptcy was 70 years in the making.

Pennsylvania’s oldest town is deep into a rare bankruptcy proceeding initiated by Michael Doweary, the receiver whom the state appointed to help Chester emerge from a fiscal crisis that was decades in the making as its powerful industrial base unraveled.

He warned that “disincorporation,” in which the city would lose its government and even its boundaries, was a real threat if its money woes, driven by years of missed pension payments, weren’t resolved by year’s end.

» READ MORE: The threat of 'disincorporation' is 'very real,' the state receiver said

Kirkland, who dismissed the threat as a scare tactic, said Wednesday that the receiver’s actions “had a lot to do” with his defeat. He accused Doweary’s office of meddling in city politics. “I expressed that to the governor’s office,” he said, and to the Department of Community and Economic Development, to whom Doweary reports.

Doweary and Kirkland’s opponents insisted the disincorporation threat was real. Roots said he will continue to work with the receiver’s office, but that now, “I will have a front seat in that relationship.” He said his first mission was to appoint a transition team to prepare for taking office in January.

While about 30% more Democrats voted this time around than in 2015, the city’s last contested primary, Kirkland — who was backed by the city party organization — said he was disappointed in Tuesday’s turnout. “I thought more people would show up,” he said, “but they didn’t.”

» READ MORE: Mayoral primary occurred against a background of 'high drama'

Kirkland, 68, a two-term mayor and 12-term member of the state House, said he plans to spend more time with his family and likely won’t run for office again.

Political life, he said, has become “different, brutal, more personal.”