City Councilmember Cindy Bass clinging to razor-thin lead against progressive challenger

Philadelphia City Councilmember Cindy Bass declared victory Wednesday evening against Democratic primary challenger Seth Anderson-Oberman, while holding a lead of about 300 votes in the close race.

The Associated Press had not yet called the race, but Bass had maintained her narrow lead throughout the day Wednesday.

“This was a hard-fought race, but I am pleased to have won the Democratic primary for City Council in the 8th District,” she said in a statement to The Inquirer around 6 p.m. Wednesday. “We need to be diligent about ensuring that every last vote is counted, but based on our analysis of the divisions remaining we are confident in the outcome.”

Bass, 55, ran on her experience leading parts of North and Northwest Philadelphia as she faced one of the few competitive reelection campaigns among City Council’s 10 district-based members. Anderson-Oberman, 52, ran on a progressive platform, attacking Bass as an ineffective leader whose tenure had been tarnished by poor leadership decisions, failed redevelopment plans, and political cronyism.

With 185 of 187 divisions reporting as of Wednesday evening, Bass ran strong in the Germantown and North Philadelphia sections of her 8th District, while Anderson-Oberman outperformed her in Chestnut Hill and Mount Airy.

At one point Tuesday evening, Bass had a sizable lead, but the race tightened around midnight as a large number of votes for Anderson-Oberman were added to the total.

The Democratic City Committee had endorsed Bass, but it let the 69 wards make their own requests for sample ballots this cycle. In Chestnut Hill’s 9th Ward, for example, Anderson-Oberman, not Bass, was the endorsed candidate on the “Official 9th Ward Democratic Ballot.”

Still, the Bass campaign felt confident, her campaign manager said. The unreported divisions as of Wednesday afternoon were in North Philly east of Broad Street. Based on the voting trends so far, that appears to be an area of the district that strongly supported Bass.

“I can’t thank my supporters enough for their tireless commitment to our campaign. As we have said all along, we still have more work to do and I look forward to getting back to it!” Bass said in her statement.

Anderson-Oberman, a union organizer, had said earlier Wednesday that his campaign was still waiting on the final results and thanked his supporters for making such a close race possible.

The race, for many voters, was seen as a referendum on gentrification and development. The diverse district — which stretches from wealthy and largely white Chestnut Hill, to the more mixed-race and progressive Mount Airy, to the working-class, majority-Black enclaves of Germantown and North Philly — has seen a surge of development interest in recent years.

At precincts around the district, Anderson-Oberman’s supporters said they believed their candidate would help maintain affordability in rapidly changing neighborhoods.

Jeffrey Hall, a 73-year-old retired electrical technician who’s working toward a master’s degree in criminal justice, said Tuesday that he voted for Anderson-Oberman because he believed Bass had become too close to developers.

“Look at our neighborhood — all the apartment buildings going up. [Bass] has changed our neighborhood for the worse,” he said.

Marie-Monique Marthol, 54, a health educator who lives in Germantown and volunteered for Anderson-Oberman’s campaign, said she’d chosen to support him in part because she believed Bass was making land-use decisions in her district without community input.

“Gentrification in this neighborhood is unconscionable,” Marthol said. “A feeding frenzy has happened under the current administration.”

But Bass leaned into her experience, arguing that with a new mayor about to take office and high turnover on Council, now was not the time to gamble on a progressive who may not have the know-how to deliver on lofty policy ideas.

Bass had the backing of party leaders, Philly’s largest municipal union, and SEPTA’s largest labor union. She canceled her own election night event and attended the party for former Councilmember Cherelle Parker, who won the Democratic primary for mayor.

Late Tuesday afternoon, voters were coming in at a steady pace at the Daniel E. Rumph recreation center in Germantown. Mark Demby, an engineer at the water department, said he’d voted for Bass, whom he knows personally. He cited her community work, saying she’s spearheaded job training, housing placements for unhoused people in the neighborhood, and food drives.

Chioma Azi, 40, a lawyer, voted for Bass as well. She said she’d seen ads implying that Anderson-Oberman “didn’t know much about the neighborhood.” While Azi had heard criticisms about Bass and her approach to development, she still felt Bass had a better grasp on the district.

Those perceptions aligned with Bass’ depiction of Anderson-Oberman as an outsider — despite the fact that he was born in Germantown.

The Democratic nominee will run unopposed in the general election, barring a long-shot write-in or third-party campaign.

Staff writers Aubrey Whelan and Chris Brennan contributed to this article.