Cherelle Parker is the third Philly mayoral candidate to air TV ads

Mayoral candidate Cherelle Parker is touting her Philly roots and efforts to crack down on crime in a pair of new television advertisements that started airing Thursday.

Parker, a former City Council member, is the third candidate in the crowded field of Democratic mayoral contenders to buy time on TV, following grocer Jeff Brown and former Councilmember Allan Domb, two wealthy businessmen who donated large sums to their own campaigns last year.

Don’t be surprised if you don’t catch Parker’s ads in the near future. Her initial ad buy amounts to only a fraction of the airtime Domb and Brown have secured: about $5.5 million altogether, counting both campaigns and an outside spending group backing Brown.

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Parker’s campaign purchased $57,000 worth of ads, barely enough to make an impact in Philadelphia’s expensive media market, and says it is targeting key demographics for the initial launch on TV.

“Food stamps helped put dinner on the table,” Parker says in the ads, recounting her childhood in West Oak Lane. “Education put opportunity in my life: Philly public schools, an historically Black college, grad school at Penn. Family and community lifted me up.”

Parker, a former Council majority leader, goes on to say she’s running for mayor “to end this sense of lawlessness,” “rebuild our schools,” and “make Philly more affordable.”

Parker’s TV buy comes about two months before the May 16 primary, which is all but guaranteed to decide the election thanks to Philadelphia’s overwhelmingly Democratic electorate.

Candidates typically try to stay on the airwaves through Election Day once they begin their advertising push. Parker’s move marks the beginning of the final phase of the race, in which the candidates who couldn’t afford to self-fund their campaigns will transition from seeking endorsements and raising money to appealing directly to voters.

In other words: Brace yourself for an onslaught of political ads on TV, canvassers knocking on your door, and fliers stuffing your mailbox.

Domb also released a new TV ad this week highlighting his focus on public safety following a spate of shootings last weekend.

“Allan Domb has had enough, and he has a detailed plan to fight back,” a narrator says in the ad.

Parker’s new ads follow a pair of high-profile labor union endorsements she gained in the last two weeks, from the Philadelphia Building Trades Council and Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ.

Those unions have in the past spent big on outside spending campaigns, or “super PACs,” to boost their preferred candidates, and it’s likely they will launch their own TV ads to boost Parker or attack her opponents as the election draws nearer.

Parker this week was also endorsed by the Philadelphia chapter of the National Organization for Women.

She is one of four women running for mayor this year, alongside former Councilmembers Maria Quiñones Sánchez and Helen Gym, and former City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart. Philadelphia has never elected a female mayor.