Tag: Republican City Committee

Pennsylvania: a review of racial politics displayed in Rendell and Swann battle of 2006

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For those most interested in the seeming hesitance for black voters, particularly, to resist voting for the Republican Party, one of the most interesting thoughts is if a black candidate outside the Democratic Party ran. I was asked one question after my TURF presentation and defense of this thesis project and that was just it.

Do you think a black Republican candidate could sway black voters towards the GOP?

“No,” I said.

I have written on the dilemma of black hesitance to go Republican here before. It is a lot trickier than we often think.

Philadelphia has never seen a black candidate run for a citywide office without the “D” after his name, so I answered the question using the most recent, most local example.

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Interview: Sam Katz, a three-time Republican mayoral candidate

This afternoon I was privileged enough to speak with Sam Katz, one of the most successful Republican politicians in Philadelphia in the last half century. Nothing speaks more to the party’s struggles here than the truth of that statement and the realization that Katz has never won a major public office.

It also is important to say that Katz spent much of his life as a registered Democrat and registered as an Independent in May 2007, to retain the possibility of running outside the two-party structure. In the end, he found Michael Nutter a palatable enough candidate to not run at all.

Still, in 1991, 1999 and 2003, he was considered a respectable Republican contender in a city that rarely considers the non-Democrat at all, set aside considering them somewhat palatable. But, Katz grabbed a handful of meaningful endorsements, including former Democratic mayoral candidates Happy Fernandez and John White Jr. in 1999 and former Street confidant Carl Singley in 2003.

There were two topics I wanted most to address with Katz, his general thoughts on the reality of a two-party system in Philadelphia and if nonpartisan elections could add a more competitive element to city-wide elections.

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Interview: Michael Meehan, Republican City Committee general counsel

This afternoon I got the chance to slide into a seat in the office of Michael Meehan. He’s still unpacking.

The general counsel of Philadelphia’s Republican City Committee left the Philadelphia offices of Reed Smith for Wolf Block back in January 2006, as reported by the Legal Intelligencer.

This was perhaps the interview to which I most looked forward.

So many of many of the other people to whom I’ve spoken have pointed to Meehan for answers as to why the city’s Republican Party continues to shrivel and die. He has big shoes to fill.

His grandfather, Austin Meehan, first took control of the city’s powerful Republican machine in the first half of the 20th-century. Meehan first brought about the city’s Republican Northeast focus, beating out other Republican machinists, guys like the Vere Brothers in South Philadelphia and the Hawthorne brothers in Roxborough, as I discussed after my interview with former Committee of Seventy CEO Fred Voigt.

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Interview: Joe Egan, Republican mayoral candidate

Apparently I had an interview with former Republican mayoral candidate Joseph M. Egan, Jr., but I didn’t remember.

Joe Egan

I got a voice mail from Egan, who seemed agitated, and understandably so. I called him back and sent him an e-mail, but no answer, yet. For that, I apologize. I was interested in speaking to him.

In 1991, Egan lost handily to now Governor Ed Rendell, nearly 282,000 to 130,000.

To be honest, missing the interview was just the start of my confusion. See, I simply couldn’t get straight Joe Egan from John Egan, who lost W. Wilson Goode in the 1983 election, losing 396,000 to 264,000.

Now, Joe Egan has lots to differentiate himself, he uses his middle initial and tacks on the “junior” moniker. What’s more, unlike the other Egan, Joe came to be the 1991 Republican candidate by the most unusual circumstances.

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What patronage means

State Rep. JOHN PERZEL is an integral figure to understanding Philadelphia’s Republican Party.

He is a power player in the city’s politics, even if he does his work in Harrisburg. Perzel still works with the Republican City Committee and its general counsel and de facto leader, Michael Meehan.

One doesn’t need Meehan’s permission to run, of course. But this state’s elections, like those in much of the country, expect it. The blessing of the Republican committee comes with the promise of making the ballot and much less competition than in the Democratic Party. In the small pond of the Republican Party, Meehan holds influence to divvy available jobs, which keeps some Philadelphians registered with the party. Thus, in deciding that the party will support a particular candidate, ward leaders and committeemen rarely deviate from Meehan’s choices.

This is machine politics in historic viability.

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