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📺 What we’re watching for in tonight’s debate

The candidates have not directly interacted with one another much on the trail. Tonight, that’ll change.

Dana Bash and Wolf Blitzer here. Welcome to debate night in Philadelphia. *cue dramatic music*

OK, OK, it’s Anna Orso and Sean Collins Walsh. Sorry to disappoint. But it is actually debate night, when we’ll all get a chance to see seven candidates running for mayor duke it out on stage and tell us why they deserve to run this city.

In today’s newsletter, we’ll talk about what we’re watching for in tonight’s debate and how big money is driving the mayor’s race. Plus, we have an actual celebrity appearance.

Just 35 days 🗓 left until Election Day. Get the information you need about every candidate here.

Let’s get into it.

— Anna Orso and Sean Collins Walsh

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What we’re watching for in tonight’s debate

Seven of the top Democrats will meet tonight for what is so far the only major televised debate of the campaign. Sure, these candidates have shared quite a few stages on the trail, but they haven’t directly interacted with one another in most of the forums.

Tonight, that’ll change. The 90-minute debate at Temple University will be televised on Fox29. The candidates are: Amen Brown, Jeff Brown, Allan Domb, Derek Green, Helen Gym, Cherelle Parker, and Rebecca Rhynhart. (No Maria Quiñones Sánchez, who suspended her campaign over the weekend.)

Here are a few things we’re watching for:

  1. Who takes the heat? It’s easy to tell during debates who everyone thinks the front-runner is, because that’s who gets attacked. But there isn’t a clear leader in this race, and there’s been no public, independent polling. So we’ll see if one person has to defend from all sides, or if it becomes a slugfest during which multiple top contenders take heat from opponents.

  2. What goes down with Jeff Brown? The ShopRite proprietor got off to a fast start in this campaign by running the airwaves and pitching himself as someone who could appeal to both business interests and underserved neighborhoods. But he’s taken heat for making tone-deaf comments and is now being accused of illegally coordinating with a super PAC. We’ll be watching to see how the only candidate who’s never held office handles his first big debate.

  3. Do Rhynhart or Domb break through? There have been some indications that Domb and Rhynhart have some momentum, but a debate stage could be tough for both of them. Rivals like Parker and Gym are known to have a very strong stage presence. We’ll be watching to see who’s able to grab viewers’ attention.

💥 And here’s the key question: Does this debate actually matter? Candidates don’t tend to win races by performing well in a debate. But they can lose them by slipping up or failing to respond well to an attack.

We’ll be covering tonight’s debate live, and we’ll run through the highlights for you tomorrow. Here’s more on the ways you can watch.

Spotlight on: Climate change and fossil-fuel reliance

“Philadelphia has a terrible track record of allowing environmental hazards to go unabated. It’s had lead in the drinking water. Chemical plants in the surrounding areas routinely dump hazardous waste in the water sources. Everybody’s focused on Detroit, but Philadelphia is right up there with with Detroit.”

That was Jane Fonda talking about why she’s getting involved in the Philly mayor’s race. Yeah, that Jane Fonda. These days, the longtime actor and activist is running a PAC, and she’s supporting candidates who vow to move away from fossil-fuel reliance.

Gotta say: When we heard Fonda was endorsing Helen Gym for mayor and making a max donation to the campaign, we wondered what Hollywood wanted with Philly. So we chatted with Fonda last week about why she’s involved.

Check out excerpts of our convo that ranged from public utilities, to the intersection of climate and crime, to why she can’t forget the Philly teens she met years ago.

The 91st mayor of Philadelphia: Richardson Dilworth

What do the city’s subway system and Independence Mall have in common? Both started while Richardson Dilworth led the city from 1956 to 1962.

Dilworth fought against corruption and for public housing. He oversaw the creation of Independence Mall and a public park system, historic protections in Society Hill, and the launch of a public-transit system. He was a big Dil. Sorry.

A liberal reformer who grew up a Republican, Dilworth became a Democrat because of frustrations with the city’s Republican machine. Here are some other things to know:

  1. He and his wife, Ann Dilworth, were passengers on the SS Andrea Doria, which collided with another ship and sunk near Nantucket in July 1956. Unlike the tragic loss of life on the Titanic, 1,660 of the 1,706 passengers and crew were rescued, including the Dilworths.

  2. He was a supporter of civil rights who fought segregation in the city’s private schools.

  3. Dilworth was a partner at Dilworth Paxson LLP, which still bears his name. Dilworth Park at City Hall is also named in his honor.

— Julia Terruso

Data Dive: Big money and the mayor’s race

🎤 This week, we’re going to once again pass the mic to our colleague Aseem Shukla, a journalist with our data-driven storytelling team, to talk about his latest work:

Last week we got a lot of juicy data that shed some important light on the state of the mayor’s race — or at least on the race for money. And money, of course, makes campaigns run. More than $22 million has been raised so far 🔑 between the campaigns and the super PACs supporting specific candidates, and $17 million has already been spent.

Here’s more of what we found:

  1. Big money rules this race. 🔑 Most of the funds raised came from donors giving more than $1,000, and deep-pocketed candidates. Allan Domb has injected $7 million into his own campaign.

  2. No candidate got most of their money from small donors, and for some candidates, super PACs have been doing most of the ad spending in their favor.

  3. About half of the money in the race comes from outside Philly.

  4. Some of the super PAC money is pretty hard to trace. 🔑

What we’re reading

  1. Derek Green spent a career doing his homework. Can a mild-mannered moderate break through?

  2. Her son was killed, then she saw the crime scene in a campaign ad for Allan Domb. This mom wants to know: “Where’s the sensitivity?”

  3. Cherelle Parker is proud of her roots. As mayor, can she preserve Philly’s middle class?

Answering your question about ‘defund the police’

Francis, one of our 100th Mayor newsletter readers, recently asked us this question: “Who are the candidates now running who voted to defund the police?”

The short answer is, none of them.

The longer answer: In 2020, City Council voted to cancel a proposed $19 million increase in police funding. They also moved the crossing-guard program to another department. This was considered to be a “flat-funding” of the department. Gym, Domb, Green, and Parker voted for that plan.

Here’s what each of the candidates have said about whether the $800 million police budget should change.

📮 Have a question about the mayor’s race? Let us know, and you may see an answer in an upcoming newsletter. Email us here.

Campaign events this week

Besides tonight’s debate, there are a couple other events this week:

  1. Wednesday forum in Center City: The Crosstown Coalition is hosting an event focused on gun violence, which will be moderated by our colleague, Chris Brennan.

  2. Thursday forum in Northwest Philly: Philadelphia’s leading Black media outlets will host an event at Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church.

  3. Friday forum in Germantown: Antiviolence advocates Bilal Qayyum and pastor Carl Day are hosting a candidates forum for Black men.

  4. Sunday forum in West Philly: POWER Interfaith is hosting a forum focused on faith and safety at 38th and Market.

🧠 Trivia time 🧠

Question: Allan Domb has put $7 million of his own money into his campaign. That’s a lot — but not quite a record. How much money did millionaire Tom Knox sink into his 2007 campaign, only to come in second place?

A) $7.5 million

B) $9 million

C) $11 million

D) $15 million

Find out if you know the answer. 🔑

Scenes from the campaign trail

Rebecca Rhynhart spent part of her weekend knocking on voters’ doors, and along the way, she met Fishtown resident Wendy Faust and her cat. Wendy said she’s leaning Rhynhart. Tiger Lily is undecided.

Thanks for hanging with us. We’ll be back in your inbox next week.

— Anna Orso and Sean Collins Walsh