Five recommendations from a slate of strong contenders for City Council at-large seats | Endorsement

This election cycle has featured a host of capable candidates vying for at-large seats on City Council. After the primary in May, the field was whittled down to nine remaining contenders who are competing for seven spots, out of which voters must select five.

The top two vote-getters among non-Democrats will claim the remaining two positions.

Out of the group of general election candidates, this board endorsed incumbents Isaiah Thomas and Katherine Gilmore Richardson and newcomer Nina Ahmad in the Democratic primary. They remain the best choices for voters.

Earlier this year, Thomas and Richardson led the effort to gradually reduce the city’s wage and business taxes, a move prioritized by the city’s diverse chambers of commerce and other pro-business groups as a necessary step to growing our local economy. Beyond their work on growing the tax base, both have also focused on ensuring fairness in the city — Thomas with his Driving Equality Bill, and Richardson with her focus on tangled titles and other quality-of-life improvements.

If elected, Ahmad would make history as the first South Asian City Council member. She is a pragmatic progressive and policy wonk who will take a data-driven approach to solving the city’s problems.

Another history maker in the wings, Democrat Rue Landau, has also secured this board’s endorsement.

Landau, who would be the first openly LGBTQ member of City Council, brings thoughtfulness on the issue of housing and development to the table. As a former attorney for Community Legal Services, she deeply understands the challenges faced by financially struggling Philadelphians.

Out of the Democratic slate, incumbent Jim Harrity is inspiring when he talks about the needs of the city’s young people, particularly in his own Kensington neighborhood, but he fell short as this board considered its five choices.

For that fifth spot, we endorse Republican Drew Murray.

Murray, a longtime civic leader in Center City and former chair of the Crosstown Coalition, has the right experience to give voice on Council to the city’s 115,000 Republicans. He’s spent his time in public service working alongside Democrats to achieve workable solutions for all Philadelphians.

Certainly, the GOP has moved far away from being the party of politicians like Tom Ridge, Arlen Specter, and Sam Katz. Especially on the national stage, too many of today’s Republicans are pictures of extremism, rarely addressing topics that affect people who don’t spend their day consuming Fox News.

The party’s local candidates, however, are focused on issues that matter to everyone. The city’s high crime rates and lack of economic opportunity dominated our conversation with Murray and his GOP running mate, Jim Hasher.

Neither man is an election denier, and both bring distinctive ideas to the table, like eliminating the city’s onerous transfer tax for first-time home buyers.

Beyond that, it is also important that the city’s at-large seats function the way they are designed: to grant seats to members of a minority political party so that Philadelphians of all political stripes have the opportunity to speak and make themselves heard as members of City Council.

Given Philadelphia’s heavily Democratic electorate — registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 7-1 — the progressive Working Families Party has billed itself as the city’s genuine minority party.

While the city could certainly use an alternative, the Working Families Party also operates in close alignment with the city’s traditional Democratic Party structure. At the Working Families’ recent convention in Philadelphia, for instance, elected Democrats dominated the speakers’ list.

Ideas proposed by Working Families candidates, like a wealth tax or the enactment of a form of rent stabilization, have also been endorsed by some of the city’s most influential Democrats, with the likes of Helen Gym, Amanda McIllmurray, and Erika Almirón throwing their support behind virtually the entirety of the Working Families platform.

Given how much time and energy the Working Families Party has expended to elect the Democratic nominees, does the party truly need to run their own?

For the party and its backers, the answer to that question centered around nudging the GOP out of the legislative branch of city government. (And in an overwhelmingly Democratic city like ours, “Republicans out, Working Families in” is certainly an effective slogan.)

For Working Families opponents, however, giving the party an at-large presence on City Council is essentially like electing more Democrats by any other name, and a violation of the spirit and intent of the City Charter’s call for minority party representation.

Philadelphia is a diverse city that deserves a collection of truly diverse voices to craft its laws. Nina Ahmad, Rue Landau, Drew Murray, Katherine Gilmore Richardson, and Isaiah Thomas have earned this board’s endorsement for at-large seats on City Council — and deserve voters’ support.