Philly is at a crossroads. Rebecca Rhynhart can best lead the way forward. | Endorsement

A lot has happened in the mayor’s race since this board’s endorsement in early April. The Tuesday primary has become the most expensive election in Philadelphia history, an unprecedented number of community forums have tested and honed the candidates’ message, and two well-regarded and highly qualified contenders left the field.

Our recommendation remains the same: Rebecca Rhynhart is the best choice to lead.

Considering that less than 10% of the $31 million already spent on this race has been used to promote the former city controller’s candidacy, Rhynhart’s first-place position in the Committee of Seventy’s independent poll — in both first preference and ranked choice results — is remarkable. It’s a testament to the strength of her ideas and policy proposals.

It also shows that while money is important in running a winning campaign, it isn’t everything.

Allan Domb, who has poured more than $10 million of his own money into the race, does not seem to be changing enough hearts and minds in his favor. Meanwhile, money is the source of many of Jeff Brown’s problems.

Before running for mayor, Brown had a good reputation as a businessman who had succeeded in establishing grocery stores in food deserts and reintegrating the formerly incarcerated into lawful society and stable employment. Today, many people spend more time thinking about how many of his generous acts end up benefiting himself.

Brown has also run afoul of the city’s Ethics Board. While most outside PACs — which allow for unlimited contributions and anonymous donors — were formed this spring, the once and former front-runner was allegedly busy raising funds for his PAC last summer, leading to a charge of illegal coordination. Too often, allegations of campaign financing violations don’t emerge until voters have already cast their ballots. The Ethics Board should be commended for acting swiftly.

» READ MORE: Philly’s onerous tax system is a job killer. Here’s what the mayoral candidates say they’ll do about it. | Editorial

Helen Gym and Cherelle Parker have also benefited from big spending by outside groups. Progressive organizations and teachers’ unions have placed nearly $1 million behind Gym, while the building trades unions have already put over $1 million behind Parker.

That’s not the only big outside support these candidates have. Gym has lined up national politicians and celebrities behind her campaign. Parker has the backing of local elected officials, including Mayor Jim Kenney’s vote, if not his endorsement.

Since the supposedly Madrid-bound Kenney, Parker’s fellow politicians, most members of the building trades, and Jane Fonda and Mark Ruffalo won’t have to spend the next four years living as an ordinary resident in Philadelphia, voters should value their opinions accordingly.

In an election where public safety is the top concern for residents, Rhynhart is the only candidate who has offered the balanced, empathetic, pragmatic approach the city needs to reduce violence.

While Parker has promised to ramp up stop-and-frisk, or at least what she calls “constitutional stop-and-frisk,” Rhynhart has been steadfast in her refusal to double down on a policy that she calls “racist and unconstitutional” and which disproportionately impacts people of color.

Like Gym, Rhynhart wants to invest in neighborhoods that have been left behind. Her work as city controller demonstrated clear inequities in service provision by neighborhood and linked gun violence to redlining. Making disinvested neighborhoods whole is the right thing to do, and over time will reduce gun violence in the city. But Philadelphia also needs solutions that will work now. Rhynhart has offered them.

Unlike Gym, who has been endorsed by prison abolitionist groups, Rhynhart is more willing to talk about law enforcement’s role in preventing crime. Specifically, she wants to emulate cities that have successfully reduced homicides. That means intervening with the small number of young men and teenage boys most likely to shoot or be shot. As Maria Quiñones Sánchez has said, we already know who they are. These young people would then be offered a path out, not just a job, but therapy and other assistance as well.

» READ MORE: In their plans to reduce crime, a window into the mayoral candidates’ views on public safety | Editorial

Rhynhart’s balanced approach, offering both compassion and accountability, is what the city needs. Even Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw, in response to Rhynhart’s damning 85-page review of her department, called the controller’s work “thorough.”

Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 president John McNesby was less impressed. That’s another point in Rhynhart’s favor. The FOP’s consistent advocacy for people who do not belong in law enforcement helps drive gun violence by removing accountability and disrupting community relations.

Rhynhart also has made better calls on education. Parker, despite her own classroom experience, has not crafted a quality education plan. While this board recognizes her track record of wrangling funds from Harrisburg, Parker’s proposal for mandatory year-round schooling lacks the necessary specifics, including a cost estimate.

Considering the School District’s multibillion-dollar maintenance backlog and lack of air-conditioned buildings, it makes little sense to get more funding only to spend it on new unproven programs. This proposal seems more like a plan to keep kids inside and out of the way. Detaining all the city’s children isn’t the right approach to public safety or education.

Gym has made education a centerpiece of her campaign, leaning into her experience teaching for nearly five years at Lowell Elementary. Throughout her career as an activist and elected official, Gym has often found herself standing with Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president Jerry Jordan and other education advocates, seeking funding to improve school facilities and restore needed support staff such as nurses and counselors. Yet when asked for details on how to pay for her $10 billion plan to modernize facilities, Gym and her campaign stumbled.

» READ MORE: Mayoral candidates need real plans to fix the city’s troubled schools | Editorial

Once again, Rhynhart brings a balanced approach. Like all the leading candidates, Rhynhart wants to modernize Philadelphia’s schools and will seek as much funding from state and federal partners as possible. She identifies education as the city’s second most important issue, after public safety. Unlike Gym, however, Rhynhart has shown her work and been transparent about how she intends to keep her promises.

Rhynhart may not be as dynamic an orator as the other leading women in this race, but she will have no trouble putting her ideas to work.

From the first day she entered electoral politics, with a challenge against Democratic Party stalwart Alan Butkovitz in 2017, Rhynhart has been unafraid to take on all comers. As controller, she audited the Philadelphia Parking Authority, the Police Department, and even councilmember-aligned groups like the Germantown Special Services District. These audits may not have won her any powerful political allies, but they uncovered the type of waste, fraud, and self-dealing that has held back our city for decades.

Philadelphia is at a crossroads — wracked by gun violence, failing schools, and economic challenges. Philadelphians are tired of the stagnant malaise the city seems stuck in, but finding the right leader to move forward is crucial. That leader must have the courage, empathy, and experience necessary to deliver.

That leader is Rebecca Rhynhart.

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this editorial misstated the length of Helen Gym’s tenure as a teacher at Lowell Elementary.