Rep. Parker on Council run: 'Tasco cannot pass the baton'

State Rep. Cherelle Parker will announce her City Hall bid Saturday. And while she’s already received the blessing of the woman she hopes to replace, Councilwoman Marian B. Tasco, Parker said she wants one thing to be clear: she has not been anointed.

“Marian Tasco cannot pass the baton to me,” Parker, a Democrat, said Friday. ‘I’ve got to go to the voters of the Ninth Councilmanic district and earn their support.”

She will start that process at a kick-off event from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Dorothy Emanuel Recreation Center. Parker, who is 42 years old and a lifelong resident of the Ninth District, said her campaign will highlight her accomplishments in Harrisburg and focus on three main issues: public education, neighborhood stabilization and job creation.

To create jobs, she said she would look at reducing the city’s wage tax. Parker said she sees the growth of commercial corridors as a way to create “stable and vibrant” neighborhoods surrounding those thoroughfares. She called education “a tool.”

“When you talk about income inequality, how do you close the gap between the haves and have nots? For me, public education is prescription,” she said.

Parker met Tasco when she was 17 and said she interned in her office as a college student. Tasco, who is retiring after seven terms, has endorsed Parker.

A win for Parker would be a loss for the city’s Harrisburg delegation. Parker is the group’s leader. She was instrumental in pushing through the passage of a $2-per-pack tax on cigarettes to aid the city’s schools, forging an alliance with then-GOP House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, who is now the House speaker.

“The city of Philadelphia is not successful without a good working relationship with Harrisburg,” she said. “I think the relationships I’ve built with people on both sides of the aisle in Harrisburg will help Philadelphia.”

Her background is not without blemish. In 2011, she was arrested in Germantown and charged with driving under the influence. She was found guilty of DUI in 2012, but the conviction has been appealed. Parker has said she hopes the focus of the election will be on the candidates’ accomplishments.

One other candidate, S. Archye Leacock, has announced plans to run for the seat. Leacock is founder of North Philadelphia’s Institute for the Development of African American Youth.

Inquirer reporter Amy Worden contributed to this post.