Maria Quiñones Sánchez returns to Philadelphia City Council — as a staffer

Former Philadelphia City Councilmember Maria Quiñones Sánchez dropped out of the Democratic primary for mayor in April and said in late May she would take the summer off before considering her next job.

The summer is over now and Quiñones Sánchez is back at work … at City Hall … as a City Council staffer.

Joe Grace, spokesperson for Council President Darrell Clarke, confirmed that Quiñones Sánchez went on the payroll Sept. 11 as director of strategic initiatives with an annual salary of $150,000.

That’s a slim pay cut from the $155,313 salary for Council members.

Quiñones Sánchez reports directly to Clarke on issues like poverty, neighborhood-focused economic development efforts, and efforts to create an independent authority to manage public school facility needs.

Quiñones Sánchez, who represented the Kensington-based 7th District for 15 years, endorsed her former Council colleague Cherelle Parker two weeks before the May primary.

When Parker then won, she cited support from Quiñones Sánchez and former Councilmember Derek Green, who dropped his own bid for mayor and endorsed Parker in April, as a factor in her victory.

It’s smart to be pals with the likely next mayor — especially for Quiñones Sánchez — as Clarke is retiring at the end of the year and already has a gig lined up as a member of the state Liquor Control Board.

Quiñones Sánchez said she’s not sure what’s next for her in 2024.

“I do not know what I want to be when I grow up,” she joked. “I’m still assessing where I can have the biggest impact.”

Green, a lawyer and former prosecutor who works for a lobbying firm, is still being floated as a potential 2025 candidate for district attorney.

That could pit him against District Attorney Larry Krasner. A Krasner spokesperson declined to say if he will seek a third term in two years.

A key component of Krasner’s 2017 and 2021 victories was support from Black voters in Northwest Philadelphia, a politically potent region that both Green and Parker call home.

Could Green crack that coalition? He’s not saying, for now.

“I’m definitely very flattered that people look at me in that light,” Green told Clout. “I haven’t made any decision, one way or another, and will do so at the appropriate time.”

Another mayoral contender, former City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart, starts work on Monday as Drexel University’s senior vice president for finance, chief financial officer and deputy treasurer.

Rhynhart finished second in May’s nine-candidate Democratic primary.

Drexel, in a note to faculty and staff Tuesday, cited her work as city treasurer and budget director for former Mayor Mike Nutter and as chief administration officer for Mayor Jim Kenney.

Donald Trump’s two-pronged messaging in his bid to win back the White House — he’s the best and everyone else is terrible and/or treasonous — was aimed this week at Comcast Corp. and Gov. Josh Shapiro.

Trump, who often casts himself as a both a protector and victim of free speech, on Sunday took to Truth Social to declare that Philadelphia-based Comcast and its networks NBC and MSNBC “should be investigated” for “country-threatening treason.”

If he becomes president again, Trump said, he would seek to stop NBC and MSNBC from broadcasting, calling them “a true threat democracy” and “THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE.”

Then, Monday, he went after Shapiro for announcing last week that eligible Pennsylvanians will now be automatically registered to vote when they get a state driver’s license or ID card.

Trump attacked automatic registration — something already standard in 23 states — as “a disaster for the election of Republicans” and called it unconstitutional, demanding that GOP legislators and party officials in Harrisburg and Washington oppose it.

Comcast and Shapiro took very different approaches in response.

Comcast stayed silent. Shapiro cashed in on the attention.

Comcast’s corporate communications team did not respond to Clout’s emails about Trump’s threats.

Shapiro on Monday swiftly sent a fundraising pitch to supporters, defending automatic voter registration while knocking Trump for “more of the same baseless nonsense that Trump’s been peddling ever since he lost Pennsylvania in 2020.”

While the Comcast C-Suite was incommunicado, Joe Scarborough, the irascible host of Morning Joe on MSNBC, on Wednesday compared Trump’s threats to Nazi conduct in World War II.

“This is not a reach,” Scarborough said. “And if people can’t start drawing the parallels, well you’re just stupid or you have your head in the sand or you’re one of them.”

Trump undoubtedly will now portray any reporting by NBC or MSNBC that he does not care for as retaliation for his pending threats.

Quite a turn, considering that NBC’s airing of the Trump reality television show The Apprentice and early coverage of his political aspirations on MSNBC helped propel him to the presidency.

“I do not believe that the current evidence would support articles of impeachment.”

— Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University Law School professor popular with conservative Republicans, testifying at their request in the first U.S. House hearing exploring the potential impeachment of President Joe Biden for allegedly profiting while serving as vice president from business dealings conducted by his son, Hunter Biden. Republicans have been pushing those allegations for months, absent evidence, with the 2024 presidential election on the horizon.

Clout provides often irreverent news and analysis about people, power, and politics.