Why the name of Mayor Parker’s top political consultant might ring a bell

New Philly Mayor Cherelle L. Parker believes in second chances — even for political consultants guilty of taking funds from a campaign.

In 2013, John D. McDaniel was sentenced to a year and a day in prison after he admitted to stealing more than $100,000 from former Councilmember Blondell Reynolds Brown’s campaign coffers, and even more from a union-affiliated political action committee.

But that didn’t deter Parker’s campaign from hiring him to be her highest-paid political consultant last year, according to campaign-finance reports.

Parker’s mayoral campaign paid McDaniel’s consulting firm M|R Strategies more than $132,000, and McDaniel was personally reimbursed $875 more in unspecified expenses. While M|R Strategies doesn’t appear to have a functional website, McDaniel describes himself as the COO on social media and in an online resume.

Clout couldn’t reach McDaniel for comment. Parker strongly defended him in a statement, saying he is “one of the most brilliant field organizers and political strategists I have ever worked with in Philadelphia” and said she “look[s] forward to continuing working with him in the future.”

“I will not allow any specific challenge or adversity that he may have encountered in his life to discount the skill set that he brought to the table when I needed it most, because we were the underdogs in this race,” she said. “Many political strategists weren’t running to the Parker campaign. I thank John McDaniel for standing up for this campaign.”

Parker’s campaign appears to have provided a pretty significant windfall for the firm.

Records show that between 2018 and 2023, M|R was paid by just three other political campaigns in Philadelphia — former at-large Councilmember Derek Green’s 2019 run, Isabella Fitzgerald’s unsuccessful bid for a state representative seat in 2022, and Donovan West, who ran unsuccessfully for an at-large Council seat last year. None of those campaigns paid the firm anywhere near what Parker’s did.

She isn’t the first Philly mayor McDaniel worked with.

In 2005, he resigned from former Mayor John F. Street’s administration after it was revealed that he violated a ban on political activity for municipal employees.

Five years later, he landed a job at a nonprofit with ties to the Laborers District Council and served on its board alongside Ryan Boyer, who now leads the powerful Building Trades & Construction Council and is one of Parker’s closest allies. McDaniel headed a Laborer’s union PAC, and later worked on former Mayor Michael Nutter’s reelection campaign.

After Nutter’s victory, McDaniel scored a patronage job at the airport. In 2013, he was fired after an ethics board settlement revealed he committed campaign-finance violations while involved with the union’s PAC and as treasurer of Brown’s campaign for City Council. He was again found to have violated the city’s ban on employee political activity.

He pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of wire fraud and confessed to transferring $100,000 in funds from Brown’s campaign to the Laborers’ PAC, then to himself.

Now, let’s be clear: McDaniel is far from the first Philadelphia operative to rise from controversy and continue to be embraced by the city’s political class. Clout predicts he won’t be the last.

Philadelphia City Council last week did something astonishing. No, it didn’t pass any major legislation or solve one of the city’s myriad issues.

It finished the weekly session before the clock struck 11 a.m.

City Hall gadflies and Council watchers know that this is not normal. Before Kenyatta Johnson took the gavel this year, Council — which is scheduled to meet on Thursdays at 10 a.m. — often started at 10:30 or 10:45 or 11 or, just, whenever all the members meandered in.

The trend often frustrated residents who’d signed up to take part in public comment, and even left some members peeved.

“I would say to myself, ‘Oh, my God, we have all these people sitting in the audience. We’re starting 30 minutes late,’” former Councilmember Allan Domb once said.

But Johnson has proved to be a stickler. He’s presided over four weekly sessions in City Hall and started every one on time — even starting two of them minutes before the clock struck 10 a.m.

Johnson’s demand that members show up on time has scrambled Thursday mornings in City Hall. A couple aides have privately grumbled to Clout that the time crunch adds needless stress to an already chaotic morning. But Johnson said his fellow members “love it.”

“They love the efficiency of us getting together and doing our business, then they have the opportunity to go back into their community to address the day-to-day issues of constituents,” Johnson said. “That’s what we’re here to do: the people’s business.”

Since a Chester County Court of Common Pleas judge — and three more local elected officials — said they had their signatures forged on a petition for auditor general candidate Mark Pinsley, Clout took a look back through some old petitions.

And we came across a signature that made us squint: State Supreme Court Justice Kevin Dougherty, brother to John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty. He signed a petition last year for City Councilmember Mark Squilla’s reelection campaign.

Judges aren’t allowed to sign petitions in Pennsylvania because it’s considered a political activity, which violates the judicial code of ethics. What’s more: Dougherty doesn’t live in Squilla’s Council district, and was therefore ineligible to sign in the first place.

A spokesperson for Dougherty said he and Squilla have known each other for years, and that Squilla “has been and remains a good friend.”

”While the Justice accepts responsibility, he has never publicly endorsed Councilman Squilla, or any other candidate for elected office,” added Stacey Witalec, the communications director for the state Supreme Court.

Kevin Dougherty’s son, Sean Dougherty, filed last week to run in the Democratic primary against State Rep. Kevin Boyle (D., Philadelphia), who was recently filmed having a bizarre outburst at a Montgomery County bar.

For what it’s worth: We didn’t see dad’s name on Sean’s petition.

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