Bad news for City Council’s longest serving member is good news for other GOP candidates

Bad news for Brian O’Neill, a Republican who has held City Council’s 10th District seat since 1980, is good news for GOP candidates running for citywide office this year.

O’Neill’s Democratic challenger, Gary Masino, last Friday survived (again) a legal challenge that tried to remove him from the ballot.

A competitive race on November’s general election ballot in the 10th District — a sprawl of Northeast Philly that includes Somerton, Bustleton, Fox Chase, and Rhawnhurst that is home to many Republican and moderate Democrats — could help GOP candidates for Council at-large and city commissioner fend off challenges from the progressive Working Families Party.

Masino, business manager for Sheet Metal Workers Local 19, initially prevailed last month in the challenge to his nomination petitions. But that local ruling was rejected by the state Commonwealth Court last week and sent back to Common Pleas Court for a do-over.

With Masino again prevailing, Republican City Committee chair Vince Fenerty expects a bump in 10th District turnout in November that will benefit City Commissioner Seth Bluestein, a Republican seeking a full term after being appointed, and the party’s Council at-large candidates.

“Brian will make it competitive,” Fenerty said of O’Neill. “It will bring them some votes, definitely.”

Drew Murray, endorsed by the party for Council at-large, agrees.

“Brian is going to have to spend some money now,” Murray said. “That will help drive out the vote, as well.”

O’Neill had $336,200 in his campaign account at the end of March but raised only $5,000 in the first three months of the year. Masino had $380,659 in the bank, having raised more than $217,000 this year.

Democrats make up 55% of the 10th District’s registered voters, while Republicans are 31% and independents and smaller political parties hold 14%. Still, O’Neill withstood a 2019 challenge, defeating Democrat Judy Moore by 10 percentage points.

Then-President Donald Trump won two of the four wards that make up the district in 2020.

Still, the Working Families Party remains eager to pick off so-called set-aside seats for Council at-large and city commissioner.

All seven Council at-large seats and three city commissioner seats are on the ballot, with two Council seats and one commissioner seat reserved in the Home Rule Charter for members not in the majority party. Democrats outnumber Republicans 7-1 citywide.

For seven decades, Democrats held five Council at-large seats and Republicans had two, while Democrats held two city commissioner seats and Republicans held one.

That changed in 2019 when Kendra Brooks won a Council at-large seat for the Working Families Party.

Nicolas O’Rourke, now seeking the other at-large seat for the Working Families Party, expects more turnout in Northeast Philly but said he is confident in his party’s hearty approach in door-to-door canvassing.

Jarrett Smith, a Working Families Party candidate for city commissioner, predicts “a more deep voter outreach” in the 10th District “than they’ve encountered in a long time.”

Clout hears Mayor Jim Kenney was enjoying dinner Wednesday at the Saloon, a Belle Vista Italian restaurant, when a server approached with a bottle of wine and said it was compliments of “Chris Columbus.”

By coincidence, George Bochetto was also dining at the Saloon.

Bochetto, a lawyer and Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate last year, won a drawn-out legal battle in December to force the city to remove a box placed around the statue of Christopher Columbus at Marconi Plaza in South Philadelphia.

Clout had to ask.

“I can confirm that I was at the Saloon having dinner last night,” Bochetto told us. “I can confirm that I am a big fan of treating people to nice wines. I can also confirm that I know the mayor enjoys a nice glass of wine now and then.”

Clout hears the wine was Kendall-Jackson cabernet sauvignon, which goes for $45 at the Saloon.

A spokesperson for Kenney said he refused the bottle.

Clout likes to think we know the nine Democratic mayoral candidates, even those with a little less name recognition than the others.

But one candidate has been mysteriously absent from most mayoral events: Delscia Gray.

Here’s what we know: Gray works in security. She’s 56. She lives in Northeast Philly.

She has no campaign website. There is an old Twitter account with a 2016 post that says she was interviewed by Trump to be secretary of state. In fairness, we can’t prove that didn’t happen.

Another fun fact: Gray was a registered Republican until Feb. 25. That means she was a Republican for part of the time that she was circulating nomination petitions to get on the ballot for the … Democratic primary for mayor.

One of her rivals could have challenged her petitions in court. No one did.

Gray did speak at one mayoral forum last month, where she said she would use “community ambassadors” to fight gun violence. She also told an elaborate story about a brawl she got into in 10th grade.

Gray hasn’t called us back, though we have tried mightily to get her on the phone. Unfortunately, she texted that she gave the exclusive to Ballotpedia.org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit website that tracks elections and politics.

Staff writer Jonathan Lai contributed to this column.

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