West Philly is voting today in yet another special election after yet another Democrat was convicted
Voters in West Philadelphia’s 190th District of the state House will cast ballots Tuesday in the second special election for that seat in less than a year.
Voters in West Philadelphia’s 190th Pennsylvania House District will cast ballots Tuesday in the second special election for that seat in less than a year.
Democrat Roni Green and Republican Wanda Logan are competing to finish the final 10 months of former State Rep. Movita Johnson-Harrell’s term.
Johnson-Harrell, a Democrat, won the seat in a special election last March but resigned in December after being charged with stealing more than $500,000 from a nonprofit she founded. She pleaded guilty last month and is now serving a term of at least three months in Philadelphia’s Riverside Correctional Facility.
The special election Johnson-Harrell won was held because former State Rep. Vanessa Lowery Brown, also a Democrat, was forced to resign after being convicted of bribery and other charges.
Green, a business agent for SEIU Local 668, is favored to win Tuesday’s contest since 87% of the district’s voters are registered Democrats.
Special elections tend to produce low voter turnout. Just one in 10 registered voters cast ballots in the March 2019 election. Green said she has a team out recruiting voters and have found them to be tuned in.
“Folks are aware. And they’re aware that I’m running,” Green said. “We’re trying to get people out.”
Logan, an employment agency owner, ran unsuccessfully for the seat four times as a Democrat between 2012 to 2018. She has been a Republican since January 2019. Logan said she believes voters are aware of the election, but wishes it had been held concurrent to the April 28 primary.
SEIU has thrown its considerable political resources into Green’s candidacy, contributing the bulk of the $61,736 she has reported raising for her campaign since being chosen as the Democratic nominee.
No matter who wins Tuesday, the campaigns resumes Wednesday. Green and Logan have both filed as candidates in the April 28 primary election. Six other Democrats have also filed to compete in that race.