What Cherelle Parker told us about her attention to detail and what she does for self-care | 100th Mayor Newsletter
We dive into Cherelle Parker’s leadership style, her fundraising, and her lacking self-care routine.
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There are five weeks until Election Day, and there still hasn’t been a ton of campaigning going on in the actual mayor’s race. No nightly forums with both candidates, saucy debates, or daily press conferences.
But we did get a chance to sit down with Cherelle Parker, the Democrat who’s heavily favored to win, for a conversation about how she’d govern. In today’s newsletter, we’ll dive into her style, her fundraising, and her lacking self-care routine.
We’ll also discuss what the other Democratic candidates are up to, and Fat Bear Week. Those two things are NOT related.
A quick note: We think Philly is better off when everyone has the facts needed to make an informed decision about this election. If someone forwarded you this newsletter, sign up for free here.
There are 35 days 🗓 until Election Day. Let’s get into it.
— Anna Orso and Sean Collins Walsh
Sean sat down with Parker last week in her campaign office in Mount Airy (above she is laughing at what was surely a very witty comment), and he wanted to really get into her head to answer a key question: How will she govern?
Here are four money quotes and takeaways from the conversation:
“I need structure.” One thing to know about Parker is that she’s a meticulous planner, often to the frustration of her staff. She says she doesn’t thrive in chaos. And she’s detail-oriented — a contrast to current Mayor Jim Kenney, who is not much of a micromanager. “Some leaders like plausible deniability or some leaders don’t care for some of the details,” said a member of Parker’s staff. “She is not that.”
“I literally was a cheerleader.” For decades, the primary failure of the outgoing mayor has... coincidentally... aligned with a strength of his successor. John Street faced corruption allegations, and Michael Nutter was an ethics reformer. Nutter clashed with Council, but Kenney pushed through major initiatives. Now Kenney has appeared disengaged — something Parker says she won’t struggle with. A former cheerleader, Parker said: “I really do get motivated and inspired when I’m engaging with the public.”
“No one should expect me to act like and or be like, walk, talk, govern like any of them.” Parker is poised to be the first female mayor, and says that as a Black woman “from humble beginnings,” no one like her “has ever gotten an opportunity to get as close to doing this.” She doesn’t want to be compared to Philadelphia’s first 99 mayors.
“I am not very good when it comes to self-care.” Parker says that some of her friends tell her she’s not good at taking care of herself, and she agrees with them. She’s working on getting better, because “if nothing is being deposited your tank becomes empty.” She reads a lot, and intends to be “a really active mom” for her 11-year-old son. And she said she hopes to laugh frequently, and she compares her “goofiest laugh” to Woody the Woodpecker. “Sometimes I can’t stop laughing,” she said. “That’s healing for me.”
🔎 Check out the story from our interview with Parker for more on why she says she “can’t afford to hold a grudge.” And watch a video of her talking about self-care.
Spotlight on: Tracking Parker’s promises
We’ve got a new feature this week: We’re going to unpack, and eventually track, the policies and issues that Parker campaigned on. She’s heavily favored to win in November, so we’ll be watching how the promises she made during the primary unfold. (Don’t worry, we’ll also be doing analysis of her and Oh’s policy differences.)
First up is one of her most controversial positions: She is open to the use of stop-and-frisk as a crime-fighting tactic, a big swing away from Kenney, who campaigned on ending the practice.
Parker will tell you that she’s not in favor of unconstitutional stop-and-frisk, which is... unconstitutional and illegal. She says she’s in favor of so-called “Terry stops,” the legal term which refers to the Supreme Court case that allowed them. There is no difference between a Terry stop and a constitutionally sound stop-and-frisk. More on that here.
This issue may come up during the general election campaign. Oh is actually positioning himself to the left of Parker on this, and says that he is anti stop-and-frisk. We’re looking forward to seeing how they navigate the issue during a debate on KYW Newsradio later this month.
💥 The key takeaway: Police already can and do use stop-and-frisk, though way less than they used to. The big question is whether Parker actually wants the department to use it more. And the biggest variable there may be who she chooses to be her top cop. You can bet we’ll circle back on this one.
Mayoral moment: Where are they now?
The above is a shot from a “unity breakfast” that Parker held in the spring. After she won the Democratic primary, she asked those she beat to come have eggs with her. Ahem, we mean “project unity” with her.
We haven’t checked in with some of the also-rans since that day, so now felt like as good a time as ever to give you a rundown of where they are now. Here’s what we know:
Jeff Brown is out here winning lawsuits.
Allan Domb is trying his hand at journalism.
Derek Green is fielding calls to run against District Attorney Larry Krasner next year. And he’s maybe thinking about it.
Helen Gym is... she didn’t respond to our call. But we wonder if we’ll see her campaigning this fall. Not for herself.
Maria Quiñones Sánchez is working as a City Council staffer and making almost as much money as she did as a member.
Rebecca Rhynhart is the new CFO at Drexel University.
Data dive: The mayoral money race
🎤 We’re going to pass the mic to our colleague Aseem Shukla, a data extraordinaire who crunches numbers and makes sense of them. Take it away, Aseem:
Money doesn’t vote, thank heaven. But if it did, you probably wouldn’t expect elections in Philly to turn out any different. Here’s why:
Democrats have a 7-to-1 voter registration advantage in Philadelphia. Maybe not so coincidentally, that’s also roughly as many times as much money Parker has raised compared to Oh.
Parker raised twice as much money — $875,000 — just since winning the May primary as Oh has over the entire campaign.
It’s not hard to see why. The city’s biggest power players — unions, wealthy individuals, civic groups — tend to back Democrats. The list of biggest donors to Parker reads like a who’s who of influential building trades groups and party organizations. For Oh, it consists mostly of individuals.
Small wonder, then, that Oh has relied disproportionately on money from outside Philadelphia. Only a third of his funds raised came from donors inside the city. For Parker, that figure is well over half.
In that respect, Oh’s campaign resembles that of Republican candidates for at-large seats on City Council: relatively underfunded and reliant on money from outside the city. In the race for two at-large Council seats, Working Families Party candidates have been able to raise more money — and more from local donors than Republicans.
What else we’re reading
Philly City Council may officially denounce the judge who dropped charges filed against Mark Dial, the officer who fatally shot Eddie Irizarry.
Brian O’Neill is a Republican who’s been in Council since 1980, and he’s now facing what may be his most serious challenge ever.
The Working Families Party will hold its first national convention this weekend, and it’s in Philly.
Scenes from the campaign trail
Parker danced on Sunday during the 90th Annual Pulaski Day Parade on the Ben Franklin Parkway, a big celebration of Polish culture.
Thanks so much for joining us for this week’s edition of the 100th Mayor Newsletter. We’re going to spend the next few days celebrating Fat Bear Week. What else?
See you next week,
Anna Orso and Sean Collins Walsh