Philadelphia 3.0 sent racially divided political mailers for City Council race, puzzling candidates and voters
Instead of promoting all five endorsed candidates in one mailer, as is typical, the group sent one flier with two white candidates and another with three Black candidates.
Philadelphia 3.0, a political action committee that advocates for pro-business policies, mailed out two distinct political fliers to Democratic voters this week.
One promoted two white candidates the group endorsed in the crowded race for at-large seats on City Council.
The other highlighted three Black candidates it also endorsed in the race.
Targeted, demographic-based advertising is common in political campaigns. But political groups typically promote the entirety of their five-candidate slate for Council at-large, as 3.0 has done elsewhere in its six-figure spend to influence the race. So the two mailers caused some voters to scratch their heads as to why the prominent PAC would split its own ticket along racial lines just a week before the May 16 primary — and seemingly target them to Black and white voters.
Some voters who lived in majority white neighborhoods said they only received the mailer with Eryn Santamoor and Job Itzkowitz, who are white. Yet voters in majority-Black neighborhoods said they received the mailer with only the Black candidates: Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson, Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, and business consultant Donavan West.
“I don’t want to ascribe bad intent to anyone, but it looks bad,” said Nikki Grant, a Democratic committee person in West Philly’s majority Black 60th Ward who received the mailer with Black candidates.
“I felt like they were making some assumptions about me as a Black woman,” she said. “I’m not sure why you couldn’t just get me the entire slate.”
Alison Perelman, Philadelphia 3.0′s executive director, said the decision to target voters with specific candidates was “pragmatic” and based on preexisting voting patterns.
“Donavan West is, in our view, the third-most viable Black candidate running for At-Large, so we wanted to introduce him to the Black likely voters most supportive of Isaiah Thomas and Kathy Gilmore-Richardson,” Perelman said in a statement. “We hope voters all across the city will support the five candidates we’ve endorsed, but the reality is that different candidates have different bases of likely voter support.”
Campaign finance reports show 3.0 has spent $736,000 on mail, digital, and field operations to boost its candidates this year. Another pro-business PAC, called Philly for Growth, has dropped nearly $2 million promoting an identical slate on the at-large ticket.
Perelman said that while 3.0 also sent out a policy guide in the mail with all five candidates, the group found it was more effective to be selective about messaging. She said the “theme” of the mailer with two white candidates was that both Santamoor and Itzkowitz were endorsed by The Inquirer Editorial Board. (So were Thomas and Gilmore Richardson, but that was not included on their mailer.)
The racially divided mailers have caused some discomfort for 3.0′s endorsed candidates, who by law can’t communicate or coordinate with independent expenditure groups that are spending money on their behalf.
“Job’s appeal is to every person and every neighborhood of the city,” said Joe Corrigan, campaign manager for Itzkowitz. “In a city where 40% of the population is Black, it seems shortsighted to only market Black candidates to Black voters, and I think it underestimates voters.”
West said he hadn’t seen the mailers where his image figured prominently, but he hoped he appealed to white voters, too.
“I think all of us candidates can agree that we want to encourage more people to get out to vote,” West said. “White people, I like you, I think some of y’all like me, and I don’t know what happened here. I have no opinion.”