How did we get here? What the key moments in the Philly mayor’s race say about Tuesday’s wide-open primary

What does it mean that there will still be as many as five viable candidates when Philadelphia Democrats head to the polls on Tuesday to choose their mayoral nominee?

With two days to go, no candidate has inspired strong support across the city, and the race may come down to a turnout contest among the front-runners’ most reliable supporters.

The top issue in the race was clearly the city’s ongoing gun violence crisis. But most of the candidates offered similar-sounding solutions for bringing down shootings, and after nine months, scores of candidate forums, and well over $31 million spent, voters appear deeply divided over who will lead best on public safety.

The final weeks of the most expensive election in Philadelphia history became largely about the campaign itself, with dust-ups over missteps, leadership styles, and attack ads on TV dominating headlines.

“What’s interesting about this race is, this campaign is not a referendum on anything,” said veteran Philadelphia political consultant Neil Oxman, who has had a hand in every open Philly mayor’s race since 1979 but did not take sides in this one. “That’s what’s interesting about the race itself versus tons of the other mayoral campaigns that I’ve been involved in.”

A poll released last week showed a virtual three-way tie between Helen Gym, Cherelle Parker, and Rebecca Rhynhart, with Allan Domb within striking distance and Jeff Brown not far behind. One in six likely voters, according to that poll, said they were undecided.

» READ MORE: Voters guide: See candidates' policy positions here

The race to replace Mayor Jim Kenney, who is term-limited, officially began on a Tuesday in September when two candidates who have since exited the race, former City Council members Derek Green and Maria Quiñones Sanchez, threw their hats in the ring. It’s coming to an end with a weekend of pep rallies and get-out-the-vote events largely aimed at energizing the remaining contenders’ bases.

A lot happened in between. Here are the key moments from the 2023 Philly mayor’s race:

Domb, a former Council member and real estate magnate known as the “condo king,” set the tone for the pricey race at the end of last year.

On Dec. 30, he put $5 million of his own money into his campaign, triggering what’s known as the “millionaire’s amendment” to the city’s campaign finance laws. That rule lets all candidates collect donations that are twice the size of the usual limits on contributions if one candidate puts more than $250,000 of their own money in the race.

» READ MORE: Allan Domb grew a real estate empire from nothing. Can one of the city’s biggest landlords be its mayor?

That allowed Domb and his opponents to collect checks of $6,200 from individuals and $25,200 from organizations. They took full advantage, raising more than $14 million from contributors as of May 1, the last major campaign finance reporting deadline.

Those limits don’t apply to super PACs, which had taken in an additional $7 million by that point and continue to rake in cash. All of the top contenders had super PACs in their corners except Domb, who didn’t need one.

Domb has plowed a staggering $10 million of his own money into his campaign, blanketing the city’s airwaves in ubiquitous TV ads that emphasize his business acumen and tough-on-crime policies. He also paid for the first attack ads, which targeted Brown.

While he has trailed the three women leading the polls, Domb is still very much in contention, and his potential path to victory likely starts with white working-class voters in South and Northeast Philadelphia.

Although she was well-connected with the city’s Democratic establishment, Parker entered the mayor’s contest with a lot to prove. She had never run in a citywide race, and thanks to winning all of her legislative elections handily or without opposition, she had never needed to raise a lot of money.

A lot of those questions were answered when the Building Trades Council, a coalition of 30 construction industry unions that spend big on city and state elections, endorsed her Feb. 22. Standing outside the council’s Northeast Philly headquarters, Parker described it as a “game-changing” moment.

Those unions, especially the Laborers District Council, have since spent hundreds of thousands on a super PAC that has boosted her profile and attacked Rhynhart, Domb, and Brown.

» READ MORE: Cherelle Parker is proud of her West Oak Lane roots. As mayor, could she save Philly’s ‘middle neighborhoods’?

The trades’ announcement set off a cascade of other high-profile endorsements for Parker, who has secured the backing of a vast majority of the ward leaders and local elected officials who have weighed in on the race.

She now enters election day as the clear favorite of Democratic Party insiders and even received Kenney’s vote. The endorsements have given her significant organizational advantages and helped her reach voters outside her Northwest Philadelphia base.

But they also come with baggage, allowing her to be painted as a status quo candidate at a time when voters want something new.

For the first few months of this year, much of the oxygen in the race was taken up by a candidate who recent polls suggest may finish last among the top tier of the candidates.

Brown, a fourth-generation grocer who opened ShopRite stores in disadvantaged neighborhoods, burst onto the scene thanks to early TV ads by his campaign and For a Better Philadelphia, a super PAC backing him.

For a while, it appeared to be working, and Brown’s campaign put out a poll showing he had shot up to the top of the field. But his good fortune disappeared as quickly as it came.

» READ MORE: Jeff Brown could be Philly’s first outsider mayor in a century. Can a grocer run the city?

First, former first lady Michelle Obama, with whom Brown had worked on healthy food initiatives, said his campaign had manipulated footage of her that it was using in its TV ads. Then The Inquirer reported the Board of Ethics was investigating campaign finance issues related to his campaign.

It all came to a head on April 10, when the board sued For a Better Philadelphia, which is supposed to operate independently from Brown’s campaign, and accused him of illegally coordinating with the group by raising money for it before he launched his campaign. The news came the day before the first televised debate, and Brown’s opponents pounced.

The board also revealed that a professional sports team had given $250,000 to the super PAC, a “dark money” group that has kept many of its donors anonymous by routing money through a nonprofit with the same name. That team appears to be the 76ers, who are hoping to build an arena in Center City and will likely need the next mayor’s support.

The lawsuit is still playing out in court.

Rhynhart was something of a dark horse.

The former city controller and budget director under then-Mayor Michael Nutter ran on a pledge to make government work. She was seen as a formidable contender and a strong fundraiser from the beginning, but many questioned whether she could win over voters, given her quieter stage presence.

But she steadily rose from the middle of the pack. She was endorsed by a trio of high-turnout Center City wards and won backing from three former mayors with distinctly different styles.

By April 28, her surge was confirmed when the good government group Committee of Seventy released the first independent poll of the campaign, showing a tight five-way race with Rhynhart leading the field. The poll showed Rhynhart pulling significant support from Center City, where many expected Gym to perform well.

» READ MORE: Rebecca Rhynhart is promising to make government work. Does Philadelphia want a technocrat in a time of crisis?

Rhynhart’s newly minted front-runner status attracted attacks. During a televised debate, Gym criticized her for painful recession-era budget cuts that took place under Nutter, and the super PAC backing Parker has run attack ads claiming Rhynhart didn’t properly manage the city’s finances.

Her path to victory is through an unusual coalition. She has been the hardest candidate to define ideologically, in part because she doesn’t have a legislative record and took policy positions that avoided the political extremes.

She has said that she should not be seen as Nutter’s successor. But if Rhynhart rides a late surge to victory over a divided field — like Nutter did in 2007 — the comparisons may be too plain to ignore.

Coming into the campaign, it was clear where Gym would find her base of support. She was sure to be backed by progressive groups and was all but certain to win the endorsement of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. And they came through: Teachers unions poured cash into a super PAC that spent more than $3 million to boost Gym.

The big question was how Gym could expand beyond her base — and whether she needed to.

Her early messaging focused on public safety, by far voters’ top concern. She appeared reluctant to take positions on a number of other key issues, even ones she’d voted on previously, such as business taxes. Strategists said she likely wanted to avoid being branded as far-left.

» READ MORE: Helen Gym wants to finish the fight she started 30 years ago. Would she be Philadelphia’s activist-mayor?

But through the final weeks of the campaign, Gym leaned into her progressive base. She unveiled a schools plan that includes a $10 billion “Green New Deal” and a proposal to guarantee jobs for young people.

Gym amassed endorsements from local and national progressives, winning a nod from U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, in early May. Then on May 3, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — widely considered the leader of the national progressive movement — endorsed her bid.

And last week, she hosted a news conference to rail against Jeffrey Yass, a conservative Main Line billionaire funding a barrage of last-minute attack ads against her.

“What they’re really afraid of is a transformational leader,” she said.

She will be joined by Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez at a rally on Sunday, making clear that she is embracing the left as her path to victory as the campaign draws to a close.