Philly super PAC that ran anti-Helen Gym ads will oppose Working Families Party this fall

A slate of liberal third-party candidates trying to oust Republicans from Philadelphia City Hall are about to see a flood of spending in opposition to their campaigns.

A new political group that already spent $1.4 million this year solely to oppose a progressive’s bid for the mayor’s office is fundraising to get involved in city politics again this fall — this time to try to defeat three members of the Working Families Party who are seeking seats on City Council and in the City Commissioners’ Office.

In the spring, the Coalition for Safety and Equitable Growth drew donations from high-profile conservatives, moderate Democrats, business interests, and even some labor unions. Mo Rushdy, a developer and treasurer of the group, said it “will be very active in the November election to make sure that moderate voices are heard.”

Rushdy said “the City of Philadelphia really needs solution-based politicians” and that candidates running as members of the Working Families Party “care for the show and the rhetoric rather than the actual solutions that the people in Philadelphia’s neighborhoods need urgently.”

The resurrection of the super PAC adds a new wrinkle ahead of the November general election, when Republicans will try to defend the few officeholders they have remaining in City Hall from the Working Families Party, which has gained traction in the city over the last five years. That fight is expected to be the most competitive and closely watched this fall.

Any effort opposing the Working Families Party could help the GOP, which has seen its influence in city politics wane. And super PACs can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections so long as they don’t coordinate with a candidate or campaign they are supporting.

In the spring, the Coalition for Safety and Equitable Growth bought television ads and sent mailers attacking former City Councilmember Helen Gym late in the Democratic mayoral primary campaign. She finished third in a crowded field, losing to Cherelle Parker, who is the odds-on favorite to win the November general election given Democrats’ enormous voter registration advantage in the city.

» READ MORE: Legal challenge seeks to bump Working Families Party candidate from ballot for Philly city commissioner

Most of the super PAC’s activities earlier this year were financed by conservative billionaire Jeffrey Yass, a charter-school proponent who contributed more than $1 million. The group also attracted donations from elsewhere in the city’s political and business class, including the Laborers District Council, the police union, the General Building Contractors Association, former Mayor Michael Nutter, and venture capitalist Josh Kopelman, the chairman of The Inquirer board.

Another independent expenditure, called Philly For Growth, was aligned with similar special interests in the spring and spent more than $2 million to back business-friendly Democrats running in the Council primary.

It’s unclear how the Coalition for Safety and Equitable Growth will be financed heading into the fall campaign season, which typically begins in earnest around Labor Day. The most recent campaign-finance paperwork filed by the group in early June shows that it had less than $2,000 in the bank after spending almost all the money it raised in the spring to oppose Gym’s candidacy.

In a statement, the Working Families Party slammed the group and Yass, saying the effort is an attempt to “smear our working-class candidates this fall.”

“It confirms what we’ve known all along,” said Stephen Drain, the party’s Philadelphia political director. “Our opponents are extremist Republicans beholden to billionaire donors who want to gut our schools and disenfranchise our communities.”

The super PAC’s planned involvement is a sign that moneyed interests are taking the labor-aligned Working Families Party seriously after 2019, when Councilmember Kendra Brooks was considered a long-shot candidate and then won a seat in historic fashion.

She did so in part by raising a record amount of money for a third-party candidate. A coalition of progressive organizations that undertook a significant voter education effort also helped her win one of seven at-large seats on City Council.

» READ MORE: Philly Democrats to party officials: Don’t back Working Families Party candidates

Two of those seats are, by law, reserved for members outside the dominant party, and had been held by Republicans for 70 years until Brooks’ win. Voters select five candidates, so for a third-party contender to beat a Republican, they need to convince voters who usually pick five Democrats to instead select fewer Democrats and vote for one or two third-party candidates.

Brooks is running for reelection alongside Nicolas O’Rourke, a pastor who also ran in 2019 but finished behind Republican David Oh, who resigned from Council earlier this year and is now the GOP’s nominee for mayor.

Also running on the Working Families Party’s slate is Jarrett Smith, a former labor lobbyist trying to oust Republican Seth Bluestein from the City Commissioners’ Office. On Monday, three voters — including Bluestein’s father — filed a legal challenge seeking to have Smith removed from the ballot.