Want to change how the city is run? This is your chance.
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
There are dozens of uncontested or unoccupied committeeperson seats in Philadelphia.
Stephanie Singer, now a city commissioner, started out as an insurgent ward leader in Center City
Philadelphia is a town that sees a lot of fist-shaking when it comes to crooked politics and ineffectual leadership. But when the conversation turns from outrage to calls for change, most residents are left scratching their heads, others decide they have more pressing issues to worry about.
Apathy is a tough thing to change, but there is an answer for people who want better, smarter leaders, but simply don't know how to make an impact in a city still dominated by machine politics.
Jon Geeting, a local blogger (and a freshly minted City Paper columnist), recently published a map showing every unoccupied or unopposed committeeperson seat in Philadelphia. Committeepeople form the rank and file of the local branch of the Democratic party, and they vote to select political ward leaders. Ward leaders are important, because they vote on important political decisions, like who will fill sudden vacancies in city council seats.
It's not hard to become a committeeperson. Geeting gathered 50 signatures (five times the required amount) to get on the ballot in his own electoral division in South Philly, where past committeepeople were elected by just 62 voters.
He will face two other challengers for that seat. But judging by his map, there are many, many parts of the city, highlighted in in green, where there would be little or no opposition to the typical politically minded person running for committeeperson.
Corrupt politicians love apathy. It means they need fewer sycophants in fewer geographic areas to keep the machine lurching forward, and that they don't have to worry about changing demographics. So, despite the Philly becoming younger and more diverse, political reform reflecting those changes have been slow going. That's partly because older, ossified interests have outsized influence through their stranglehold on the city's committeeperson seats and political wards.
But the dozens and dozens of unoccupied seats are a reflection of the fact that the machine has also grown complacent. These vacant seats are an easy opportunity for ordinary people to affect the local political system in a meaningful way.
So, who will step up?
