Your guide to the 2014 primaries and special election
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.
Ward battles galore and a race to get to take down the most vulnerable incumbent governor in the country: Hold onto your seats, everybody.
Democrats Katie McGinty, Rob McCord, Allyson Schwartz and Tom Wolf want to take on Republican Gov. Tom Corbett in November. It’s not hard to see why they’re interested in the job. Corbett, who is running unopposed in the Republican primary, has garnered widespread criticism after failing to aggressively tax or regulate the state’s booming natural-gas industry, restricting women’s access to abortion, slashing programs that aid the poor, attempting (until recently) to impose a voter ID requirement and, most controversially, cutting nearly $1 billion in eduction funding.
Corbett is widely considered to be the most vulnerable incumbent governor in the country, and his policies provide an easy contrast for Democrats. All of them support restoring education dollars, reforming charter-school funding and oversight, defending abortion and gay rights and taxing natural-gas drillers.
But no Democrat has yet captured what might be described as grassroots excitement, and defeating a sitting governor will take more than campaigning on Corbett’s lack of popularity. Even more troubling for progressives, Republicans will likely retain control of the state House, and perhaps the Senate, too. A Democratic governor would have to forge alliances with moderate Republicans who have been sidelined by conservatives like House Majority Leader Mike Turzai and right-wing conspiracy-enthusiast Rep. Daryl Metcalfe.
Only registered Democrats and Republicans can vote to select their party's nominees in the primary election on Tuesday. But any registered city voter, regardless of party affiliation, can vote in the special election for a City Council at-large seat and on the three ballot initiatives.
Here's what you'll find in our primary coverage package:
Developer Ori Feibush (and 120 allies) vs. the political machine in Point Breeze's 36th Ward.
A quick overview of the four Democratic candidates for governor
Bill Clinton comes to town for the Northeast's bar-stool-throwing 13th Congressional District race
The special City Council election
Councilwoman Maria D. Quiñones-Sánchez’s fight to build a new Latino political organization in North Philly
Is the answer to the public-education crisis fracking? Environmentalists are angry.
And why haven't Democrats been stepping up on making the whole mass incarceration problem a priority?
Jon Geeting examines the four key state House and Senate races that Philly political junkies will be watching.
And Milena Velis on the importance of a living-wage ballot initiative.
