PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia City Council member David Oh made it official Monday: He’s leaving his seat to run in the Republican primary for mayor.
Oh served 11 years on City Council. He seldom did well in his own party’s primary but always managed to win the highest number of cross-over votes in the general election and, as he told WPHT’s Dom Giordano after his announcement, that’s his game plan for getting elected mayor from a party that represents less than 12% of voters.
“I think it’s not because I have to find new people and drag them out to vote — because they do vote, and they vote for common sense,” Oh said.
Oh is the only declared Republican in the race so far. Ten people have announced their run for the Democratic primary. Oh indicated he would be running against 70 years of Democratic rule.
“Them being in charge has been a bad thing for our city,” Oh said.
Oh predicted that if the most progressive candidate wins the 10-way Democratic primary, it will help him with fundraising in the general election.
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“A lot of people who would never support me are going to throw money at me,” he said.
Still, as a Republican, Oh has a lot to overcome — not just the lopsided advantage that Democrats hold in voter registration, but independents and other third-party candidates who more voters in the city than the GOP.
Oh was the last Republican to hold an at-large seat reserved for a minority party. The other is now held by the Working Families Party.
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No Republican has won the mayor’s race since 1947, but Oh says he’s seen a poll, the specifics of which he declines to discuss, that suggests he could be the exception.
“What the poll shows is that I’m popular, but what’s surprising is how popular in a city that is eight-to-one Democrat.”