PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia’s most successful third-party is hoping to extend its reach in city government.
The Working Families Party filed nominating petitions Monday to get three candidates – Kendra Brooks, Nicolas O’Rourke and Jarrett Smith – on Philadelphia’s November ballot.
Brooks defied expectations when she got elected to city council in 2019. She’s running for re-election with her running mate from last time, O’Rourke.
They’re hoping to take both city council seats that are reserved for the minority party which, for decades, meant Republicans.
“This year, we’re going to finish the job, and it’s our slogan: ‘Working Families in, GOP out,’” Brooks said.
This year, Working Families is also running a candidate for the minority seat on the city commissioners, which has raised concerns, even among some Democrats, who say that, in 2020, when Republicans were pushing the lie that Philadelphia votes were fraudulent, it was vital to have Republican Commissioner Al Schmidt out in front refuting them.
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Schmidt is now secretary of state for Pennsylvania. His long-time aide Seth Bluestein has replaced him and is running for the seat as a Republican. Working Families candidate Smith claims Bluestein is not as strong an advocate as Schmidt was.
“We should be having someone who is dedicated to thinking about how the most Philadelphians can vote,” Smith says.
Bluestein, though, says he is that person, pointing to his work on expanding language access for voters and providing more data to improve transparency.
"Al Schmidt and I stood side by side serving Philadelphia's voters for 10 years," Bluestein said. "Fighting for Philadelphia's voters is what we did in 2020 and is what I continue to do every day as Commissioner."
Republicans are not going down quietly, according to GOP City Council Candidate Drew Murray.
“We’re going to fight hard to get those two (council) seats back,” he said.
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He says he believes Philadelphians want more moderate city council members. Working Families is a progressive party.
Though all three Working Families candidates said Republicans are their target, they will need to take votes away from Democratic candidates in order to win. Brooks said the party is not recommending voting against any specific Democrat.
“We just ask for two votes out of the five votes that all Democrats have the opportunity to place,” she said.
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