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Hi John,
Last week, Philly’s City Council returned from its summer break to find itself short-handed. Over the summer, four of the 17 councilmembers resigned—not out of shame for the Council’s failure to help our city, but because they want the voters to promote them to mayor.
Shame would have been a better reason.
While the Council enjoyed an 83-day (!) summer break, our city reeled from gun violence, a record heat wave, crumbling infrastructure—signs of their failed leadership that we had to endure.
More than 140 Philadelphians were killed from gun violence alone; more than 500 were shot.
Yet the City Council is headed in the opposite direction of progress on the gun violence epidemic—or any of the major problems that plague us as a city.
It’s headed in the opposite direction of maintaining a quorum, let alone the nine votes needed to pass anything.
Two more members are considering resigning to add their hats to the mayoral race. And another is facing a second federal corruption trial later this month.
Maybe a shake-up of the City Council is exactly what we need right now.
It’s been clear for years that we were headed in the wrong direction as a city, and the City Council has done nothing to change course. So the thing that needs to be changed now is the Council itself.
And that’s true for so many of our elected bodies—like a Congress that can’t pass any meaningful legislation because of outdated filibuster rules that let small-state Republicans kill bills a majority of the country supports.
I ran for Congress last year because I wanted to be part of the change we all know we need. And that’s what I’m still doing through my exploratory committee.
I know we need to change course—in the right direction.
But I can’t do this alone…
Change of this magnitude takes all of us pushing against a system that simply doesn’t want us. They don’t want extra chairs at the table. They don’t want to hear any voices but their own. They don’t want change.
And I say: Too damn bad. Change is coming, and we are here to make it.
Will you join me in changing our course for the better?
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