Kenney wins mayoral primary, dines with GOP candidate: NinetyNine’s week in review

At high noon each Friday during Philadelphia’s mayoral-primary season, NinetyNine will post a roundup of noteworthy stories from the previous week. Miss a couple days of coverage, or just want to catch up over the weekend? We’ve got you covered.

(This will be the last weekly roundup until the general election campaign kicks into high gear.)

From NinetyNine and NewsWorks

— Kenney scores resounding victory; Council will get new faces : Jim Kenney, who started his Philadelphia mayoral campaign late, wrapped up a resounding victory amazingly early on Tuesday night. Kenney, who resigned from Council in January to launch his bid, will be heavily favored over Republican candidate Melissa Murray Bailey in November’s general election. Democrats hold roughly a 7 to 1 registration edge over Republicans in the city.

— Did Kenney actually win the black vote? (Off Mic): One of the most striking things about former Philadelphia City Councilman Jim Kenney’s landslide win over state Sen. Anthony Williams in Tuesday’s Democratic mayoral primary is the support that Kenney, an Irish-American from South Philadelphia, got from African-American voters. Could he have actually won the African-American vote? Maybe.

— Mayoral candidates Jim Kenney and Melissa Murray Bailey choose Broad Street Ministry over the Palm: “This is a common truth that our candidates for mayor know: We need each other,” said Bill Golderer, the Broad Street Ministry’s convening minister. “It’s a really important message that you’re sending today, that in the end we will be judged as a city by how well we do for those among us who are most vulnerable and most despairing.

— Mayor Nutter: Jim Kenney ‘will run this city well and make this city proud‘: Mayor Michael Nutter said he and Jim Kenney have had a “series of discussions over the past few months,” but now that the latter has prevailed in Democratic primary, they met again to “talk about the future of our city” in a wide-ranging discussion that sets the potential transition process into motion.

— Ten reasons for Kenney’s improbable win (Off Mic): Jim Kenney, a guy with hardly any money, practically stumbles into the opportunity to run at the last minute and somehow bests a popular former DA and a state senator with both racial math on his side and friends who have money to burn.

— Incumbents retain council seats in contested 2nd, 7th Districts: In lower Northeast Philadelphia, Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez has retained her Democratic nomination despite a stiff challenge from Committeeman Manny Morales. Meanwhile, in Philadelphia’s diverse Second Council District, incumbent Democrat Kenyatta Johnson easily held off a challenge from developer Ori Feibush in Tuesday’s primary.

— Philly City Council to get at least three new voices: Three new faces are primed to join the ranks of the 17-member body as at-large council members. One newcomer was guaranteed an at-large seat because Jim Kenney retired to run for mayor, but two incumbents were also ousted: Wilson Goode Jr, and Ed Neilson, the former state representative backed by the powerful electricians.

— Was school choice on the ballot in Philadelphia Tuesday?: While the mayoral candidates resisted being painted with a broad brush — traditional public vs. charter — in the days leading up to the election, endorsements seemed to paint a different picture. PACs backing Williams funded by pro-school choice billionaires put out ads while the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers stumped for former City Councilman Jim Kenney, who won the nomination.

— Democrat Kevin Dougherty among nominees for Pa. Supreme Court: The field of candidates for three open seats on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is now set. Pennsylvania Republicans on Tuesday chose Superior Court Judge Judy Olson, Commonwealth Court Judge Anne Covey and Adams County Judge Mike George as their candidates. Democrats nominated Philadelphia Judge Kevin Dougherty, and Superior Court judges David Wecht and Christine Donohue.

— 9 memorable moments from Philly’s mayoral debates and forums: Since speaking before the Business Association of West Parkside on Feb. 19, the six Democratic candidates embarked on a campaign schedule that saw somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 mayoral forums and debates. While the candidates have told NinetyNine that they welcomed the chance to meet as many voters as possible, from a coverage standpoint, the events have offered a litany of moments on which to focus.

From elsewhere

— After winning Democratic primary, Kenney prepares for GOP – and Green (The Next Mayor/Inquirer): Former City Councilman Jim Kenney on Wednesday said his resounding victory Tuesday night in the Democratic primary election for mayor showed that “people want a positive campaign.” Kenney was eager to prove that, heaping praise upon Melissa Murray Bailey, the Republican who won her party’s nomination for mayor in an uncontested primary.

— Anthony Williams finishes a distant second, congratulates Kenney (Philadelphia Tribune): Williams said the issues facing public education and community policing remains, and that his vision of creating “one Philadelphia,” will continue: “We recognize we now have the opportunity to make sure Philadelphia stands as one city, although there are those that don’t see it that way.”

— The Mayoral Election’s Other Big Winner? Doug Oliver (Citified): In five or 10 years, we may look back at the past three months as the seminal moment in Doug Oliver’s political career. Or maybe not. It all depends on what his next move, or moves, will be. Will Oliver stay on the political track? Or choose the private sector, where he’s likely to have plenty of options?

— The Landscape of Kenney’s Big Win (The Next Mayor): Jim Kenney’s double-digit win in Tuesday’s Democratic primary was fueled by overwhelming support in every section of the city except for West Philadelphia, the home base of his closest challenger, State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams.

— With slightly above average voter turnout, Latino wards go for Kenney, then Díaz (Al Dia): Latinos had a low voter turnout in this 2015 primary election — reaffirming a well-known trend about Latino voting in Philadelphia. But cross-referencing the numbers with past turnouts in these wards, this year’s turnout is a slight improvement. Previous expectations were dismally low, with usual percentages hovering in the single digits, and the optimistic ones breaking double digits.

— 13 Biggest Winners and Losers in Tuesday’s Election (Citified): What about the other winners and losers — the issues, interest groups and behind-the-scenes players — in the election?

— Photos: The day after Election Day (The Next Mayor): Candidates celebrate at luncheons: one at a church, another at a ritzy steakhouse. Both were on South Broad Street.

— Philadelphia finds that bridge to the 21st century (Daily News): For forty-plus years, Philly politics has slalomed between the slippery poles of knee-jerk law-and-order and rigid racial-identity politics. That created a city that remained firmly Democratic, yet was rarely progressive.

— Council’s Goode: It wasn’t about winning elections; it’s about serving (Inquirer): Even as election day unfolded, Councilman Wilson Goode Jr. said he knew how it would end. He was listed dead last on the ballot. Ahead of him was a field of qualified challengers. And, as has been the case before, the politician who says he doesn’t care much for politics had run a minimal campaign.

— Jim Kenney wins: 8 photos of your likely new mayor as a Mummer and an elf, and a cat and a yogi (Billy Penn): Pretty self-explanatory.

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