Philadelphia Mayor
Voting at the GW Childs Elementary polling place in South Philadelphia on Primary Day 2015. (NewsWorks file photo)
Melissa Murray Bailey (R)
Need to Know
Bailey says she would discontinue Philadelphia’s status as a so-called “Sanctuary City” for undocumented immigrants, and resume cooperation with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Bailey would try to bring jobs to the city by actively recruiting international firms to establish regional headquarters in Philadelphia.
Bailey opposes publicly releasing the names of police officers who shoot civilians.
Bio
Businesswoman Melissa Murray Bailey, 36, the top U.S. executive of the Swedish branding firm Universum, grew up in South Jersey and lived and worked in Singapore, Australia and the Washington, D.C., area before moving to Philadelphia three years ago. A graduate of the University of Maryland (BS in biological engineering), she lives in Society Hill with her husband and daughter.
Jim Foster (I)
Need to Know
Publishes two community newspapers, the Germantown Chronicle and the Northwest Independent.
Previously ran for both the 8th City Council District, currently occupied by Cindy Bass, and the 2nd U.S. Congressional District, occupied by Chaka Fattah.
A registered independent since he registered to vote at 21, Foster leans conservative on budget issues–one of the primary themes of his campaign.
Bio
James H. Foster was born in Philadelphia in 1942 and has lived his entire life in the area, mostly in Germantown and Mt. Airy. He worked his way through LaSalle University as an auto mechanic (with a two-year interruption for service in the U.S. Marine Corps), graduating in 1967 with a B.A. in pre-law. After working at First Pennsylvania Banking & Trust, Foster opened an auto repair, restoration and sales business in 1972 and operated it until 2011. He became involved in community affairs in 1995 and, in 2009, founded the Independent Voice newspaper (formerly the Germantown Chronicle/Northwest Independent), a media outlet that focuses on city and state issues, particularly corruption and neglect in government.
Osborne Hart (Socialist Workers Party)
Need to Know
Supports a $15 minimum wage and more liberal union organizing rules.
Previously ran for U.S. House seats in Georgia in 1976 and Michigan in 2004, Mayor of Detroit in 2001, Philadelphia City Council At-Large in 2007, and U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania in 2012.
Sees Cuban Revolution as a good model for political change.
Bio
Osborne Hart, 63, works as an overnight stocker at Walmart. He is part of the movement of retail, fast food, home care, airport and other workers for $15-an-hour minimum wage, full-time work and union representation. A lifelong supporter of black people’s rights, he was a participant in the July 24-26 Black Lives Matter national conference in Cleveland. He also supports a woman’s right to have an abortion, has marched and spoken out in support of undocumented workers in Philadelphia, Norristown and southern New Jersey, and has joined protests and rallies against public school funding cuts. Hart believes that education’s focus should be realigned from what he calls the capitalist model of preparation for a life of labor in competition with fellow workers to a lifelong process that advances society and expands culture.
Jim Kenney (D)
Need to Know
Served as Democratic city councilman at large for 23 years.
Grew up in South Philly the oldest of four. His father, a fireman; his mother, a homemaker.
Led Council’s marijuana decriminalization push along with efforts to boost LGBT rights, immigration and campaign finance.
Independent expenditure groups with ties to unions bankrolled TV ads on his behalf.
Got into Twitter spat with NJ Gov. Chris Christie about the Eagles/Cowboys rivalry.
Bio
Jim Kenney, 57, a lifelong South Philadelphian, was an at-large member of City Council from 1992 until 2015. During that time, he created the Committee on the Environment, championed regulations on the towing and construction industries and advocated for computerized ethics training for city employees. Kenney serves on the boards of Independence Blue Cross, Keystone Mercy Health Plan East, Community College of Philadelphia, the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians, the Mayor’s Commission of Community Service and the O.V. Catto Memorial Fund, as well as the Mural Arts and Office of Sustainability advisory boards. A graduate of St. Joseph’s Preparatory School (1976) and LaSalle University (1980), he currently teaches a course on local politics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government.
Boris Kindij (I)
Need to Know
Supports a $15 minimum wage and more liberal union organizing rules
Wants to create a 10 year tax-free zone (TFZ) program for new business entities that bring more than 25 jobs to Philadelphia.
Wants to expand the 10-year real estate tax abatement to 20 years for all properties under $250,000.
Bio
A native of Croatia, Boris Kindij, 41, is a survivor of the Croatian war for independence who immigrated to the U.S. in 1993 and settled in the Philadelphia area in 2000. He received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of New Hampshire and an MBA from Philadelphia University, and has held a number of jobs, both blue-collar and white-collar. Currently, he’s employed in the real-estate industry (property management), assisting people find homes to rent and providing 24-hr. maintenance-emergency response. Kindij lives in South Philadelphia with his fiancee and has a 9-year-old son and a 13-year-old daughter.
Committee of Seventy
contributed to this guide.
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