The Republican City Committee believes that the indictments last week of two Democratic state representatives on corruption charges shows “the continued arrogance of incumbency in the Cradle of Liberty.”
Following a grand jury investigation, District Attorney Seth Williams charged Reps. Ron Waters and Vanessa Brown Lowery with accepting money in exchange for promised political actions.
Waters allegedly accepted nine cash payments totaling $8,750. Brown allegedly accepted five cash payments totaling $4,000, and promised to support privatization of the state liquor stores and vote against a program offering discounts on phone service for low-income subscribers.
Both representatives testified in front of the grand jury and admitted to their criminal conduct, according to the district attorney.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane never filed charges, suggesting that the investigation was racist, the confidential informant was not credible and the subjects of the investigation were entrapped.
“While taxpayers are tightening their budgets to pay their taxes and make ends meet, the city’s Democrat elite are stuffing their pockets at the expense of their constituency,” said Joe DeFelice, executive director of the local Republican party. “This culture of corruption, identified over 100 years ago by Lincoln Steffens, continues to saturate the Philadelphia political landscape. Hopefully, these recent indictments, coupled with those of Rep. J.P. Miranda, Sen LeAnna Washington, Judges (Thomasine) Tynes and (Robert) Mulgrew and the circles around Congressman Chaka Fattah, will begin to rouse the electorate to realize that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.”
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Philadelphia’s Next Great City Coalition will sponsor a mayoral forum on Tuesday, March 3, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
The forum will be held in conjunction with the Philadelphia Flower Show.
Dave Davies, of WHYY-FM, will moderate.
The coalition is an affiliate of PennFuture, a statewide public interest membership organization. It consists of more than 100 civic, environmental, labor and business organizations.
“To be truly great, Philadelphia needs a new mayor who will lead Philadelphia forward with Next Great City 2015’s key initiatives, and get us to the finish line on some key initiatives already underway,” said Katie Bartolotta, PennFuture’s outreach coordinator for southeastern Pennsylvania.
Democrats who’ve announced their candidacies for mayor are former District Attorney Lynne Abraham, state Sen. Anthony Williams, former city Redevelopment Authority executive Terry Gillen and former city solicitor and Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Trujillo.
Possible candidates include City Council President Darrell Clarke, former state Sen. Milton Street, former city solicitor and Common Pleas Court Judge Nelson Diaz and Doug Oliver, a former spokesman for Mayor Michael Nutter. DeFelice identified a possible Republican candidate as Melissa Murray Bailey, president of the Americas division of Universum, a global employer branding company. ••
