Ross Feinberg, the Republican candidate in the 5th Senatorial District, last week endorsed Donald Trump for president.
“I like how Trump will say what he feels and thinks. He speaks his mind in a frank fashion knowing that some may not agree with him,” Feinberg said. “I have been conveying the same attitude with my upfront approach during my senatorial campaign.”
Feinberg, who ran last year for register of wills on a platform of abolishing the office, is challenging Democratic Sen. John Sabatina Jr.
“I will make the Great Northeast great again,” Feinberg said.
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The 12-member Better Philadelphia Elections Coalition last week urged City Council to replace the elected city commissioners with appointed professionals.
By law, the measure would need to be signed by the mayor and approved by city voters.
The coalition called on Council to create a Department of Elections administered by a professionally accredited director appointed by the mayor, with oversight provided by an appointed, non-salaried and bipartisan Philadelphia Board of Elections.
Former City Commissioner and Councilwoman Marian Tasco announced her support for the proposal.
For more information, follow the Better Philly Elections Coalition on Facebook.
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U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey sent a letter to his Democratic opponent, Katie McGinty, imploring her to support the Obama administration’s call last week for Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney to end the city’s sanctuary city policy.
On May 3, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson came to Philadelphia, asking Kenney to reverse the policy. Kenney refused. Johnson said the issue is a matter of public safety.
“With 11 million people in the U.S. illegally, there are surely some violent criminals amongst them,” Toomey wrote.
Former Gov. and Mayor Ed Rendell and former Mayor Michael Nutter support ending sanctuary city status.
“America has seen the dangers that sanctuary cities impose. Consider the tragic case of Kate Steinle. Kate was walking down a San Francisco pier, arm-in-arm with her father, last July when a gunman opened fire. Kate died in her father’s arms, pleading, ‘Help me, Dad,’ as she bled to death. What is truly maddening is that the shooter should never have been on the pier that day. He was an illegal immigrant who had previously been convicted of seven felonies and had been deported five times. A few months earlier, San Francisco police had the man in custody. Federal immigration agents asked the police to hold the man until they could come pick him up. But, the police’s hands were tied: San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy forced them to release the man who would go on to murder Kate,” Toomey wrote.
Under the city’s policy, Philadelphia police are not allowed to notify federal agents when a violent offender is about to be released from custody or detain that person unless those agents have a court-issued warrant.
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Daniel Grace, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 830, reacted to news that outside groups were planning on spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to support the proposed city soda tax. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is helping fund the effort.
“After failing to ban oversized sodas in New York City, it now appears that Michael Bloomberg wants to impose his oversized ego and will on tax-weary Philadelphians,” Grace said. “As Sen. Bernie Sanders recently stated, Mayor Jim Kenney’s soda tax is regressive. It will primarily hurt the very people it’s intended to help — the city’s poor. Sanders is right. Now, Bloomberg and Houston’s John Arnold, a pair of outsider billionaires, are coming into our city to force low-income Philadelphians to pay dearly in order to fulfill their own personal agendas. It makes no sense. I also find it ironic that the pro-soda tax group can come up with nearly $1 million virtually overnight to pay for an advertising campaign, but claim to have no money or funding alternatives other than a regressive soda tax to pay for universal pre-K and other programs. If anything, the overnight infusion of major dollars into the pro-tax lobbying group’s coffers should convince city lawmakers that there are better, fairer ways to fund needed programs other than heaping the enormous burden on the back of one industry.”
Anthony Campisi, a spokesman for Philadelphians Against the Grocery Tax, issued a statement on the same subject.
“Bringing in a New Yorker to force his personal agenda on Philadelphia families is the latest desperate act from an administration that admits it is losing in its attempts to foist this regressive tax on our city. The people of New York rejected and resented Mayor Bloomberg’s overreaching policies when he was mayor, and now he’s trying to export them to Philadelphia families. Mayor Bloomberg’s ideology represents a slippery slope of government intrusion in our lives,” Campisi said. “What will he try and mandate on Philadelphians next? Will Flyers fans have to start donning Rangers jerseys? Will Citizens Bank Park switch out “High Hopes” for “New York, New York” during home games?”
Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders recently weighed in on Mayor JIm Kenney’s proposed soda tax, with Clinton in favor and Sanders opposed.
Grace said, “With all due respect to Secretary Clinton, her stated support of Mayor Kenney’s regressive three-cents-an-ounce sugary drinks tax is misguided. We sincerely doubt she was made aware of the significant loss of family-sustaining jobs that will result if this outrageous tax is passed. Similarly, she likely has no idea that the projected revenues from the tax will never come to fruition as a result of the precipitous decline in sugar-sweetened drinks and the rise of underground markets that will surely occur if the tax proposal becomes law. Politicians have been known to pander for votes, even presidential candidates, especially when they’re less than a week out from Election Day. We suspect Secretary Clinton was simply currying favor with Mayor Kenney. Ultimately, her position on a tax that will only affect already tax-weary Philadelphians is irrelevant.”
Grace also thanked Sanders for “having the courage and conviction to speak truth to power. Working-class people need champions like Bernie Sanders.”
Philadelphians Against the Grocery Tax, a coalition of citizens, businesses owners, movie theaters and community organizations, issued the following statement: “We appreciate Sen. Sanders standing up for the hard-working Philadelphia families who would be harmed by this destructive tax. Pre-K is a worthy program, but a regressive tax borne most heavily by low-income and middle-class Philadelphians is not the right way to pay for it. The fact is we can protect the future of our children and not harm these families in the process with more burdensome taxes. It’s disappointing that Secretary Clinton chose to play old-school politics rather than take into account the full impact of this local issue. We urge both candidates to call upon the administration to redirect existing federal funds for early education to Philadelphia to support the proposed initiative and, if elected president, to commit they will send these federal funds to the city to support Pre-K for the future.”
Jeremy Adler, communications director for the conservative America Rising Advanced Research, said, “While the Philadelphia soda tax won’t reduce childhood obesity, it will cost consumers and disproportionately impact lower-income Americans who can least afford it. If Hillary Clinton is ready to raise taxes on family groceries, what won’t she tax?”
Philadelphians for a Fair Future, a coalition of more than 50 organizations citywide that support the tax, claimed that Clinton’s win in Pennsylvania’s presidential primary demonstrates that voters support her endorsement of the proposed sugary drinks tax as the best way to pay for expanded pre-K services throughout the city.
Clinton’s victory “demonstrates that Philadelphians strongly support the effort to invest in our children’s future,” said Kevin Feeley, spokesman for Philadelphians for a Fair Future. Voters understand that our children can’t wait any longer for programs that will provide them with a quality public education, and they said so in overwhelming numbers in this election.”
Meanwhile, the America Rising political action committee is criticizing Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Katie McGinty for twice failing to answer whether she supports the soda tax during a Sunday interview on NBC 10.
“Katie McGinty has a record of pushing massive tax hikes like the Philly soda tax, so her dodge is cynical politics at best and proves she’s willing to say or do anything to get elected. Katie McGinty won’t be able to avoid tough questions forever; sooner or later, she will have to say whether she stands with hard-working Pennsylvania families that are tired of tax-and-spend politicians, or with Secretary Clinton and liberal Democrats’ nanny state agenda,” said Amelia Chassé, America Rising PAC press secretary.
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City & State Media, a New York-based multimedia company that recently announced its expansion to Philadelphia and Harrisburg, has acquired the Philadelphia Public Record, a newspaper that intensively covers the city’s political and labor union.
City & State Media will expand the digital presence of the Philadelphia Public Record.
“I’m looking forward to this next chapter to help build on the knowledge and accolades we’ve gained over the years and to contribute to an award-winning news organization like City & State,” said Philadelphia Public Record owner Jim Tayoun, who will stay on in the new venture in a leading editorial role.
“Jim Tayoun and his team have been covering Philadelphia for a long time, and we hope to build on their success,” said City & State CEO Tom Allon.
The May 5 edition of the Philadelphia Public Record was the first published under the new ownership. ••
