The Pork Report

The following is the unedited transcript of The Pork Report’s interview with the ideal Chairman of the Philadelphia Democratic City Committee, which took place at the Famous Fourth Street Deli over a couple of corned beef sandwiches. All quotes used with permission of the Chairman.

The Pork Report: Chairman, what an honor this is to sit down with you here for an honest discussion. How do you manage to make yourself so accessible?

Chairman: American politics is moving in the direction of more transparency and accountability. People are demanding more from our elected officials and as the leader of this party, I see it as one of my main responsibilities to answer questions about the Democratic Party’s practices and policies in this city. I want to give voters reasons to trust the Democratic Party and have faith in the Democratic Party. It has only hurt us in the past when shady dealings are revealed by the media and there’s no explanation or accountability. That only weakens us among our own voters. I set aside a few hours every day to speak with media or bloggers or concerned voters who have questions. We have an official DCC website that we have set up that includes a message board where elected officials are encouraged to post, and I think we’ve generated a lot of positive feedback and good will from the dialogue we’ve created there. That said, the vast majority of voters in this city still do not have personal computers let alone internet, so much of our work remains in knocking on doors and making phone calls. We never forget our voter base.

TPR: What do you see for the future of the Democratic Party in Philadelphia?

Chairman: I see more people being involved than ever before. The internet has really opened up new avenues for people to participate in our democracy, and it’s been my proudest achievement as Chairman that we’ve been able to capitalize on this trend and really bring these people into the fold. For example, when you’re talking about registering new voters, only a few years ago we were registering voters either by depending on campaigns to register exclusively their targeted voters, or by depending on committeemen to register new voters in their division usually for monetary incentive. That wasn’t good for the city and it’s not the way we should have been doing things. The internet really gave us no excuses, because now it’s so easy to email guidance counselors in high schools who run voter registration drives for high school seniors, or administration officials at senior citizen homes, or employers who give the forms to their employees. We’re able to use the internet to recruit our own volunteers for voter registration drives for areas of the city where most people do not have internet access. I see more and more voters, and especially informed voters, and that’s why we have to be so careful about making a new politics in Philadelphia.

TPR: What do you mean a new politics in Philadelphia?

Chairman: Politics in Philadelphia was often compared to the medieval feudal system, where you had several power brokers in control of their own sphere of influence, and they would have their personal tiffs and allegiances and battle among each other for more power or more influence, but mostly it was an unorganized multiplayer stalemate where power brokers focused more on blocking each other’s ambitions than actually improving our city. The thing that made this backward system still possible in the 21^st century was, as you know, the culture of pork barrel politics in Philadelphia where being elected to office basically meant that you and all your friends were getting rich. Fortunately, we’re beginning to do away with that system through a combination of holding our officials more accountable for their actions (or inactions) while in office, and making sure we elect the right candidates. The internet has been a big help in holding our officials more accountable, but we’re still trying to figure out how to elect the right candidates. One thing that might hold some promise in the future is limiting direct monetary payments to ward leaders. It used to be the case that if you were a candidate and you wanted to get elected you had to pay the ward leaders for the services of their committeemen, and the ward leaders basically sold to the highest bidder. We’re exploring the idea of putting caps on the amount of money ward leaders are able to accept from candidates and PACs. We’ve also begun sanctioning ward leaders that endorse candidates without a vote from their committeemen. There’s a lot of work to be done but I think we’re moving in the right direction. I mean, the fact that we are actually exploring options to fix these problems is a major step in the right direction, compared to the past.

TPR: Thank you so much for your time Chairman. I understand that you will be answering questions left in the comments section of this post?

Chairman: Yes I will. Hit me with your best shot.