While running for mayor of Philadelphia as a Republican is a herculean task, David Oh is more than up for it.
By Denise Clay-Murray
We’ll start this story on Republican mayoral candidate David Oh with a number: 2003. That was the last year that a Republican had even a puncher’s chance of winning the Philadelphia Mayor’s race. It was a rematch between Mayor John Street and Sam Katz, the former chair of the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority and a documentary filmmaker, and a combination of name recognition and an FBI bug discovered in Street’s office that kept the race close. Because of the city’s 7-to-1 Democratic voter registration, many believe that the mayor’s race has already been settled and that Cherelle Parker, the winner of the Democratic primary, should start thinking about how she’d like to decorate the office.
Not so fast, Oh says. What he’s hearing on the campaign trail is telling him something different. What he’s hearing on the campaign trail is that while Parker enjoys a massive voter registration edge, the people connected to that voter registration edge aren’t necessarily all that enthusiastic about pulling that lever.
“They would support the winner of the Democratic primary if that person came out to see them or tried to talk to them or win over their vote or something like that, but she has not,” Oh said. “And so, they don’t feel like voting for her. They are not excited about her because she’s not coming out like they expected. They gave her a pass for the summer. They did expect to see her over the summer. They certainly saw me.”
And Oh believes that being seen is enough for him to win the day.
“Things on the campaign trail are amazingly good,” he said. “I could not have planned how good they are.”
In Part One of a two-part interview, the SUN sat down with Oh to talk about his latest trip on the campaign trail, how a cleaner Philadelphia will help the city prosper, why solving the city’s gun violence problems is going to take more than just policing, and what constitutes a “minority party.”
SUN: Thank you so much for giving us some of your time today. I really appreciate it.
DO: Thank you. It’s better than having the opposite happen.
SUN: You mean, not getting coverage?
DO: Yes. I had to deal with people not covering me. Although that has changed. It’s an interesting thing. But I was not getting coverage. And of course, [Democratic candidate Cherelle] Parker was getting all the fluff coverage. She was getting all the positive good stuff, and I was getting nothing or just negative, but that’s kind of changed now.
SUN: Well, we’re in the homestretch of the campaign right now. You mentioned that things were going well on the campaign trail. What are you hearing from voters?
DO: So, on the issues, the first thing is people are just so concerned about the lawlessness. Sure, it’s murder, gun violence, and violent crime, but it’s also just lawlessness in general. Which means the ATVs dirt bikes, the looting, the retail theft, the drag racing, the donuts and drifting in front of the Art Museum, in front of City Hall, and anywhere where most people would expect to see the laws enforced. The laws are not being enforced. Right now, [voters] are mostly concerned about their life and their health. A lot of people don’t venture out of their homes. They don’t want their kids going outside. Many people from the suburbs are not coming into Philadelphia and we need them to come in. We need them to come to work and pay the wage tax. We need the employers to pay the use and occupancy tax. We need tourists to come to our businesses such as restaurants and bars and concerts and things like that. And they’re not coming. A lot of people are planning to move out. A lot of people have already purchased guns. And these are not people who love guns. They’re people who don’t like guns and they really are, you know, kind of dismayed that now they’re gun owners. So, you know, on the issues, crime is far and above everything else.
SUN: So, what are voters hoping you can do about it, according to what you’re hearing on the campaign trail?
DO: The other thing I hear is that it’s time for change. I think people just feel that the power system in our city has been there so long, that they no longer feel that anything can happen to them. They don’t seem to care that people are upset. I think, quite frankly, that this campaign really emphasizes the idea that, you know, it doesn’t matter what [voters] think. The political machine is going to deliver through your mindless voting a winner on November 7, and it’s a foregone conclusion, and therefore there’s no need for anyone to do anything. And I think that’s how people are taking it.
SUN: Do you think that attitude is going to impact voter turnout? There was only a 26% turnout in the May primary. Will it be better or worse?
DO: I think that turnout is going to be lower.
SUN: Now, you’ve talked about crime and people’s feelings on crime. It’s one of the bigger issues that we have here in the city. But there are other issues too, particularly issues relating the city’s economics and poverty. What would fixing that look like in an Oh administration?
DO: To deal with crime, you can’t just fight crime. You have to do things that show people that things can be different. People’s faith in the government is at an all-time low. And I do explain is that in order to actually deal with crime, we have to, one, impress upon people that the government is doing something different. What we can do is that when the police show up, street cleaners show up and vacant lots are cleared out.
But to do that, you need money. And fundamentally, while people are so focused on crime and not getting hurt, they’re not really paying attention to the fact that there are a lot fewer jobs and there’s a lot less opportunity to start a business or to maintain your business. And so yeah, I do talk about the fact that our city is doing really poorly financially. Philadelphia [received] $1.4 billion [in COVID relief funds] for economic stimulus, but none of it went to economic stimulus. If it wasn’t for the federal government giving us money, we would probably be in a tremendous deficit and heading towards more problems.
So, the first thing is to stop the bleeding. Where’s the bleeding coming from? Well, it’s coming from over taxation. Over taxation sounds like such a Republican thing to say, and it normally is not taken well because people want taxes for city services, safety nets, and things like that. But right now, people are being pushed out of their homes and their communities. So, it’s not like it’s a minor thing. It’s a major thing. They’ve been wrongfully overtaxed many years in a row, and they have watched friends and neighbors, you know, sell their houses, or lose their homes. They’re looking at this continuous increase of property assessments that’s nowhere near accurate. So, they want relief. So, I am very focused on relieving the increasing cost of living and then the poor conditions and everything that limits that.
But then, we have to bring jobs in. I have been a strong advocate of the creative arts economy. I still am. It’s a tremendous opportunity for people and it’s immediate, it’s right there and they love it. The other thing is, we could bring in manufacturing and other types of jobs that are good paying jobs that are available to people, including those without a college or even high school degree. We also have to do something for our returning citizens; we have to provide jobs for them, and a pathway for them to be reunited with their community.
And so, how we exactly do that is what I talked to people about. For me, the global economy is a great, great place and as you know, I chaired the Committee on Global Opportunities, [and the] Creative/Innovative Economy. Innovation is something that we’re well suited to. So, the global economy is where I really want to bring in new investment dollars and new employers. I look at the fact that every diverse community of our city offers an opportunity for people to come in [and] enjoy it if it weren’t for the crime and the dirtiness of many of our ethnic or, you know, immigrant type communities. They will be tremendous places for people to visit, enjoy the food, enjoy the drink, and enjoy the authenticity of being in a community and neighborhood where English is not the first language and where the food is not, like, a Jack in a Box, and there’s traditional clothing and jewelry and music.
That’s offered in Philadelphia. You can always get Mexican food in any suburban mall, but it ain’t like South Philly’s Mexican community. You can get Chinese food in any suburban mall, but it ain’t Chinatown. It’s the same thing for our Haitian community, our Jamaican community, our Liberian community, and our Uzbek community. We have such a diversity of people.
I think [the diversity] is important for our city. That’s where the revenues are and I would say there’s money being made thanks to innovation. But the mayor has to figure out how we fairly tax people.
SUN: There’s a question I’ve always had regarding taxes. You’re talking about businesses being overtaxed, but let’s be honest here. Businesses use a lot of city services and should have to pay for them, right?
DO: Yeah. So, I agree with you, but there has to be a reasonable amount of tax. In other words, if I go to a restaurant, yeah, I want the best food. I want the tastiest food. I want the quickest service and all that. And I’ve got to pay for it. But if I’m paying way beyond what the competitors are charging, and I’m getting worse service, worse food, and fewer choices, you’re taking me for granted as a customer. Our city, in this case, is the entity and we are the ones providing the services. Well, we’re providing potholes in the road. We’re providing cracked sidewalks. We’re providing no police, no safety, no enforcement of the laws. We’re overtaxing the people, we’re overtaxing the businesses and the people resent it. Businesses resent it and a lot of businesses have left Philadelphia, impacting the residents.
SUN: Now if you win, City Council is going to look a lot different than it did when you left. There are going to be a lot of new faces and there may only be one Republican on Council if the Working Families Party has its way. Have you thought about that at all?
DO: [The Working Families Party] is technically a party. But, there are some problems with them because, first of all, I don’t know how many people are actually registered as Working Family. I think less than 500, and that might be too many. There’s over 100,000 registered Republicans. But all of the Working Families votes come from registered Democrats. Aren’t they just another group of Democrats? I think the issue about this is opposition. If the Working Families Party is just a way to run to more progressive Democrats, then they’re not really an opposition party. That’s what the charter is about. You want some level of scrutiny from an opposition party, a party that has an ability to offer a different perspective and to be a watchdog.
Next Week: Part II
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