“I don’t believe we should have so many laws we don’t know when we’re breaking them.” — Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, In Today’s Inquirer.
RELATED: The ethics reforms were derailed last month, when a resolution enabling legislation to change Philadelphia’s Home Rule Charter failed. The resolution would have let voters decide by a ballot question on the May primary whether charter amendments should be permitted to empower City Council to enact ethics reforms….Jannie Blackwell voted against the resolution, which required two-thirds of City’s Council’s votes to pass. [via PHILADELPHIA BUSINESS JOURNAL]
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RELATED: Blackwell noted her lone opposition to the ethics-reform legislation, which set limits for campaign contributors who want to do business with the city. Critics say those limits have left the field vulnerable to a self-funded candidate such as Knox, who has spent at least $8 million of his own fortune to emerge from obscurity to lead recent polls. [via the INQUIRER]
RELATED: Blackwell‘s old-school insder, ward-leader driven top-down version of Philly politics predates John Street. It might be more accurate to say that Jannie inherited a political machine from her husband Lu Blackwell, that Street very much modeled himself on. He himself has said repeatedly that Lu Blackwell was his #1 politcal influence.This model of party boss politics is one Philadelphia’s sad and outdated legacies that needs to change. It fosters corruption and waste and is hurting our city terribly. Maybe 30 years ago, people thought it was enough to have a top-down party boss as long as that party boss was “one of their own”. But its pretty clear that this system is slowly killing our city and not helping to improve the situation for anyone, least of all African Americans in West Philly. [via PHILLYBLOG]
[Photo by MIKE REGAN/CITYPAPER]