Racial Harmony Through Free Stuff

Above Average Jane directs me to something I missed in the December issue of Philadelphia magazine.

Weeks before Election Day, Local 98 boss John Dougherty sent a message to union members, 80 percent of whom are white: Don’t let Obama’s skin color impede your vote. Even more intriguing than his plea to bridge the racial divide was how it was delivered — J. Doc mailed 5,000 one-time-use MP3 players loaded with his pro-Obama stump speech, plus words from building trades manager Pat Gillespie, Rep. Pat Murphy and Senator Bob Casey. Operation MP3 ran a cool $90,000 — but Dougherty says it was worth it: “Everybody loved it. I even saw one on Craigslist for $150.”

What I really like is that Johnny Doc sounds like he was pretty stoked when he saw one of those MP3 players on eBay. (Also: One-time-use? Is that even possible? I guess so, but you think it’d be a cooler gift if it were an iPod Shuffle.)

Anyway, It’s good to know we’ve reached a point in society where just a little free MP3 player can turn even the most racist men into diversity-loving Obama voters. Or something like that.

Interesting Note From Dec. Phillymag [Above Average Jane]

Impending Tale Of Johnny Doc Doom

I feel bad for Brian Hickey, who left his job at Citypaper to work for Johnny Doc only to have Johnny Doc lose to a dude with the most annoying commercials ever. Ah, but such is politics, I suppose, and at least we have promises of an awesome blog post:

Coming later today, or maybe tomorrow, depending on how much work we have to do today to keep our fledgling organization to push John’s initiatives going strong, I’ll be offering a full breakdown on why the residents of the First District made out worse on Tuesday than either John or Anne Dicker; complete with a breakdown of how the city’s established media used a disgusting, all-out smear campaign to keep a good man down.

The bolding is his; God, that is pretty much the best sentence ever. I am so excited for this blog post and the detailing of the established media’s smear campaign to help Vince Fumo defeat Johnny Doc. Or something.

The Second Day After [Philly Blunt]

‘PW’ Chatted With The Losers!

PW’s Alli Katz was apparently not as tired of the election as I was and lugged a video camera all across the city yesterday, including the Famous 4th Street Deli. There, she interviewed Anne Dicker and Johnny Doc, who both lost to Larry Farnese in the First District Senate Race. What a sad video!

She also got video of Obama at Pat’s (of course) and a near-riot of Obama and Clinton supporters outside City Hall, putting my work ethic to shame.

Johnny Doc Supports Football

BradyDale noted the above poster on YoungPhillyPolitics that Johnny Doc apparently had around the Super Bowl.

John Dougherty is against drinking and driving. And he supports the Super Bowl! Where do you stand?

Johnny Doc Has A Posse

I believe this version of the music video for U2’s “Beautiful Day” is much, much better than the original.

[via Philebrity]

Johnny Doc Drama Online And Off

Sometime between Sunday and Monday, the campaign office of Christian DiCicco was broken into by nefarious thieves who cut a phone line and stole some polling data and position papers. DiCicco’s campaign says that polling data that cost $24,000 was stolen as well.

Oh, and his campaign also says it was Johnny Doc. DiCicco’s people are angry that a flat screen TV and a $500 radio weren’t taken. Well! Looks like DiCicco has the election locked up, since he’s spending five hundred dollars on radios. It must be a radio that can hear the secret burglary plans of political rivals.

Johnny Doc spokesman Frank Keel says the campaign had nothing to do with it. (Basically, Johnny Doc is too smart to hire a guy to break in to a rival pol’s office that he could be connected to, so there’s no sense worrying about it anyway.)

DiCicco says it’s “voter intimidation.” Remember when Sam Katz was intimidated with a bomb? Yeah, come on, whoever broke in. Nowadays politicians do cocaine off the asses of prostitutes on live television. You’re going to have to do better than this to get our attention. How about some white guys with clipboards in dark suits?

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I-95 Still Closed, To Reopen Tonight

Today’s second rush hour A.C. I-95 (after closing of I-95) is going rather smoothly, according to the radio. Rather smoothly, of course, means that Richmond Street has not devoured several cars in a giant potholes and Aramingo Avenue is not the exact location of Hell.

Officials say the stretch of the Delaware Expressway — oddly enough, we only refer to one of our interstate highways that runs parallel to a river by its name, and it’s not this one despite its technical name — between Aramingo and Girard will reopen after rush hour tonight after the giant crap crack in a support beam (pictured) is repaired.

This is the first shutdown of 95 since The Great 95 Tire Fire of 1996, which was just such a great time we all decided to do it again 12 years later. The highway shut down for a week back then, so this week’s two-day shutdown is just a big of mini-nostalgia.

As appears to be customary with every single news event in Philadelphia nowadays, Brian Hickey has issued a press release detailing how John Dougherty would prevent I-95 shutdowns as state senator. I didn’t read it, but I can only assume it means Johnny Doc would get a bunch of union members to hold up the highway themselves. Which, frankly, is just as good as Anne Dicker’s plan of preventing the casinos from opening and using unused poker chips to hold up the highway.

I-95 to reopen tonight [Inquirer]

State Senate Candidates Suck Up

Hey, all the First District candidates love the gays:

Two of the candidates - Anne Dicker and Larry Farnese - support gay marriage. John J. Dougherty says he is in favor of civil unions but would back legislation “to extend marriage to same-sex couples.” All three have promised to fight any effort to pass a constitutional amendment defining marriage as existing only between a man and a woman and say they back legislation banning discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Anne Dicker, you may know, is bisexual — but she’s married to a man, so don’t get your hopes up, ladies.

First District candidates woo Gayborhood [Inquirer]

Johnny Doc’s Heart Is Just Fine, Thanks

Okay, now that Vince Fumo apparently going to be okay, we can begin speculating: Does the heart attack make him look weak? No no, wait, let’s hold off; Johnny Doc has put off his campaign announcement at the South Philly playground.

For Immediate Release

Contact: Brian Hickey 215-400-xxxx

DOUGHERTY FOR SENATE CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCES POSTPONEMENT OF LAUNCH EVENT OUT OF RESPECT TO SENATOR FUMO’S CRITICAL HEALTH CONDITION

PHILADELPHIA, PA (March 3, 2008) — The campaign of John Dougherty, Democratic candidate for the Philadelphia’s First District Senate seat, has announced the postponement of its Tuesday, March 4th launch event at the Edward O’Malley (EOM) Recreation Center in South Philadelphia out of respect to the critical health condition of incumbent Senator Vince Fumo, who suffered a heart attack Sunday night, and his family.

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Johnny Doc: Fumo Stole My Trash

Johnny Doc is pissed! And why would the IBEW Local 98 business manager be upset? Why, of course: :He says Vince Fumo stole his trash.

Okay, so it wasn’t Vince Fumo himself who allegedly nabbed the trash of John Dougherty and Local 98 prez Harry Foy. But Doc says Fumo’s nonprofit group, Citizens Alliance — which you may remember from Fumo’s recent indictment — did the trash pilfering on March 16. Doc says Foy’s wife saw the Citizens Alliance trashmen and asked them what they were doing, and the garbagemen refused to answer and sped off, presumably leaving a trail of trash in their wake back to Citizens Alliance.

CA prez Christian DiCicco said through a spokesman they were just emptying an overflowing trash bin a resident had called and complained about. But Johnny Doc has another side:

“This was as brazen and outrageous a dirty stunt as I’ve ever seen,” Dougherty said yesterday in a news release. I am calling upon the Attorney General, the Governor and the state Legislature to immediately take over this corrupt and out-of-control organization and suspend its funding and operations pending a thorough state investigation.”

The article doesn’t say whether Johnny Doc was storing important items in his garbage or why Fumo would do a dastardly trick like cleaning up things for his rival. But I am sure Trashgate will go on for months, leaving the city on edge. Where’s the missing banana peel, hey Vince? Where’s the missing banana peel??

Trash talk: Doc blasts Fumo group [Daily News]