Is the Philadelphia GOP on the Verge of Extinction?

As Republicans nationwide try to regroup for a new charge at power, the local GOP is just trying to survive.

By Dan Hirschhorn
Add Comment Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Mar. 30, 2009

The Pachyderm Party looks into its Philadelphia future, and it doesn't like what it sees.

Even by the low standards of the city’s beleaguered Republican Party, it was a proposal that one would have expected to prompt full-throated GOP outrage. The party was a couple months away from being spanked in local and national elections, but a Democratic City Councilman wanted to axe the two At-Large Council seats that the City Charter promises his Republican colleagues.

The legislation, introduced by Councilman Wilson Goode Jr., himself an At-Large member, would have reduced the number of At-Large seats from seven to five while also removing the provision guaranteeing two of those seats to the minority party.

The reaction from most city Republicans ranged from silent to sheepish.

“I know that we're set for extinction in this city, but I didn't think it would be this quick,” At-Large Republican Councilman Jack Kelly cracked when Goode floated the proposal in September.

News reports, of course, included the customary opposition quote from one of the city’s prominent Republicans, who can be counted on one hand. Mostly, though, it was a debate in which the party could only muster a whisper. Goode’s bill went nowhere.

The Council debate, though, was a potent reminder that, as Republicans across the country try to rebuild after two punishing election cycles, GOP members in Philly are just trying to survive. They’re outnumbered 6-1 in voter registration, haven’t held the mayor’s office in six decades and are nearing a brink of extinction that could be hard to step back from.

“They haven’t, unfortunately, been much of a factor for most of the last half-century,” the Committee of Seventy’s Zack Stalberg says. “But I hope that changes over time.”

Whether it does hinges on the party putting forward candidates who can at least perform respectably and shape public debate, unlike the 2007 Love Boat contest between Mayor Nutter and Republican Al Taubenberger (the good-sport Republican garnered 17 percent of the vote). Young Republican activists have been more vocal in their calls to action, and party elders hope some strong candidates will finally come forward in coming elections.

Al Schmidt could be one of those candidates. The former executive director of the local GOP is running for city controller this year. Incumbent Democrat Al Butkovitz actually has a primary on his hands, and while few would dare predict a Schmidt win in November, an uncontested Republican primary could give Schmidt time to at least make a showing.

“I think our party has failed to be as active as it ought to be in proposing solutions to the challenges facing our city, particularly at this time of fiscal crisis,” Schmidt says.

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