By Patrick Kerkstra

– It was, in the main, a very good night for Democrats. And Philadelphia being a Democratic town, the list of winners in this election is a lot longer than the losers.
The Winners

1. Big city liberals

Pennsylvanians put two Allegheny County residents and one Philadelphian on the state’s highest court yesterday. Jim Kenney, a rowhouse champion with big labor backing, swept to an easy victory. Cities turned up big yesterday in Pennsylvania.

2. John Dougherty

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Johnny Doc had a really good election day. His brother, Kevin M. Dougherty, won a seat on the state Supreme Court. Kevin Dougherty was the top vote-winning Supreme Court candidate statewide. His victory speaks well of him, of course: Kevin Dougherty is a well regarded Common Pleas Court judge. But it also says plenty about Johnny Doc’s statewide juice. This was the most expensive state Supreme Court race in U.S. history, and Doc just crushed it.

3. Marian Tasco and Dwight Evans

Their joint victory was really won in the primary, but it was sealed last night when two of their proteges — Cherelle Parker and Derek Green — were formally elected to City Council, and their endorsed mayoral choice Jim Kenney won running away. At a time when Chaka Fattah’s political organization is reeling, and Anthony Williams‘ is still recovering from his crushing defeat in the mayoral primary, the Evans and Tasco-led Northwest coalition is making big, big moves. They’re looking to capitalize on that momentum: Evans announced Monday that he’ll challenge Fattah in the 2nd Congressional District.

4. Helen Gym and other Council newcomers

The first-time candidate and fierce public schools advocate was the top vote-getter in the City Council at-large race. Gym racked up about 143,000 votes, or about 8,000 more than Democratic incumbent William Greenlee, which gives her bragging rights and a modest boost in political capital as she joins Council. The Democrats all got way more than needed to win, as expected. But it seems notable that the order of finish featured newcomers 1. Gym, 2. Derek Green and 3. Allan Domb, with incumbents Blondell Reynolds Brown and Greenlee bringing up the rear.

5. Jim Kenney

He won in commanding fashion, just as he was expected to. Kenney has seemed a bit uncomfortable during this weird non-campaign campaign. Now he’s mayor-elect, and the stage is clearly his. Look for him to hit the ground running, with a lot of staff announcements far earlier than Nutter made them. His team has been working on the transition more than the campaign itself. That made sense, given the competition. It was the best use of Kenney’s time. But it has kept Kenney out of the spotlight. Now he needs to seize it.
6. Melissa Murray Bailey

She was destroyed at the polls, and raised only a pittance. And yet, Bailey acquitted herself as well as a wildly overmatched candidate could. If she wants it, she has a future in the city’s Republican party.

7. Christopher Sawyer

This atypical, muckraking, aisle-crossing GOP sheriff candidate was the top Republican vote-winner in Tuesday’s election. He got 9,000 more votes than did Republican mayoral nominee Melissa Murray Bailey, and he was running in an ultra-obscure office that plenty of voters opt not to vote for at all. Sawyer, who runs Philadeliquency, can build on this.

8. Labor

Dougherty’s Local 98 used its statewide leverage and local street muscle to help elect three Democrats to the Supreme Court. The PFT-endorsed Helen Gym topped all Council candidates in votes. And it looks like Taubenberger — backed by the PFT, the police and firefighter unions and other labor groups — has won a Council seat. Dan Tinney, another labor favorite in the GOP Council race, placed a solid fourth. That’s a strong showing for labor.

9. Al Schmidt

The Republican was re-elected as City Commissioner, but that was automatic. All the commissioners were unopposed. Schmidt makes the winners list because he is single-handedly making the long somnolent Commissioners office — which runs elections in this town — a go-to source for deeply researched voting data. His office produced a fascinating, totally non-partisan analysis of bullet voting last month, for instance. This is work that goes above and beyond the formal duties of his office. Compare that to Anthony Clark, the incumbent Democrat and chair of the City Commissioners, who rarely votes and rarely comes into the office that he theoretically runs. And yeah, Clark was also re-elected. No word yet on whether or not he voted yesterday.

The Losers

1. Pennsylvania Republicans

The easy Democratic sweep of three Supreme Court seats is a huge, huge development — and a crushing defeat for the GOP. This race was supposed to be really close. It wasn’t. Now Democrats have what could be a very durable majority on the high court. That’s likely to yield rulings on an array of hot-button issues that Republicans won’t like, not to mention more favorable redistricting for Democrats. For the state GOP, this election was a hugely consequential embarrassment.

2. Andrew Stober

The City Council at-large candidate was conducting a fascinating experiment: can a well-funded, highly-qualified Independent candidate with big-name endorsements compete against city Republicans? The clear answer, right now, is “No.” Not close. Stober finished 6th out of nine non-Democratic at-large Council candidates. His 16,000 votes were just 4,881 more than Kristin Combs, the Green party candidate, who campaigned with way less money and received considerably less media attention than Stober. Today, in an email to supporters, Stober pointed out that he, Combs and other non-GOP candidates received about 32,000 votes — which is a lot more than the past record of 6,000 votes cast for non-Republican candidates.

Perhaps that will lead other independents to explore this route in the future. But to have a shot at winning, they’ll either need much greater name recognition than Stober had, or a lot more money.

3. The Philly GOP’s insurgent wing

Incumbent GOP councilman Dennis O’Brien will likely lose his seat when all the votes are counted. But if he does, he’ll be replaced by challenger Al Taubenberger, who’s very much a part of the city’s GOP establishment. Terry Tracy, the young candidate who represented the new guard in Philadelphia’s Republican party, finished fifth.

4. Mayor Nutter

The guy probably doesn’t care, and I can’t think of a good reason why he should, but Nutter’s endorsed City Council picks — Stober, Greenlee, Green and Brown — did not fare particularly well, as a group. Stober was smoked. And Brown and Greenlee finished fourth and fifth in the Democratic race, respectively. Green did well, but so did Gym and Domb, who Nutter snubbed.

5. Row office reform

There are some really smart people who think the city’s elected row offices — that’d be Sheriff, Register of Wills and the City Commissioners — shouldn’t be elected positions at all. Voters seem not to agree. Or at least, they’re not bothered enough to register their objections at the polls.

MIA City Commissioner Anthony Clark ran unchallenged by a Republican, and he collected nearly 153,000 votes; or about 116,000 more votes than incumbent GOP Commissioner Al Schmidt (who we mentioned above as basically a super-commissioner). Meanwhile, Democratic Register of Wills Ron Donatucci was re-elected to a TENTH four-year term, against opponent Ross Feinberg, who vowed to disband the office if elected. So much for row office reform — for now, at least.

Source – http://www.phillymag.com/citified/2015/11/04/election-winners-losers/#jhTddhLGBzq1yMTi.99

By The Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO

Mayor
Jim Kenney

City Council At-Large
Blondell Reynolds-Brown – D
Helen Gym – D
William K. Greenlee – D
Allan Domb – D
Derek S. Green – D
Daniel Tinney – R

City Council by District
1. Mark F. Squilla
2. Kenyatta Johnson
3. Jannie L. Blackwell
4. Curtis J. Jones Jr.
5. Darrell L. Clarke
6. Bobby Henon
7. Maria Quinones Sanchez
8. Cindy Bass
9. Cherelle Parker
10. Brian J. O’Neill

Sheriff
Jewell Williams

Register of Wills
Ronald R. Donatucci

City Commissioner
Lisa M. Deeley – D
Anthony Clark – D
Al Schmidt – R

Supreme Court
Judge Kevin Dougherty — D
Judge David Wecht — D
Judge Christine Donohue — D

Superior Court
Alice Beck-Dubow — D

Commonwealth Court
Mike Wojcik — D

Source – http://www.pa.aflcio.org/philaflcio/index.cfm?action=article&articleID=0C7A64F7-C8CD-4B21-92D2-F3A1813A6982

By The Pa. AFL-CIO

– Tuesday, November 3, the polls will open at 7am for one of the most consequential elections in Pennsylvania’s history. Three of the seven positions on the State Supreme Court are on the ballot – something which has not happened since the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia.

The Supreme Court is our last line of defense – and this anti-union and anti-worker state legislature in Harrisburg has proven that they are out to silence our voices, to erode our retirement security, to drive down wages, and to privatize every function of government from education to roads to public safety.

We are fortunate right now to have a Governor who is not afraid to veto these attacks, but by electing David Wecht, Kevin Dougherty, and Christine Donohue tomorrow – it is likely that Democrats will hold the majority on the Supreme Court for the next 10-15 years. This will not only put the Court in a position to strike down unconstitutional attacks on workers’ rights, civil rights, and voting rights – as they did when throwing out the Voter ID law – it will also take redistricting power away from the Republican party who have used that process so effectively to disenfranchise voters all across the State.

Most of us will never again see an election with so much potential to affect the future of Pennsylvania’s State Government. Please be sure to take advantage of this opportunity and VOTE tomorrow. Polls are open from 7am to 8pm. If you are unsure of our polling place, you can visit www.VotesPA.com to find out where you need to go.

Supreme Court (Vote for THREE):

Judge David Wecht
Judge Kevin Dougherty
Judge Christine Donohue

Superior Court:

Alice Beck-Dubow

Commonwealth Court:

Michael Wojcik

Comments

Source – http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=6672

By PETER JACKSON, Associated Press

– Tuesday’s election has to be daunting for Republicans running for three open seats on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Of the $10.5 million in campaign contributions reported by the seven candidates through Monday, more than three-quarters flowed to the Democrats. TV ads supporting the Democrats are airing more than twice as often as pro-GOP ads.

Politically, the election is important because of the unprecedented number of openings, the result of resignations by two disgraced justices and the retirement of a third.

Democrats hope to win all three seats to lock in a majority for at least the next decade that could play a crucial role in the legislative redistricting that will follow the 2020 census. But a low turnout and other factors could get in the way.

Source – http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/87785-dems-hope-to-claim-all-three-open-seats-on-pas-highest-court-

By Tony James

– In early 2014, President Barack Obama paid a visit to a local Costco. He wasn’t there to get a good deal on tires or a big-screen TV but to use Costco as a platform to advocate a higher minimum wage. That’s because the retail giant (where I am lead director) has proved that businesses can perform better by paying more. Costco pays some of the highest wages in retail—almost twice the minimum wage.

And guess what, it’s doing great. At a time when debate over raising the minimum wage is front and center, I have a message for my colleagues in business: We are missing the boat. Knee-jerk opposition is wrong, because as I have seen at Costco and other companies, raising wages will be good for business.

There are three key reasons. First, it will accelerate growth of the economy. Second, it will increase labor productivity. And third, it will reduce government support payments and the pressure to raise taxes on business.

For the past 50 years, the U.S. has allowed its minimum wage to plummet, to the point where in real terms our minimum wage today is back where it was in the late 1930s. We have squeezed consumer demand and sapped economic growth.

Many businesses and their advocates argue that higher labor costs from an increased minimum wage would hurt jobs. But in fact, higher wages on a national scale will accelerate growth by triggering higher demand for the very sectors that pay low wages, more than offsetting the higher costs. This is why many studies show higher wages do not cost jobs.

When you raise the minimum wage, you give more money to the people with the highest propensity to spend. If you give consumers a one-dollar tax rebate or other one-time break, they spend only about 50 cents. If you increase their incomes by a dollar, however, they actually spend more than that dollar, because they also use more credit. This direct spending increase from higher wages then has an additional 1.5-times multiplier effect that ripples through the entire economy.

If the federal minimum wage were raised to $12 per hour, that would raise wages either directly or indirectly for over 20 percent of American workers. It would raise incomes by over $80 billion and add $200 billion of economic activity as the multiplier effect cascades throughout the economy. And that’s just the beginning, because a higher minimum wage would actually trickle up, causing other incomes to rise, too. All told, this would drive a 1 to 2 percent near-term jump in gross domestic product.

If a rise in wages is instituted nationally, a level playing field is maintained that avoids artificially legislating winners and losers. Businesses will adjust to constraints uniformly applied, and each business will still try to find a way to win from innovation, improved productivity or price increases. Rather than continually driving down real wages and demand, we will benefit our entire economy.

It is also important to note that jobs that pay minimum wage are heavily concentrated in non-tradable services with restaurants and retailers. These jobs are hard to replace by imports or automation—and the low-wage workers in these places tend to spend locally—so their added income would recycle into the local economy, benefiting the very businesses affected by higher wages.

The second reason business should embrace a higher minimum wage is productivity. Higher wages make businesses stronger because they can find savings and more effective workforces through lower turnover, reduced training costs and more responsive and committed employees. This is precisely what we have seen at Costco—and what many of my colleagues at other well-paying companies have discovered as well. I think we can all agree that no one can actually live on $7.25 an hour, so it makes perfect sense that people who earn that will spend most of their energies trying to find something else to do.

And finally, businesses will benefit from a higher minimum wage because it reduces required government support payments and encourages people to work, ultimately reducing pressure to raise taxes.

Think about an unemployed or underemployed worker today. It’s likely that this person is receiving substantial government support. If that person gets a job, they forfeit much of this government assistance—and with the current $7.25 minimum wage, there’s little incentive to do that. In many cases, they would be working simply to offset the loss of government assistance.

A higher minimum wage would empower people to support themselves and significantly reduce government welfare spending. And unlike many other social programs, it rewards people for working.

It’s time for all business leaders to see what’s become increasingly clear. Our economy has been stalled for more than a decade. We must ignite growth. Zero real interest rates and trillions of dollars of corporate cash shows that we have enough savings. We need more demand!

At a time of rising income inequality, let’s not just hope for prosperity to trickle down. Let’s put resources where they are needed most and lift the entire economy with them.

Source – http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/10/message-to-my-fellow-execs-raise-wages-213308?can_id=ab76fd614f84b80c3a2274040cbd6683&source=email-todays-headlines-jobs-with-justice-102915&email_referrer=todays-headlines-jobs-with-justice-102915