Bob Brady
Here's my first in my, Philadelphia Mayoral Race 2007 series. I started to do this all for one blog post, but researching just Brady took me pretty long. I figured if I broke it up, it would be much less daunting.
Initial Impressions
I associate him with the whole shady machine town Philly. I have no reason for doing so, it might be completely unfair, but there you have it.
Actual Research
From what I can tell, Bob Brady actually is a machine town operative, who came up from, and is still heavily involved with labor. He's extremely connected within the local Democratic Party. ABSCAM is mentioned in his Wikipedia entry. But he wasn't implicated in any of it from what I can tell. In fairness, I think if you lived in Philadelphia in the 70's, ABSCAM is mentioned in articles about you.
Open Secrets shows that his money comes first from individual donors, then from PAC's. It also shows that he gets more money from labor then business. Someone on his campaign bothered to fill out a Project Vote Smart questionnaire. (This is a good thing to me. His staff at least makes a nod towards transparency.) As listed in Project Vote Smart, his positions are pretty straight down the line what you would expect from a Philadelphia Democrat. On The Issues backs up that his reported positions match his votes. His campaign site starts on the crime issue, but also reaches into Education, and Housing and the Business Tax issues. (See that Scott?)
Researching Brady made me more favorable towards him. Not sure if it's enough to vote for him yet, but it's not impossible that I will.
