Category: Bob Small

Dem Incumbents Battle Challengers In Chester

By Bob Small

If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.

Eldridge Cleave

Incumbents William Morgan and Elizabeth Williams are facing challenges from Tamika M. Gibson and Fred Green in the Chester City Council in the May 16 Democrat Primary.

All participated in the League of Women Voters Forum available on YouTube.

“I hear a lot about plans that are supposed to be coming forward but you had six to eight years to put a plan in place and now because it’s election season, I hear what we’re planning to do,” Ms. Gibson said. “The plan has failed. We need a whole new administration to come forth to implement better plans to change the situation that Chester is in. The plans that you’ve already had don’t work. They haven’t worked. It’s time to get rid of the old and put something new in place so that we can move forward properly.” 

There are a number of YouTube videos of Tamika M. Gibson.

Fred Green is vice-president of Chester Upland School District, and has been a Salvation Army Board Member, a community liaison to Mayor and Council. For more information, see the following websites;

Councilman and Deputy Mayor William Morgan has a bachelor of science in communication from the University of Rhode Island. He was appointed to City Council, when Natis Nichols resigned in September 2016. He had worked for TD Bank as a Financial Services Rep.

Councilwoman and Director of Public Property and Recreation Elizabeth Williams has an associates in Early Childhood Education from Delaware County Community College. She has worked in various capacities for numerous insurance companies.  She is executive director for the Chester Democratic Party and vice-dhair for the Delaware County Democrats.

Dem Incumbents Battle Challengers In Chester

Ups And Downs Of Upper Darby

By Bob Small

The mayor’s race in Upper Darby has had numerous twists and turns. Incumbent Barbarann Keffer was arrested on Jan. 26 and charged with driving under the influence.

Since then, she has spent time in an alcohol rehabilitation program. She believes her drinking problem began during her time at Harvard, where she earned a degree in government.

On Feb. 7, Council President Brian Burke, citing a provision in the Upper Darby Charter, declared himself mayor while Ms. Keffer was undergoing alcoholism treatment.

Burke was not successful in his claim.

Mayor Keffer, a Democrat, had long been battling Burke, also a Democrat, along with councilmembers Matt Silva and Laura Wentz, also Democrats.

The Upper Darby Democratic Party had on July 28 taken Mayor Keffer’s side and issued a letter of condemnation against her three opponents.

The letter also criticized a perceived delay in the dispersion of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money.

It’s penultimate paragraph read: Ensure that Brian Burke, Laura Wentz, and Matt Silva do not hold elected office as Democrats again in Upper Darby Township

On March 2, Burke, a life-long Democrat, became a Republican to run for mayor.

Ms.. Wentz is on the primary ballot as an independent Democrat, battling Edward Brown, the endorsed Democratic candidate. Among her many accomplishments, Ms. Wentz has served as president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW). She graduated cum laude from Rider Univesity in 1993 with a B.A. in theater, and since 2002 has been a member of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local # 8.  She is also a founding member of Delco Now.

The endorsed Democratic candidate is Edward Brown, president of the Upper Darby School District Board of Directors. An employee of Lockheed Martin as a Cybersecurity Engineering Manager. His  masters degree from Drexel University is in Cybersecurity and Business Administration.  He is the father of three children.

Crime is an issue in the race. On April 21, Michael Garr, a 15-year-old, 10th grader at Upper Darby High School, was fatally stabbed in 200 block of Bridge Street.

3 Seek Dem Nod For Chester Mayor

By Bob Small

There’s a three way race for the Democratic nomination for Mayor of Chester.  Incumbent Thaddeus Kirkland is trying to hold off the challengers; City Councilman Stefan Roots and Realtor Pat Worrell.

The primary election is May 16.

Kirkland’s tenure has seen numerous scandals.

The Pennsylvania Ethics Commission ordered him to pay back $2,000 to the state.  He also received $15,000 in campaign finance contributions from individuals and entities connected to PFS V11 which has a parking contract connected with the City of Chester.  There’s more but space is limited.

Kirkland, who was previously a state representative, is pastor  of Community Baptist Church.  He has a Bachelor of Arts from Cheyney University.  He and his wife have five daughters.

Pat Worrell is owner and operator of the Worrell Real Estate firm. She is a member of the Chester Zoning Hearing Board and had served as chairwoman.

She has run for magisterial district judge (2011), state senate (2012) and County Council (2013).  She has been endorsed by PMBR (Philadelphia Metropolitan Board of Realty), Frank Daly, Estate Attorney, and NAREB (National Association of Real Estate Brokers.)

Stefan Roots is familiar to many of us from his occasional columns in both the Delco Times and The Swarthmorean.  In 2006, he launched the Chester Spotlight and currently edits the Chester Matters Blog

In January 2022 he was elected to Chester City Council.  He has a bachelors degree in electrical engineering  from Villanova.  He notes his campaign was championed by Todd Strine, co-owner of the Swarthmorean, and part of the wealthy Strine family.

He is crusading to shut down the Covanta trash-to-steam plant, which brings the city $8 million per year of 15 percent of its budget. It also generates electricity for 48,000 homes

He is not impressed with Kirkland.

“I work with the man every day and I haven’t seen or heard any vision coming from him,” he said.

There will be a virtual candidate forum on Wednesday, April 26^.

Then again, none of this may matter.

3 Seek Dem Nod For Chester Mayor

Ball of Confusion — Yeadon version

By Bob Small

Vote For Me and I’ll Set You Free  

The Temptations 1970

The Temptations – Ball of Confusion Lyrics

Yeadon, in Delaware County, PA, has seen an overabundance of confusion recently, and there is even some confusion in the Borough Council election. The Yeadon Borough Council removed the former police chief, popular with many members of the public, due to a charge of “overspending”. There were protests from both members of the public and dissenting council members.

There was also some controversy around Johanna McClinton’s choice as Pennsylvania’s first female  African-American Speaker of the House.  

Mark Rozzi, the previous Democratic speaker, stepped aside so that McClinton, whose 191st District includes Yeadon, could finally become speaker.

Yeadon claims to be the home of the original founder of Flag Day, though there are other contenders for that.

Yeadon boasts an all-female borough council. (Swarthmore, by contrast, has one token male borough council member.) For this election, there are three incumbents with five challengers, all of the Democratic Party persuasion. None of the challengers has a current campaign website, Facebook page, or any other electronic presence, which seems unusual in 2023. Nothing for the Yeadon Democratic Party either.

All eight Democrats were invited to a Yeadon Council candidate forum, but only two incumbents and two challengers attended. One would expect more energy from candidates running for vulnerable posts, but …

One of the challenger Candidates, Jessie Peets, said that after attending a Borough Council meeting at the urging of his social media feed, he “immediately saw that something was very wrong and he had to do something about it.”

Denise H. Stinson, also a challenger candidate observed that “You can agr3e to disagree but you don’t have to be mean about it.”

One might expect there to be more of a social media presence in this election but that may not be what wins elections.

Ball of Confusion — Yeadon version

Media Dem Incumbents Face Challenge From Environmental Activists

By Bob Small

It’s very rare that I find myself writing about one of my old “protest buddies,” and as one of them is now running for public office, I had to seize this opportunity.

In the Borough of Media, three of the incumbent Borough Council members are running again. 

I find it curious that the candidates are not listed in any of the following three web sites.

www.mediademocrats.com Media Democrats

https://www.delcodems.com Home – Delco

https://www.facebook.com › delcodems

However, the current Borough Council members are listed at this web site: 

Borough Council | Media Borough, PA,

The New Vision Democrats are running three candidates: Dell Jackson, Jen Malkoun, and Terry Rumsey. See their ten-point platform here:  

Dell Jackson is a Penn State graduate working in property maintenance.

“The candidates who are eligible for re-election have a combined 55 years of service on Borough Council,” he says.

Jen Malkoun is the Delaware County Director of Programs and Partnerships with Greener Partners.

A graduate of Goucher College, Jen recently joined the Blooming Glen Farm crew as assistant farm manager.

“When we lack diversity — whether in the natural world, or in the lived experiences of our community members — it is to our own disadvantage,” she said.

Terry Rumsey is the founder and president of Green Seeds.

Terry and his wife, Robin Lasersohn, have been proponents for “green space” activism in Media, and are founding members of Friends of Glen Providence Park and Keep Media Green.

“Today the slogan ‘Everybody’s Hometown’ feels superficial to me. I am tired of watching developers cut down trees in our urban forest to build McMansions for the wealthy,”Terry said. “I am tired of watching predatory real estate speculators ‘flip’ houses once lived in by working- and middle-class families to reap stunning profits.”

Back in the 1980’s, Terry and I worked against US intervention in Central America as part of Delco Pledge of Resistance.

Our activism included civil disobedience at the Upland Peace Camp.

Terry was also the co-owner of the late lamented Jumping Cow Coffeehouse at the Swarthmore train station, As poetry director of the coffeehouse, I scheduled anti-Apartheid activist and poet Dennis Brutus, among others. We worked together well then.

Media Dem Incumbents Face Challenge From Environmental Activists

Neil Young Challenging Dem Bosses In Swarthmore, My My Hey Hey

By Bob Small

For the first time in at least a decade, Swarthmore Democratic voters will have a choice when they vote for Borough Council in the May 16 primary election. Two incumbents, David Boonin and Jill Gaieski, are running for re-election. The third, Council President (and Delaware County Solicitor of Wills) Mary Walk, is not running for re-election. The Democratic Party-endorsed candidate is Steven Carp. However, there is also an independent Democrat with an easy-to-remember name, one Neil Young.

If you’ve attended recent Borough Council meetings, or read about them in The Swarthmorean, you are familiar with Young’s viewpoints.

“I would say a primary election which offers Swarthmore Democrats a choice of candidates is a sign of a healthy democracy,” said Young in an online interview. “Incumbents have to defend their record in office, and challenger candidates can offer an alternative . . . A long history of contested primaries, in my view, leads to a cozy complacency that has not served our borough well”

Young enjoyed his signature-gathering, during which he spent time “in the busiest points in town” meeting people and asking for their support. He hopes to use both legacy and online media and in-person meetings to get his message out.

He has worked for FMC Corp.,  and feels what he has learned there would be valuable assets for serving on the Borough Council. Young explains that he always tries “to seek the best outcome while avoiding personal conflict. I feel many of those skills have been missing from our council the last few years.”

“While Swarthmore has many fine qualities, it also faces significant challenges … it is clear to me there are many areas where the best interests of the entire community are not being represented,” Young said. “A lack of long-range planning, coupled with years of budget deficits and declining capital reserves, creates real doubt around whether the Swarthmore people know today will be financially viable, or affordable, tomorrow. It is my view that difficult conversations have been ignored, deferred, or delayed for many years” (my italics).

“Two thirds of the finance committee did not vote for the budget they worked on producing,” Young said.

Young ended by saying “worse that this though, and over many years, council meetings have been characterized by a lack of civility and decorum, with many meetings descending into unpleasant personal disputes.”