Long-simmering tensions between Philadelphia’s Democratic Party chair and Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign erupted in public after her loss on Wednesday.
As Democrats across the state were processing Harris’ defeat by former President Donald Trump, former U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, the party chair since 1988, unleashed a torrent of blame on the Harris campaign.
He questioned whether Harris should have replaced President Joe Biden on the ticket, speculated Gov. Josh Shapiro would have been a better pick for a running mate, and claimed the campaign didn’t respect ward leaders or give him a meeting with the vice president.
Brady said money was an issue, and criticized the Harris campaign for paying only about “half” of the money the city committee requested for its get-out-the-vote effort. Those funds, otherwise known as “street money,” are used to pay committee members to get out the vote.
He also said the campaign “didn’t show us any respect,” saying, “I never talked to the lady, and she’s the candidate.”
Harris’ campaign responded swiftly. A Harris campaign adviser provided a photo to The Inquirer of Brady alongside Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
And the campaign sharply criticized Brady, who has faced his own critics about his ability to turn out Democrats in the city.
Brendan McPhillips, a senior adviser to the Harris campaign in Pennsylvania, said in a statement that the vice president’s team “knocked more than two million doors in the weekend leading up to Election Day, which is two million more doors than Bob Brady’s organization can claim to have knocked during his entire tenure as party chairman.”
McPhillips added: “If there’s any immediate takeaway from Philadelphia’s turnout this cycle, it is that Chairman Brady’s decades-long practice of fleecing campaigns for money to make up for his own lack of fundraising ability or leadership is a worthless endeavor that no future campaign should ever be forced to entertain again.”
McPhillips said the Harris campaign staff and volunteers “should be applauded for their efforts in the face of an unprecedented campaign, and will no doubt be the ones who are going to dust themselves off and get back to work.”
Some city Democrats had criticized the campaign about a month ahead of Election Day, saying it wasn’t working closely enough with local leaders, but presidential campaigns often run independently of the party apparatus, and the consternation was largely quiet in the immediate lead-up to the election.
With results in, though, Brady was quick to blame the campaign.
Arms crossed defiantly in the Democratic City Committee headquarters, where ward leaders gathered to nosh on pizza and “lick their wounds” Wednesday, Brady pointed to the empty conference room where he said Democratic nominees from Bill Clinton to Joe Biden all came to pay their respects in person.
“Obama, Biden all came to say ‘hi’ to the ward leaders, that means something. They never showed up,” Brady said. “Not that I got an ego, but it shows the lack of respect that we do deserve.”
The Harris campaign had an expansive operation in Philadelphia, with several campaign offices in the city, and spent more ad dollars here than in any state, a bulk of it in the pricey Philadelphia media market. Harris visited Philadelphia 15 times.
Asked if he assumes any responsibility for Harris’ loss, as city chair, Brady said: “We did everything we could with limited resources we had, and people just rejected her and voted for him.”
Asked if he would remain in the post he has had for 36 years, Brady said that he’s “not going anywhere” and that he hadn’t heard any calls for him to give up the post.
“I’m not getting any backlash,” Brady said from the weekly “pizza with the chair” gathering. He said the Harris campaign invited him to an afternoon meeting of Democratic leaders in Washington on Wednesday. “Not a chance,” Brady said of going. “I never even met with the lady.”
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