Philadelphia Democrat Ward bosses are not happy at the news.
Posted on 04/11/2008 6:03:29 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Fourteen months into a campaign that has the feel of a movement, Sen. Barack Obama has collided with the gritty political traditions of Philadelphia, where ward bosses love their candidates, but also expect them to pay up.
The dispute centers on the dispensing of "street money," a long-standing Philadelphia ritual in which candidates deliver cash to the city's Democratic operatives in return for getting out the vote.
Flush with payments from well-funded campaigns, the ward leaders and Democratic Party bosses typically spread out the cash in the days before the election, handing $10, $20 and $50 bills to the foot soldiers and loyalists who make up the party's workforce.
It is all legal -- but Obama's people are telling the local bosses he won't pay.
That sets up a culture clash, pitting a candidate who promises to transform American politics against the realities of a local political system important to his presidential hopes. Pennsylvania holds its primary April 22.
Obama's posture confounds neighborhood political leaders sympathetic to his cause. They caution that if the senator from Illinois withholds money that gubernatorial, mayoral and presidential candidates have willingly paid out for decades, there could be defections to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. And the Clinton campaign, in contrast, will oblige in forking over the money, these ward leaders predict.
"We've heard directly from the Obama organizer who organizes our ward, and he told us it's an entirely volunteer organization and that I should not expect to see anything from the Obama campaign other than ads on TV and the support that volunteers are giving us," said Greg Paulmier, a ward leader in the northwest part of the city.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Perhaps he hasn't been truthful about his fund raising success.
Perhaps Obama’s campaign is having the same problem Howie Dean had — his components were in promises, not all in actual cash.
‘components’ should be ‘contributions’.
Who do you think Benjamin Franklin would support?
Of course it is. They're Democrats!
Hmmm......, a liberal not wanting to hand out his own (campaign) cash to others......
He’s bucking the trend of libs paying for votes. The handout crowd ain’t gonna like it.
We'll see how long that is...
Don’t know about losing the Philly vote, but he sure has lost the small town Pa vote.
Walking around money. Buying votes with a pack of cigarettes.
Knock and drag using ex-cons who go through a neighborhood several times on election day; you’d better have a GOOD reason why you aren’t going to the poll.
And some think that having a “receipt” showing who you voted for would be a GOOD idea.
The vote is for sale to the highest bidder. On ebay, that can be a penny.
“a candidate who promises to transform American politics”
If you scratch a little below the surface, there is precious little about this candidate that indicates anything other than an old-school Chi-town dirty pol.
Bad move. He is refusing to pay the goons that drive all of the dead voters to the polls.
Philadelphia Democrat Ward bosses are not happy at the news.
Sometimes the media makes this game just too easy to play.
His campaign feels more like passing a kidney stone.
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