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Council At-Large Primary Winner Skirts Questions Of A Deal

By Mike Dunn

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- This past Tuesday's primary battle for City Council at-large nominations ended with a relatively new name -- Derek Green -- as the top vote-getter. But, as KYW City Hall Bureau Chief Mike Dunn reports, a purported political deal may have helped.

Sixteen candidates were on the Democratic ballot for city council at-large, and 44-year old Derek Green topped them all. He says he didn't expect it.

"I was somewhat surprised. I can't lie about that. I was fortunate to have the number one ballot position, but also fortunate enough to be endorsed by a number of organizations from across the city."

Green is an attorney from the city's Northwest and a longtime counsel to the retiring City Councilwoman Marian Tasco. He attributes his showing in the primary to old-fashioned politicking.

"I was able to develop a lot of relationships with people from both the labor community and the business community, grass-roots organizers and just people across the city."

But the talk among insiders was of a deal: Councilwoman Tasco purportedly agreed to support Jim Kenney for mayor if Kenney supporters boosted Green's candidacy. For his part, Green dances around the question of whether there was a deal:

Green: "A number of people from all over the city encouraged me to get into the race."

Dunn: "But was there a deal?"

Green: "That's not something I was part of. I was just focused on going to going to the thousands of constituent forums, the candidate forums, to focus on running for City Council at-large."

Green also received help from an independent political action committee, Philadelphia 3.0, that heavily advertised for Green and other newcomers over incumbents on City Council. Green, though, was the only at-large candidate backed by Philadelphia 3.0 to win a party nomination.

Green received nearly 68,000 votes according to the city's still-unofficial tally. The number 2 vote-getter, realtor Allan Domb, received 62,000.

Going forward, Green must get through the formality of a can't-lose general election. And he's hoping that by the time the next council takes office in January, Governor Wolf's plan for more extensive state funding for schools has been settled... allowing council and the new mayor to deal with other matters:

"And as we go into January, we can focus not only on education but also small business development and try to address some of the issues of jobs and poverty in our city."

Green and two other newcomers -- Allan Domb and Helen Gym -- joined incumbents Blondell Reynolds Brown and Bill Greenlee in earning the five Democratic at-large nominations. Incumbents Wilson Goode and Ed Neilson fell short.

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