Philadelphia Democrats Concerned About Low Turnout For General Election
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia's Democratic leaders are feeling the downside of ruling a one-party town. Turnout for the general election is expected to be so low that it could hurt their candidate's chances in the statewide judicial election on Tuesday.
Democrats have a shot at becoming the majority party on the supreme court and Philadelphia party leaders are especially interested in seeing family court judge Kevin Dougherty elected. But that would require a large turnout in the city, and with the mayoral election considered a foregone conclusion, they fear many voters will stay home.
Party chairman Bob Brady worries that Philadelphians won't come out simply to vote for Dougherty and his fellow democrats.
"It's the first time in, I don't know, since the 1700's or something that we could win the supreme court with three vacancies. They've never had that many vacancies in recent history," Brady said. "It's so important and it does affect people's every day lives, but we just can't get that across to them."
The party has been trying to generate interest. Last week, all 12 Democrats on city council endorsed Dougherty and Marion Tasco addressed the elephant in the room -- Dougherty is the brother of controversial electricians union leader John Dougherty.
"He came here by himself. He didn't come here attached to anyone else," Tasco said. "His mom said, 'this is Kevin. And Kevin's going to be Kevin and make it on his own.'"
That said, Dougherty received more than $300,000 in campaign contributions from electricians unions.
