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Why is reform so hard?
By Ed Goppelt
Tuesday, 10/24/06
(1161719722232)
Reforming our government is not easy. Ask Brett Mandel, the Executive Director of Philadelphia Forward the small non-profit that led the charge a while back to reform our City’s antiquated tax system. “You don’t get big victories,” said Mandel, who left a high powered policy job with the City to form his one man reform effort back in March, 2004. “You get small victories and constant set backs.”
Mandel thinks it’s the lack of competition in Philadelphia politics that makes it impossible for good policies to replace the bad policies that pervade our city government. Those in charge of Philadelphia “can pursue policies that don’t make sense because there is no one to run against them.”
Mandel has invited political consultant Neil Oxman to tell those interested in reform how to achieve “real and lasting political change” for Philadelphia. Oxman will speak at 7:30 pm tomorrow at Friends Select at 17th and the Parkway—the event is free.
As a media consultant the fifty-five year old Oxman helps politicians win elections by taking their personality and message and distilling it into a 30 second TV commercial which then persuades people—lots of people—to vote for his candidate. A 1986 Inquirer piece on Oxman described him as “a lawyer by training, a professional golf caddy by avocation and a media consultant by trade.”
In a 2005 editorial decrying the backroom deals that have plagued development of the Delaware River, the Inquirer wrote that “Neil Oxman, an acerbic and successful political consultant, has a favorite saying about our beloved city: Philadelphia is a city run by 500 people primarily for the benefit of those 500 people.”
“This is an age-old Philadelphia tradition:” opined the Inquirer “Government creates chokepoints or barriers on the path to economic development, largely to give members of the Philly 500 a chance to attach themselves like barnacles to business deals.”
Mandel hopes ultimately to create what he calls a constituency for change with the will—and clout—to effect real change. “Lots of people want change,” said Mandel but they’re usually narrowly focused on a particular issue—saving Burholome Park from development or abolishing the City’s business privilege tax for example. “Let’s gather folks who care about change in different areas and see if it is possible come together around a core group of reforms, a group of reforms that everybody agrees on.”
“When the Eagles wanted to have a stadium, they hired lobbyists. When the plumbers didn’t want flushless urinals in the Comcast Center they didn’t write a report about it, they fought politically.”
What: Media Constultant Neil Oxman speaks to reform and how
to achieve it
When: Tomorrow, Wednesday, October 25, 2006 at 7:30 pm
Where: Friends Select School, 17th and JFK Parkway
Cost: Free
More info: Philadelphia Forward web site
Oxman has helped politicians such as Wilson Goode and Ed Rendell into the mayor’s office. He also backed a few losing horses, including Sam Katz in his bid for mayor in 1999 and Lynn Yeakel who lost by a hair to Sen. Arlen Specter in 1992. He is currently advising Governor Rendell on his campaign for reelection.