The May 19, 2009 City Primary Surprise

Linda Thompson and the Reed Team Machine
　
The day after Linda Thompson blew out Mayor Steven R. Reed, all I saw was panic in the eyes of people after a few minutes of shock. Most of the people outside Harrisburg felt the shock. The people who lived under Mayor Reed most of their adult life felt helpless. Everyone said that they did not see this coming. So why didn’t they see this coming since it has been coming for the last 4 years? Signs of these political changes can be seen like a 60 box car freight train with its horn blaring.
　
SenatorJeffrey E. Piccola was shocked when he was told the news. It is his job to see such change coming. Dr. G. Terry Madonna is Director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs, Professor of Public Affairs, and Director of the Franklin and Marshall College Poll. He joined F&M in May, 2004. For more than 30 years, Madonna has taught and written about his two academic specialties: the American presidency, and American political parties and political behavior. As a pollster in recent years, he has written extensively about voters and voting behavior. Madonna founded the Keystone Poll in 1992, the oldest survey produced exclusively in Pennsylvania. In 2008, the Keystone Poll was renamed the Franklin and Marshall College Poll. In this capacity, he is the pollster for the Philadelphia Daily News, Times-Shamrock Newspapers, WGAL-TV (Lancaster), the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, and WTAE-TV (Pittsburgh)--media partners for the Franklin and Marshall College Poll. He has also polled for KYW-TV (Philadelphia), Fox 29-TV (Philadelphia), CN8, The Comcast Network, WITF-TV (Harrisburg), public television, the Lancaster New Era., and the Harrisburg Patriot News. He did not see this coming and was as shocked as everyone else.

So what happened? Why were the politicians from the side chair political experts at your neighborhood bar to the governor surprised by this election?

The Harrisburg Colony

I moved to this area in 1985 and into the city in 2002. I noticed when I moved here that the Harrisburg Area was still in the 1930s. The people here had an old idea about race, religion, and class. "Jim Crow" was alive and well here. Mayor Reed was elected to control the lower classes for the area business community. Harrisburg is nothing more than a colony run by Mayor Reed, kept in power by both political parties to house the Pennsylvania State activities in the City. It is his job to control the masses so that the state can do business in safety.

It was never to Mayor Reed’s advantage to register minorities in the City. In fact, it was never to his advantage to create a City full of politically educated citizens. Blacks in the City were given some of the lowest paying jobs in the area. Just like in slavery times, the Reed Machine would hire a few high paid Blacks to keep control of others. This was a practice in the Harrisburg area for some time. Blacks who came from other areas of the country to settle in Harrisburg found few opportunities and many left just as fast as they came.

Both Blacks and Whites in Central Pennsylvania look upon people whose grandparents did not grow up here as "Carpet Baggers" and treat them as such. Here is the reason why Les Ford, as educated and as accomplished as he is, did not stand a chance of winning this election.

White people in Harrisburg had this idea that two Blacks were running to become Mayor. They did the math. Two Black people into the Black voting block and they will divide the Black vote equally. So Mayor Reed should win with no problem at all. The Reed Machine thought this. Even some misinformed Black people thought the same way. But Linda Thompson and her political advisor Attorney James Ellison never gave this idea a thought because they knew Les was not from Harrisburg.

As Les campaigned, he talked about all his great accomplishments in Philadelphia. The more he talked the more votes he lost. If anything, he took votes away from Mayor Reed. On election night, James Ellison had mocked poll numbers released by the media a few weeks ago that showed Reed with a lead of 44 percent to Thompson’s 29 percent. "What they didn't realize was that the game had changed," Ellison said. "That's how dinosaurs become fossils."

What Changed?

Mayor Reed was at the height of his political power at the turn of the 21st Century. The change in Harrisburg’s political society came when the EPA shut down the obsolete incinerator. Mayor Reed decided to upgrade the incinerator but needed $125 Million to do it. At that time, Richard House was President of City Council. He was a Reed Team player. His job was to get this incinerator bill passed for the Mayor. But in this case, the issue drew to much attention inside and outside Harrisburg. Too much was being written about this issue and told to the public. Now City Council meetings were being packed to the point of people standing in the hall. TV20, the City TV Station was narrow casting the City Council and Administration Meetings. Too much was being documented and too much was being said to the public.

Mayor Reed did not care; after all he controls the media and what the public thinks. He had Mr. House pass the spending bill with all its provisions attached. But what the Mayor did not know was that Richard House asked one of his citizens to review Barlow’s Management Reports and report back to City Council on incinerator activities. Newly elected Council Woman Linda Thompson also monitored incinerator activities privately and secretly.

The Mayor was still in the age of typewriters, TV, and Newspapers as the major source of information. He never graduated to the age of Personal Computers. His people believe that only the rich and educated have access to computers. They didn’t understand that the libraries are packed with people who use email and the web for information. The Reed Team did not understand that most office workers in the area have Personal Computers at their desk, using them for email and web information. Nor did they understand that networks of people are online passing information back and forth. Even without central information from the established media, people in Harrisburg were finding out for the first time that Mayor Reed was not the efficient leader that they thought he was. As time went by, the Reed Team Supporters moved away from the City and every year supporters aged and died.

Every problem issue that came up was circulated by "up start" Blogging news people like Roxbury and Jersey Mike. Others with large mailing list of Harrisburg residents sent City news about the issues discuss in City Council Committee Meetings to City residents.

The Mayor ran a slate of City Council people every two years. He ran this slate to turnover City Council Members who would not blindly follow his wishes. That way he could have complete control over City property, City money, City issues, and City people. But by 2007, the Mayor ran a slate of people against incumbents who had their own constituency. Linda Thompson in 2005 showed that she was powerful enough to stand independently of Reed and by 2007 was able to support other City Council candidates. Now the public knew how Mayor Reed worked. As a result, only 1 of 3 City Reed Team people made it to City Council in the 2007 Primary.
　
Obamaism Came to Harrisburg

January 2008 saw the birth of Obamaism in the City of Harrisburg. Obama had a different idea of campaigning. Black candidates ran for President before but this person seemed to be a serious candidate with the ability to win primary elections. His "Yes We Can" attitude started catching on in the City of Harrisburg as his local organization recruited men and women of every race and nationality. They came from every age group, especially the young. The Mayor and the Governor supported Hillary Clinton in the primary. Obama handedly carried Harrisburg and Mayor Reed’s promise to deliver the City to Clinton was not fulfilled. The Primary of 2008 showed everyone just how much the Mayor’s power and influence weakened in the area. That set the stage for the May 2009 Primary Election.

The established political machine in Harrisburg and the surrounding communities did not understand that Obamaism registered new people and trained hundreds of new political volunteers. The Reed Team ignored these people because they only worked with the people inside their circle of friends. They never tried to go out and recruit new people. In fact, they discouraged voter participation and voter registration unless they knew that they could count on them at the polls. They believed in poll intimidation of new voters.

The Ministarium was ignored by the Reed Administration. They did not want the Harrisburg Incinerator restarted. As predicted, the project was a great disaster. Only a few ministers that received small contracts sided with the mayor. The Ministarium gave their support to Linda Thompson. That was the last nail in the coffin that finished Reed.

This is why the pollsters and the establish press and politicians did not see the Linda Thompson landslide coming. They were still in the election campaign of 2001 not the campaign of 2009. They never understood that the rules have changed and that new people were coming to vote. They never figured out that Linda Thompson started with a well experienced campaign machine made up of Obama campaign workers. They never understood that the people now comprehend how Mayor Reed’s management style affected them personally. This all came together as a perfect storm that blew in Election Day May 19, 2009.

Harrisburg’s Future

In this election you had other organizations running slates in competition with the Reed Team. Councilman Dan Miller who will take over as Controller ran a slate of City Council Candidates. "The Committee to Retire Mayor Reed" chaired by a Citizen, Joyce Hamburg also ran a slate of candidates. Kelly Summerford,. a citizen’s back candidate took the fourth spot on City Council beating one of the Reed Team members. They also backed Linda Thompson for Mayor.

In the future, you will see candidates for City Council backed by local organizations with interests in various regions of the City.