A Tale of Two Cities

The 1999 Philadelphia Mayoral Election

Abstract

Race was the defining issue of the 1999 Philadelphia mayoral election. In an overwhelmingly Democratic city, the Democratic candidate, an African-American with two decades of experience in local government, narrowly defeated the white Republican candidate with little experience in Philadelphia government. Examining the results of the primary and general elections, the author finds that the vote was sharply divided along racial lines, even though the candidates in the general election refrained from racial appeals and ran issue-oriented campaigns. In big city politics, race thus still matters.