Primarily, No Primary

by Mary F. Patel

Gov. Ed Rendell flexed some political muscle last week in urging Bob Casey Jr. to run against Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum next year. No matter that Casey, whom Rendell defeated in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, was elected state treasurer only last November. He has been drafted by Rendell, who, just last fall was praising the accomplishments (and political-affiliation conversion) of Barbara Hafer.

Hafer, who was the two-term state treasurer before Casey was elected, jumped from Republican to Democrat with the hopes of winning the Democratic nomination for Senate. Now, the two would-be contenders for Santorum's seat, Hafer and Joe Hoeffel, who was recently defeated by incumbent U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, have bowed out of the primary at Rendell's request. It's starting to look like there will be no real primary for next year's Democratic U.S. Senate candidate except, of course, for fringe candidates like Charles Pennacchio.

There is a theory that Rendell has not completely abandoned Hafer. Some speculate that Specter, who was diagnosed with cancer last month, may retire early in his six-year term and that Rendell has promised to appoint Hafer to fill it out. Hafer will later run for his seat. (The governor has the power to choose anyone he likes to fill out the term of a vacated U.S. Senate seat.) Former Gov. Bob Casey Sr. appointed Harris Wofford to fill the Senate seat of John Heinz III after he was killed in a 1991 plane crash. Wofford lost to the ultraconservative Santorum in 1994, primarily because he ran a lousy campaign.

Integrity Leaves the Police Department

Ellen Green-Ceisler resigned her post as director of the Philadelphia Police Department's Office of Integrity and Accountability last Monday to set up her run for Common Pleas Court judge. She's already filed her nomination petitions in Harrisburg.

"Working here for over seven years is enough," she said. "It's hard to change institutions. But as a judge, I can affect positive change on individuals."

As the watchdog of the police department, Green-Ceisler issued her final report last week. Addressing officers who were involved in shootings from 1998 to 2003, the report was a mixed bag, reporting on some areas where the department "did well" and others where Green-Ceisler says she sees "significant room for improvement."

Green-Ceisler had served at the pleasure of the mayor. Deborah Bolling, spokeswoman for the mayor's office, said there was no decision yet on her replacement.

Gay News

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank will celebrate his 65th birthday at an April 1 fund-raiser for Liberty City Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club. For more information about the event, contact Michael Weiss at almyer@aol.com.

Eighties "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" chanteuse Cyndi Lauper will be the featured performer at the Independence Hall shindig during the Equality Forum on May 1. Log onto www.equalityforum.com for more information.

Raise the Roofie Awareness

The epidemic of date rape, also called "acquaintance rape," has not disappeared from college campuses. Just ask Rel Dowdell, a young filmmaker from Fairmount whose Train Ride short was released in 1996. It's a thriller about a college freshman who gets into trouble when he slips the drug Rohypnol into a female freshman's drink at a party, leading to a gang rape. Dowdell was working on a feature-length expansion of his film when it was picked up by Sony RuffNation. Next week, the movie will be released nationally on DVD.

"This is an epidemic and I wanted to make people aware," said the 31-year-old Dowdell, who also teaches screenwriting at Boston University and English at the Community College of Philadelphia. "Rohypnol leaves you completely unconscious — with no memory — and is hard to prove as a crime."

The film has been well-received at film festivals nationally.

"The public doesn't even know the beginning of what's going on at campuses," said Larry DeMarco, an attorney who focuses on representing plaintiffs in these cases. The aggressors, he says, "pick freshman women out of what they call the "Freshman Pig Book' and decide ahead of time who they like and then invite them to their parties and slip them the drug. And later, the women are shocked, feel shame and confusion when they realize what happened, and sadly, so few of these crimes get reported."

Train Ride was filmed at Cheyney University and is based on a fictitious college. Dowdell, whose film is about black students, said his movie transcends race.

"Date rape is ubiquitous. It's about black, white, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, completely interracial. Look at what happened at La Salle University," he says, referring to the scandal in which multiple rape accusations have been levied against members of the men's basketball team. "And they are a mainstream university."