Pink Martini

Bob Brady and the LGBT community.

by Mary F. Patel

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Published: Mar 6, 2007

Gay leaders met with U.S. Rep. and Democratic mayoral candidate Bob Brady at Philadelphia Gay News publisher Mark Segal's house last Friday night to drink, eat and hang out.

Segal, one of Brady's campaign chairs, assembled restaurateurs of gay establishments, such as Michael Weiss, members of the Gay Tourism Caucus and the executive directors of the Attic Youth Center, the Mazzoni Center and ActionAIDS. While the names of the host committee are too numerous to list, it's worth noting that some of the guests had been at odds with Segal politically or personally, but now appear to be on the same page regarding their support of Brady.

"Brady has more LGBT support than all the other candidates for mayor combined, and you can quote me on that," said Segal, whose partner, Jason Villemez, is also a host committee member.

Attorney Jeff Goldman, another host, said he was supporting Brady because he believes Brady would be able to bring federal dollars into the city, in the same way former Mayor Ed Rendell was able to leverage his relationship with President Bill Clinton. Goldman added that he was looking beyond gay issues for a candidate.

"[State Rep. and mayoral candidate] Dwight Evans is probably the most supportive of gay issues," he said. "Bob is also understanding, but I am looking at the big picture for the city."

Other Brady supporters in attendance included former PGN associate publisher Rick Lombardo, now a special investigator with the state Department of Revenue, and Jennifer Vrana, president of the Liberty Gay Rodeo Association.

Vrana is preparing to bring a big gay rodeo to the city next year. Which makes us wonder: Will the good guys be wearing pink hats?

All About the Drinking

Despite the merriment, Brady had to leave his own event and head to Center City for the Young American PAC's (YAP) mayoral-candidate happy hour at Roosevelt's bar. The party was co-hosted by the Young Professionals Network (YPN) and Young Involved Philadelphia (YIP). (Between YAP, YPN and YIP, it seems there's a lot of overlap and a lot of young.)

YAP president Patricia Byrnes said she hoped the different organizations could work under one umbrella for the common cause: getting young people involved in the political process (not an easy thing to do with people who don't have or want a political job).

Of the three nonpartisan organizations, YAP is the oldest and the first of its kind in the city. It was co-founded 11 years ago by Eric Weinberg, a former legislative director for state Sen. Vincent Fumo, and David Urban, former chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter. (Both Weinberg and Urban left long ago and are now really big deals with their own lobbying firms.)

All the major Democratic mayoral candidates dropped in — Brady, Evans, U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, Tom Knox and Michael Nutter. Alas, GOP mayoral candidate Al Taubenberger wasn't seen.

Some of the candidates created exotic names for their concocted poison. (They'd given organizers their libation recipes before the event.)

Evans had the Crime Stopper: Ginger ale. The Knox Your Socks Off? A Washington Apple.

Brady was drinking Dewar's White with water, but he didn't come up with a name for it.

Did any of the mayoral candidates get drunk? Hard to tell, they did a really good job of hiding it from this reporter.

A must-stop bar table for the candidates was the one occupied by John Hawkins, a former YAP president, now a lobbyist at Wojdak & Associates. One of those stopping to chat and drink was Bill Green, who is running for City Council at-large.

Green, whose namesake father was mayor in the early 1980s, is an attorney at Pepper Hamilton. He said he is running on a platform of change. Heard that before? Maybe, but unlike many of the other "change" candidates, Green knows the political process well enough to have a chance of getting elected.

"I used to sit at the kitchen table with my father and discuss the same problems," he said. "Crime, schools and no economic development because of our tax structure. I am the most credible change candidate with a vision."

Green has assembled Rendell's old team for his campaign, which includes Trish Enright, Dan Fee and Neil Oxman.

The candidate camaraderie looked real — and maybe it was — at least that night. But chances are, the amity will be lost as the May primary gets closer and media consultants give into temptation and start airing negative TV ads.

(rcpatel@aol.com)

 

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