Straight from the “politics as usual” playbook, the incumbent sought to bump both of her challengers from the April 22nd ballot.
She was successful on Monday, knocking off Arthur Barlow, but not quite so fortunate on Tuesday, deciding after six hours of futile efforts to keep Team Davis from overturning a mere 21 signatures from roughly 250 challenges.
Often times incumbents try to out-lawyer poorly funded challengers from staying on ballots. But because the Davis campaign is on course to raise more money than the incumbent, we were not going to be intimidated or out-resourced in the highly cynical fight Youngblood chose to start that has KO’d one challenger, but has left Byron Davis unscathed and the incumbent punch drunk.
Instead of doing the people’s work yesterday, Rep. Youngblood chose to spend the day in court looking to disqualify signatures of her constituents wanting to be part of the democratic process by helping fellow voters get a chance to choose from more than the incumbent to vote for on April 22nd.
While it is quite common that Philadelphia incumbents run in uncontested races, that tradition does little to strengthen our democracy or improve the electorate’s morale.
Youngblood’s choice to spend the day as plaintiff versus legislator is a telling indicator of the incumbent’s priorities (read: incumbency over public service). It might also suggest that after a 13-year tenure in Harrisburg representing tens of thousands of constituents, Youngblood is not able to muster a single trusted surrogate to whom she can delegate her legal busywork.
Does the incumbent’s behavior appear to be that of a bridge-builder? Not so much.
But enough about Youngblood. Our campaign is about new blood.
To get involved in our campaign “to make a change to make a difference”, please call us (215-667-8366), email us (joinus [at] davisforstaterep [dot] com) or simply complete our online volunteer questionnaire by clicking here.
