Blackwell easily retains seat on Phila. City Council

Incumbent City Council member Jannie Blackwell soundly defeated opponent Prentice Cole in Tuesday's election. Jannie Blackwell has done it once again. The incumbent City Council member -- who represents West Philadelphia -- earned a sweeping victory in last night's Democratic Primary against local entrepreneur Prentice Cole, who was seeking to unseat Blackwell as City Council's Third District member. With 97.3 percent of city precincts reporting, Blackwell received 12,979 votes, eclipsing Cole's total of 4,441. Blackwell, who has served on City Council since 1992, claims to have pumped $2 billion worth of development into West Philadelphia -- including a $450 million cancer research center at Penn and $40 million in affordable housing -- and has worked with Penn administration on a number of issues throughout her two terms. "Anybody who walks through West Philadelphia has seen this community changed in terms of housing? in terms of job creation and certainly in terms of how our overall community district looks," Blackwell said at a local debate last month. Blackwell's area revitalization plan, entitled "West Philadelphia on the Move," aims to make streets cleaner and safer and encourage reinvestment in the community. "We deal with social service, but also the economic base in terms of jobs, housing and companies moving in and expanding," Blackwell told The Philadelphia Inquirer last week. Blackwell has a history in politics extending back to 1975, when she served as an aide to her husband, former City Council member Lucien Blackwell. Lucien Blackwell held the West Philadelphia seat from 1975 until Blackwell took over in 1992. As the votes were counted Tuesday night, Blackwell held a steady and significant lead -- about 75 percent of the vote -- over Cole, who hoped to draw on his record as a leader in several community organizations to overpower Blackwell's familiar name and greater financial means. Cole, a 1976 Penn graduate and long-time West Philadelphia resident, has criticized Blackwell for her focus on issues like homeless and poverty while ignoring the middle class of her district. "When Jannie wanted to exempt West Philadelphia [from the controversial Sidewalk Behavior Bill], we realized that while she was representing the homeless, she was neglecting the middle class," Cole told the Inquirer last week. Blackwell, Council's current Finance Committee Chair, overcame several potential hurdles during her campaign: Cole received endorsement from both the Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News while Blackwell received negative press when her former aide, Michael Youngblood was convicted on 34 counts of extortion and bank fraud in connection with a homeless shelter project. However, these events seem to have had little, if any, effect on her electoral success.

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