Door to Door in Philadelphia-Committeepeople

People active as block captains are often clueless as to the role that committee people are supposed to play. That's too bad, because an active committeeperson can be a real asset to a neighborhood.

I was a committeeperson for 14 years in three different wards and the ward leader of the 13th Ward back in 1978. As a Councilman-At-Large in the 1980's, I hired several committee people to perform constituent service since the best committee people (and there are plenty of them) do this better than anyone else.

Committee people are party officers, not City employees, with the formal responsibility to get out the vote and win victories for the candidates of their choice. Whatever money they receive on Election Day comes from their wards and (occasionally) candidates who are trying to work around or against a ward leader - not the City. So blaming the City for what happens with committee people is not fair. The line of blame goes from the committeeperson to the ward leader.

But if a committeeperson takes his or her job seriously - the job being to get out the vote - -then they will work hard to help people solve block and neighborhood problems because that's the way you can persuade people to vote. The nastiest comment a voter can make to a committeeperson on Election Day is, "We don't see you until it's Election Day." That's another way of saying, 'Who the hell cares what you think?' in response to the sample 'approved' ballot that the committee person distributes on Election Day. Not good at all.

Good committee people take block captains seriously. In fact, I became a block captain after I was elected committeeperson back in 1976 because I saw it as a great way to help my neighbors and get them to vote in response. It worked well. We increased registration by 50% and I was able to get a higher than average turnout in every election. Why? People voted because they knew I was fighting for our blocks and the neighborhood and that if they voted, that gave us more clout in City Hall.

It's important to understand where the committeeperson's clout in City Hall lies - City Council. City Council is rooted in the ward system. Six of the nine Democratic Council people are ward leaders.  Most of the Republican State Representatives are also ward leaders. They'll work through the one Republican District Councilman on matters related to the City. And all of them will respond to their own committee people.

The committee person calls either the ward leader or City Council person and they get faster service. Council is the key here. When a Council office calls a department, the department listens - or there's hell to pay the next time the City Budget hearings come up. And when a committeeperson calls a Council office, he gets a good response, because committee people and ward leaders elect the Council.

There's a good way to deal with an ineffective committee person: elect someone else. It happens a lot. But we just had those elections so you'll have to wait four years to do that.

But you can get the same clout as a committeeperson simply by going down your block, registering every vote, and making sure that they vote in every election. If you start delivering results to your block, your committee people will appreciate it and Council people will listen to you as well. Call the ward leader. Tell what you're going to do. Occasionally a ward leader will even force a committee person to resign if he/she isn't getting results. A call from you will be taken seriously.

Comments

[Monique R. Woods-Goodman]

hello, I was reading your article about being a commiteeperson. I was wondering how do you become a committee person? I live in the city of philadelphia.

[Telly Jenkins]

I live in the Hunting Park area of Philadelphia and I feel like it's pretty crappy around here. From the looks of the neighborhood it's obvious that the committee people aren't that active in the community or doing anything substantional to contribute to improving. It's working class, low income with an almost great depression type of atmosphere. I feel like it's time to start raising awareness about other things besides guns and violence. Things like education, career management, and micro-enterprising. Low income communities can build wealth just like any other community. What approach would you recommend to get that message out to commitee people to at least get involved in raising awareness?