Today in mayor's race fights: Diaz attacks Williams
Former Common Pleas Judge Nelson Diaz today became the latest Democratic mayoral candidate to criticize Williams, who has said the School District of Philadelphia should consider accepting a $35 million donation from the PSP to grow the number of charter schools.
You might have heard this before, but a lot of people aren't happy with state Sen. Anthony Williams over that whole Philadelphia School Partnership issue from last week.
(For a quick recap, click here, because we're going to go crazy if we write it all out again.)
Former Common Pleas Judge Nelson Diaz today became the latest Democratic mayoral candidate to criticize Williams, who has said the School District of Philadelphia should consider accepting a $35 million donation from the PSP to grow the number of charter schools.
Here's the statement Diaz's campaign just sent to media types like PhillyClout:
"Our children deserve a plan that will work for everyone, not one that kneecaps funding for public education," said Judge Diaz. "We shouldn't hold school funding hostage to demands of Sen. Williams' shadow campaign committee. If Sen. Williams cares about our children, he should tell his mysterious backers to support after-school or extracurricular programs open to every Philadelphian, as I proposed earlier this week, rather than attaching unacceptable strings to their offer."
BACKGROUND
Sen. Williams came out in full support of the PSP's $35M charter school expansion offer this week. The proposed funding is only sufficient to cover about 7% of the proposal's cost to the school district. (Source: Philly.com, February 11 and February 5)
Supporters of Sen. Williams recently formed a "SuperPAC" to support his candidacy. During Williams 2010 Gubernatorial campaign, these donors gave Sen. Williams $5,000,000 in campaign contributions, and they are closely linked to PSP and its political action committee. (Source: WHYY, February 9 and February 2)
While not technically illegal, the activity goes against the clear intent of Philadelphia's campaign finance laws and is part of a broader pattern in which Sen. Williams has sought what Judge Diaz has described as "new and creative ways to flout our campaign finance laws" that one Democratic consultant described as "wrong...scummy." (Source: PhillyVoice.com, January 16)"