Quiñones Sánchez, Savage in tight battle for Philly Seventh District Council seat

For the lucky Philadelphian who gets to represent the Seventh District in City Council, there are only two ways out of office.

One is a swift political beating. The other is prison.

At least that's the story of the last 30 years in a district gashed into the city map from Kensington into the Northeast.

The trend started in 1980 with the indictment of popular Councilman Harry Jannotti, caught taking a bribe from a fake sheikh in the Abscam corruption sting. He quit three years later after 13 years in office and went on to serve 41/2 months in prison.

Three one-termers followed before Councilman Rick Mariano arrived in 1996, only to leave under indictment for corruption 10 years later.

His replacement, Danny Savage, lost the Democratic primary to Maria Quiñones Sánchez in May 2007, six months after he was sworn in. He served only 13 months.

Now Sánchez, the first Hispanic woman on Council, is trying to break the streak. But she, too, is finding her hold on the seat a precarious one in a rematch with Savage.

Sánchez, 42, of Norris Square, has spent a career with city government, community-development organizations, and Hispanic-oriented nonprofits.

She was instrumental in founding the state's first bilingual charter school as executive director of ASPIRA, the Latino advocacy group.

She mounted massive get-out-the-vote drives as regional director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration in the early 2000s.

She cosponsored a bill to eliminate the DROP retirement perk for elected officials at her first Council meeting. She took on Mayor Nutter to force the city to bear the costs of police for parades and festivals, and won. And she challenged conventional tax-policy wisdom in the city last year with an ambitious bill to change the business-privilege tax.

But Sánchez says it is her experience with all aspects of community development, from education to business to parks, that sets her apart.

"You do this and this and this," said Sánchez, ticking off the new park, school, homes, and supermarket in Fairhill, the city's poorest neighborhood. "So when you finish, it's not one ribbon-cutting, it's a transformation."

Those were among a number of examples of community development she talked about in a tour of the district, from Kensington and Frankford to Rhawnhurst and Bustleton.

But if Sánchez has gained recognition and respect across the city for tackling big issues, she is still encountering unrest in her district.

Savage says Sánchez has brought it on herself by not paying enough attention to her home base.

"Compare my 13 months to her four years, and it's like night and day," said Savage, a 39-year-old ward leader with deep roots in Frankford.

Savage enjoys political support from the Democratic City Committee and financial support from trade unions, particularly Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Savage says he will improve public safety and fight blight. He also would hire more probation and parole officers to fill a persistent shortage that hinders efforts to keep offenders from returning to jail.

Savage's platform includes term limits for Council, bonuses for workers who provide cost-savings ideas, and increased penalties for campaign-finance violations.

During his brief stint in office, he focused heavily on recreation centers and reviving the special services district along Frankford Avenue.

But sometimes it's connections that spell victory. Savage's party support will be magnified if ward leaders and committeemen bring out voters in what is expected to be a low-turnout election.

That leaves Sánchez with an uphill climb, those familiar with the district say.

"I think it's Danny's election to lose," said lawyer Daniel P. McElhatton, who won the seat from Jack Kelly in the 1991 general election, only to lose to Mariano in the 1995 primary. Sánchez disagrees with that assessment.

McElhatton lost in part because Democratic ward leaders in the district were against him - as they are against Sánchez. Eight of 11 voted to endorse Savage.

The Seventh District's politics are as tortured as some of its neighborhoods.

In 2006, a local mapping company declared the Seventh the country's most gerrymandered district. It captures the heart of the city's Hispanic community, but Latinos have been complaining for two decades that their voting base has been intentionally splintered.

Vote-rigging accusations are almost ritual.

A jury in 2001 convicted four party operatives of buying votes in a 1998 ward election, but deadlocked on two others - State Rep. Angel Cruz and ward leader Carlos Matos. Those charges would be dropped, but Matos would later serve time in a bribery case out of Atlantic City. In this race, Cruz is backing Savage; Matos is with Sánchez.

The Seventh's chunky bottom starts just above Center City and writhes up through eastern North Philadelphia, Kensington, Frankford, Fairhill, Hunting Park, Juniata Park, Castor, Rhawnhurst, and Bustleton.

Its lower, mostly Hispanic, end is poor - dirt poor.

The Seventh has four of the city's 15 poorest neighborhoods - Fairhill, North Philadelphia East, Juniata Park/Feltonville, and Hunting Park.

Fairhill is the city's poorest neighborhood by far, with a 63 percent poverty rate, according to census figures compiled by The Inquirer. No other neighborhood in the city surpasses 46 percent.

It is also changing. Between 2000 and 2010, the district gained 2,991 residents - losing more than 17,000 white residents and gaining 20,000 members of minorities.

That includes 5,585 new black constituents and 12,573 Latinos - the district is now nearly 50 percent Hispanic, heavily Puerto Rican. Blacks make up 22 percent, whites 21 percent, and Asians 5 percent. There are pockets of Russians and Brazilians.

Savage has worked for six years at the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, and before that was part-owner of a hair salon and owned his own record label, Fruition Records. His father, Timothy J., preceded him as 23d Ward leader and is now a federal judge.

Critics say Savage is but an extension of the fading Democratic ward system, and note that the Turnpike Commission is a haven for Democratic patronage jobs.

But few question Savage's commitment. He revived baseball, softball, and basketball leagues at Frankford's Deni Playground, where he continues to run the advisory council.

As a councilman, he fought to steer a $2 million field makeover for Gambrel Playground, complete with artificial turf, from the short-lived Fox show Operation Field Rescue. He funded a new handball court at Towey Playground in North Philadelphia. When volunteers at the Juniata Golf Course were told that the city would no longer run the course, he encouraged them to form a nonprofit.

Savage supports an end to perks for elected officials, such as city cars, and their participation in the DROP pension benefit. He would stop the temporary deactivation of fire companies known as "rolling brownouts," which the Nutter administration instituted in 2009.

Whoever wins will oversee a district that flows over important business arteries including Kensington Avenue, Frankford Avenue, American Street, Fifth Street, Roosevelt Boulevard, Hunting Park Avenue, and Bustleton Avenue.

Thomas H. Massaro, political adviser to Sánchez and fellow Council freshmen Curtis Jones Jr. and Bill Green, put the trio through a six-month policy boot camp in 2007, before they took office. He said the district's fate is tied to the city's.

"There's no scenario in which you turn the city around," Massaro said, "without turning the Seventh District around."

Age: 42.

Education: Lincoln University, master of human services.

Family: Married, two sons.

Occupation: City councilwoman, 2008-present.

Website: www.maria2011.com.

Age: 39.

Education: Holy Family University, bachelor of science, business administration.

Family: Divorced, one son.

Occupation: Regional office coordinator, Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission 2008- 11 (currently on leave).

Website: www.savageforcouncil.com.EndText