Elections

Eryn Santamoor hopes to return to Philly City Hall with Council bid

Philadelphia City Council candidate Eryn Santamoor - photo provided

Philadelphia City Council candidate Eryn Santamoor - photo provided

Eryn Santamoor has a simple explanation for why she declared for one of Philadelphia City Council’s seven at-large seats, which are elected by voters citywide, in October of last year: to get a jump on fundraising, an area where incumbents historically trounce their less-connected challengers. 

Today, after eight months of campaigning, she’s already raised close to $50,000 in support of her bid, still 10 months out from the May 2019 Democratic Primary.

“I started raising money after Thanksgiving of last year. I’ve worked really hard to raise money and awareness before the end of that year, and I’ve already raised more money than some of the incumbents,” she said. “Of course, any of them could have a fundraiser tomorrow and double that.”

A former deputy managing director under Michael Nutter, Santamoor left late in that administration to work at Public Financial Management, a government consultancy that counsels fiscally distressed cities, like Reading. She quit that job last year to run for office full-time.

She says she hopes that if elected, her experience in the executive branch would make her a unique commodity in the chamber, which is dominated by lawyers and former political staffers.

“I think we need folks with a different skill set on council,” she said. “No one in council has worked as a city manager...if the city was a bank and no one on the board of supervisors had worked in a bank, that would be a problem.”

She said her top priority is increasing “resources” for schools. But much of her pitch for elected office centers on disrupting the sometimes-dysfunctional work culture of City Hall, where simple permits and licensing applications must still be submitted in person. Basic services in comparable cities, like regular street sweeping, count as pie-in-the-sky aspirations.

Santamoor said nuts-and-bolts issues can get written off as too wonkish to campaign on, but that there’s a winning formula in speaking to the issues that affect people every day.

There are so many things to fix in City Hall,” Santamoor said. “I know a lot about trash collection. It’s not sexy, but trash talks. People are sick and tired of dirty streets.”

Notably, Santamoor elided specific questions about her political alignment, even as centrist and progressive Democrats battle over what, exactly, the local party stands for.

“I’m a Democrat,” she said, after a pause. “Given the political climate right now, it’s very easy for us to divide up what a Democrat is and does. I think that’s dangerous. The only folks interested in Democrats dividing each other up are Republicans.”

To her progressive credentials, she notes that she is the daughter of a school teacher and a labor leader for a New York state manufacturing union. She also underscored her support for at least one initiative that many on council won’t touch: immediately opening safe injection sites to staunch the opioid overdose crisis. 

Even self-described progressives like Mayor Jim Kenney only support the idea in theory. Santamoor wants to take the idea a step further and have treatment be a broader doorway to anti-poverty efforts.

“I’ve been through recovery with several loved ones and I know what we’re doing now isn’t working,” she said. “There’s an opioid crisis that is killing people every day. We need a safe place for them to go. But we can’t just stop there...People who are dealing with substance abuse disorder, people that are in poverty, don’t just have one problem. We need to be dealing with this issue holistically.”

But in broad ways, the former Hillary Clinton campaigner tacks more towards a business-friendly version of progressivism that echoes her former boss’ tenure in City Hall. Santamoor added that she had sometimes clashed with her father over the future of labor unions.

“At the end of the day, all unions need to transition to 21st-century models that keep themselves sustained,” she said. “If you look at the city’s resources, for example, we need to be talking about pension reform. The union workers that earned their pensions should not lose out...but we need to be looking at getting out of defined benefit plans.”

She added that Nutter was “involved” in her campaign and “was always there for me to call.” It could be a mixed blessing: While some hailed Nutter’s efforts to clean up the City Hall bureaucracy, he also frequently clashed with council and was known for pitching sometimes unpopular budget cuts.

Santamoor acknowledged that many of her proposals fall more under the purview of the mayor’s office. Despite her background, she said she was keenly aware that she isn’t running to take over City Hall, but to serve as a colleague to the same people who once declared war on her former boss.

To her, those experiences are one of her biggest selling points.

“I think he governed during a really tough time,” she said, of Nutter. “But I learned a lot from him about how, sometimes, we have to make tough decisions during tough times.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.