Last night, Jim Kenney [a member of city council and the original sponsor of the bill to repeal campaign finance legislation] did what we wanted him to do all along: He pulled his two bills that would effectively eliminate the donation limits for the Mayoral race. I will get to Kenney in a second, but, let's just talk about this for a second:

When the first bill was announced, it already had enough SPONSORS to give it a majority of votes to fly through the Council chamber, and on to Mayor Street (who said he would sign it.) So, you know, people could have argued that we were tilting at windmills and all that.

But, then something happened. People were outraged. Groups and associations were outraged. Through emails, phone calls, posts on blogs, statements from candidates, statements from groups like Philly Forward, Kenney being a part of this community, and an election for City Council being 90 days away, the bill will not even be heard.

That, my friends, is a big deal.

At around the same time, I was hanging out with Dan's brother Alex, who is managing Damon Robert's campaign for city council. He marveled that this win wsthe first time he can remember when "the machine blinked." They were actually scared of public pressure for the first time anyone could remember. We were all stunned that they actually seemed to be taking us seriously. This was a huge step forward for reform in the city, and one of the biggest victories the local reform movement has had (for now).

Earlier today, I caught the tail-end of a press conference and rally to pass clean election reform law in the city. Now, twenty-three candidates running for mayor and city council have signed the pledge, including three of the five major mayoral candidates (machine boss Bob Brady and multi-millionaire Tom Knox have not signed--no shock in either case). Among the city council candidates who signed the pledge was Dan's father, Irv Ackelsberg, who was at the rally today and who has long been a leader on clean government issues. Also, among the sponsors of the event were national groups like Public Campaign Action Fund and Common Cause, but also local blogs like Young Philly Politics. I know it is hard to see, but the large placard in the picture to the right lists the sponsors underneath the candidate signatures, and Young Philly Politics is right next to MoveOn.org. Now that is a local blog making waves! Further, the guy holding the placard is my friend Kevin Scott, who urged me to run for State Democratic Committee, and who masterminded our successful write-in campaign (the first ever successful write-in campaign for state committee). Kevin has done a lot of heavy lifting on this campaign, to the point where every candidate city now tells him that s/he knows what Kevin will say before he even opens his mouth. On the left is David Donnelly of the Public Campaign Action fund, and on the right is Marcia Gilbert of the Philadelphia Inquirer interviewing David for this story that was just posted.

This article is the first in a series that I plan to write over the next two weeks that will highlight some of the activists making change happen in Philadelphia, and some of the other campaigns and issues taking place besides the mayoral campaign (although I promise more about the mayoral campaign as well). The fights that are taking place in Philadelphia right now are very much a microcosm of progressive and reform movements to transform the both Democratic Party and governmental institutions around the country. It is a major front in the movement that I think Matt aptly calls "the open left" against an entrenched, corrupt, and ineffective establishment. Our failures and successes will have both national ramifications and national lessons, and thus this will be a major focus of my blogging over the next two weeks.

Next stop Casino Free Philadelphia.. I'll have some original video content for that one.