Mark Cohen ADA Questionnaire & Numa St. Louis ADA Questionnaire

James Roebuck ADA Questionnaire

Babette Josephs ADA Questionnaire & Brian Sims ADA Questionnaire

Daylin Leach ADA Questionnaire

Will Sylianteng ADA Questionnaire

Mike Hays ADA Questionnaire

Manan Trivedi ADA Questionnaire

The second answer however, is that you do have to prepare for the general election in November and here is the information you’ll need.

In order to vote under the new voter ID law, you must present one of the following forms of ID:

 A current Pennsylvania driver’s license, or one that expired after November 2011;

 A current Pennsylvania photo ID card issued by Penn DOT, or one that expired after November 2011;

 A current U.S. passport;

 A U.S. military or Pennsylvania National Guard photo ID (note: it must include “a designation that the expiration date is indefinite”);

 A U.S. government-issued photo ID, e.g., agency employee, armed services, etc.;

 A current employee photo ID issued by a Pennsylvania county, city, town, township or borough;

 A current photo ID issued by a Pennsylvania college or university (note that only ID’s containing an expiration date can be used. For instance, University of Pittsburgh’s IDs are accepted, but Penn State, LaSalle and Drexel’s are not.); or

 A current photo ID issued by a licensed nursing, personal care or assisted living facility (note that only ID’s containing an expiration date can be used);

If the person does not have one of these ID’s, they will have to obtain an ID from Penn DOT. In order to do so, they must produce an official Social Security card and one of the following types of identification:

 An original birth certificate, i.e., one that has a “raised seal.” (You can’t use a photocopy or a hospital registration. );

 U.S. citizenship certificate;

 Naturalization certificate; or

 Valid U.S. passport.

In addition to the identification documents described above, the applicant for photo ID must present two forms of proof of residency from the following list:

 Tax records

 Lease agreement

 Mortgage documents

 W 2 form

 Current gun/firearm permit

 Current utility bill

If you have any questions or comments regarding the types of photo ID that meet the requirements of the Commonwealth Election Code and what types do not, please contact the City Commissioners Office at 215-686-3460 or HYPERLINK “mailto:vote@phila.gov” jorge.santana@phila.gov.

City Commission, City Hall Room 130, Philadelphia, PA 19107
PH. 215-686-3460 FX. 215-587-9107 www.phila.gov/commissioners

Office of the City Commission Chair, City Hall Room 130, Philadelphia, PA 19107
PH. 215-686-3460 FX. 215-587-9107 http://phillyelection.com/

MARK COHEN AND NUMA ST. LOUIS –  State Representative of the 202^nd District. Both candidates in this race were endorsed

MIKE HAYS – State Representative of the 26^th District.

BABETTE JOSEPHS AND BRIAN SIMS – State Representative of the 182^nd District. Both candidates in this race were endorsed.

ANDREW KLEEMAN – State Representative of the 195^th District.

DAYLIN LEACH – State Senate from the 17^th District.

JAMES ROEBUCK – State Representative of the 188^th District

WILL SYLIANTENG –  State Representative of the 151^st District.

MANAN TRIVEDI – Congress in the 6^thDistrict

ADA Endorsement Questionnaire State Office

ADA Endorsement Questionnaire Federal Offices

In a time when we are increasingly worried about party polarization and the Republican Party’s extreme rightward swing, ADA is pleased to endorse good government candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties.

The reign of Commissioner Marge Tartaglione is finally coming to a close after many decades. But reform will not be accomplished unless Democrat Stephanie Singer, who beat Tartaglione, replaces her as chairperson. The only way that can happen is if Republican Al Schmidt is elected instead of Republican incumbent, Joseph Duda. Otherwise incumbent Democrat Anthony Clark, a supporter of Tartaglione, will likely become Chair since Duda and Clark will vote for him.  ADA has found Al Schmidt to be intelligent, thoughtful, and dedicated to ensuring that registration and voting in Philadelphia proceed in an accessible, transparent, and accountable manner.  Vote Singer and Schmidt.

For City Council at- Large, we have endorsed the five Democratic candidates and Republican Dennis O’Brien.  Seven At-Large Councilpeople will be elected and we think that O’Brien, who served 16 terms in the State Legislature, recently working with Democrats on legislative reform proposals, will be an excellent addition to City Council.   O’Brien will bring a wealth of legislative experience to City Council, and a passionate concern for the city of Philadelphia and for public education.

We also endorse Mayor Nutter for a second term, both District Council candidates Maria Quinones Sanchez (District 7) and Cindy Bass (District 8), Katherine Boockvar for Commonwealth Court, and Diana Anhalt and Barbara McDermott for Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.

You will be asked to vote to retain sitting judges for another 10 years. All judges at the state level have been recommended by the Bar Association, but three Philadelphia judges have been rated unqualified: James M. Lynn and Robert Rebstock for Common Pleas Court and James DeLeon for Municipal Court.

The growing attacks from the right against abortion rights, gun control, immigrants, and environmental regulations need your vigilant attention and weekly contacts with your elected officials in Congress.

And we urge you to contact your State legislators and the Governor to oppose school vouchers, fracking and cuts in the staffing of state agencies that make it increasingly difficult for people in need to access services such as food stamps and energy assistance. Find your elected officials at: http://guide.seventy.org

ADA supports the Occupy Philadelphia movement across the nation and globe in opposition to growing income inequality, unemployment, foreclosures, and cuts in human services. People of all ages and ethnicities have joined this protest on the west side of City Hall in Philadelphia. Come and show your support.

It is sad to see how relevant these quotes from the FDR Memorial are today—some 80 years later:
“No country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources.
Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance.
Morally, it is the greatest menace to our social order.”

Please go to the polls on November 8th and demonstrate using the ballot box!

Commonwealth Court                         #102 Kathryn Boockvar

Philadelphia Common Pleas Court          #105 Diana Anhalt,  #111 Christopher Mallios, Jr.,# 112 Barbara McDermott, #123 Drew Aldinger,#138 Sayde Ladov

Mayor                                                         #164 Michael Nutter

City Commissioner                             #169 Stephanie Singer

Sheriff                                                         #173  John Kromer

Council at Large          #179  Blondell Reynolds Brown,  #180 Sherrie Cohen     #187 Andrew Toy

District Council               In two districts we recommend you pick from several candidates.

District 1                                               Vern Anastasio, Joe Grace, or Jeff Hornstein.

District 2                                               Barbara Capozzi

District 7                                               Maria Quinones Sanchez

District 8                                              Cindy Bass or Greg Paulmier

While these offices don’t have the stature of the presidency, they have great influence in our day-to-day lives as well as serious impact on our community wellbeing.  We know our ADA members will get out and vote.   We urge you also to increase voter participation in this important but often overlooked election by sharing these endorsements and recommendations with your friends and neighbors.

Glenavie Norton

Chair

Philadelphia has had many political and community activists over the years. We have had only one Lenora Berson.

Lenora died earlier this month at the age of 83. She was an impassioned advocate who could teach a class, do social work, organize testimony and demonstrations,write speeches, lobby elected officials, initiate candidacies for public office, mastermind election campaigns, write articles and books, take photographs worthy of being shown in art galleries, promote Philadelphia’s hidden gems, and organize events to promote the city that no else had thought of.

She was a woman of many ideas, some of which contradicted each other. But she would work through the contradictions, and arrive at courses of action. She was an activist centrist liberal Democrat, who helped interest both my father and Angel Ortiz in being council members at large, and continuously worked for candidates in tune with her ideas. She helped organize the Center City Reform Democrats, and was a key stratgist and organizer of her husband Norman Berson campaigns for the state house from 1966 through 1980, and Babette Joseph’s campaigns from 1982 onward.

There was always passsion behind her judgment, and the willingness to put in a great amount of time and effort for a cause that engaged her passions. She was a mainstay of the Americans for Democratic Action’s Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter, and she helped it achieve a powerful second act as a leader of the anti-Rizzo and post-Rizzo reform movements long after its initial heroes Joe Clark (an early Chairman of the group) and Richardson Dilworth had left the scene.

Most important perhaps was her belief in Center City as a neighborhood and residential destination. Her mother had co-founded the Center City Residents Association after World War II, and when she and Norman settled in Center City after getting married, it was a decision that some questioned. Why live in such a dubious neighborhood, friends wanted to know. But she believed in Center City’s potential from the start, and patiently outlasted those who saw it as a future slum. When its success as a neighborhood had been assured, she redoubled her efforts to make sure that the interests of residents did not get lost in the shuffle. She was as tenacious as a zoning advocate as she was tenacious in so much else.

As her restless, fertile mind race from position to position, from action to action, from cause to cause, it is unlikely that anyone agreed with her 100% of the time. Frank Rizzo met her and seemed to want to throttle her, she said. Michael Nutter joked to about 250 people at her memorial service today that until she died, he was always scared of her. Her energy and passion were valuable to any cause she agreed with, and a threat to any cause she opposed. In arenas with strong personalities, hers was one of the strongest.

Benjamin Franklin was likely the first to say that the highest office in the United States is that of citizen. Her life and multiple careers exemplified that. Those who know will miss her goadings to action, her achievements,her analyses, her support. And Philadelphia as a whole will miss a woman who saw possibilities and made them realities decade after decade.

This is an absolutely critical election!  The outcome means control of the US Congress, the PA Governor, the PA House and the re- districting of legislative districts.  If the Republicans gain control in Washington, we can say goodbye to the reforms undertaken by President Obama and hello to the right-wing Tea Party fringe with its promises to undermine Social Security, Medicare, environmental and health care reforms, unemployment benefits, and stimulus spending, and return us to the Bush/Cheney era of no social safety net and no regulation.

At the State level, redistricting controlled by the legislature and the Governor will have a huge impact for the next decade, since districts are drawn after each census. The last time the Republicans controlled redistricting they gave us districts spanning 4 counties and gerrymandered many districts so that no real competition was possible. As we have learned the hard way, safe seats too often guarantee unsafe public policies and a diminished democratic process.

We understand how frustrated and angry people are over continued high unemployment, our hyper-partisan Congress, the buying of elections by wealthy interest groups and individuals, the disastrous Supreme Court ruling on campaign spending, the growing deficit that Obama inherited from Bush/Cheney years, and the persistent notion that we can have an effective and caring society without paying for it or without a functioning government that regulates corporate excesses.

Obama has achieved much in the past two years and without the “just say NO” Republicans, he could have done so much more.  We cannot allow the slim Democratic margin in the US Congress to become undone.

This is not an election to parse candidates on any single issue. We must, as Obama said at a recent rally for Sestak –vote D for drive, not R for reverse!

The Tea Party Republicans will vote come rain or snow.  They have a dangerous agenda and have fielded extreme right-wing candidates. Your vote can help stop them from undoing gains we’ve made in the short period of time since President  Obama was elected. Every Democratic vote counts!

Please do all you can by voting, donating and volunteering for the Democratic candidates in your district and for Joe Sestak for Senate and Dan Onorato for Governor.

Sincerely,

Glenavie Norton

Welcome also to the fall. We have two very important races for governor and for senator. More on these races will be posted shortly.

We look forward also to the spring primaries with races for city council and mayor. These positions have never been more important than now.

There is much to do! And much to discuss. Let’s begin now.