The Battle for the 188th

On November 3rd, political organizer Rick Krajewski beat thirty-year incumbent Jim Roebuck in a race for the house seat of the 188th District of Pennsylvania. The 188th covers almost the entirety of Southwest Philly, stretching from streets in the mid-50’s all the way to the domain of the University of Pennsylvania. In between those boundaries is my house, my elementary school, and almost all of my friends. This election, while small, was especially important to me.

I first learned about Krajewski from a canvassing call that my parents received in the car on our way to my grandparents’ house. The phone canvasser mentioned a young, Green New Deal candidate running in opposition to Roebuck, who had been serving as a Pennsylvania State Representative ever since my family moved into West Philly. My parents listened respectfully to the pitch that the dutiful volunteer was giving, and then asked what the point of Krajewski running was. The poor guy on the phone spoke about how Krajewski was a progressive, a socialist, even, while Roebuck was just another classic Biden Democrat. This is true, but what the canvasser failed to realize, that my parents made sure to point out to him, was what Roebuck had that Krajewski didn’t: the right experience.

Jim Roebuck was always a man of the people. He was born in West Philly in 1945, before much of the rampant gentrification that the University of Pennsylvania brought about, graduated from Central High, took a brief vacation from Philadelphia to attend the University of Virginia, and then came right back to Philly to begin his work in politics. His roots in Philly had a lot to do with his platform when Roebuck ran for state rep. While there isn’t much coverage on such a small election so long ago, when I attended some of Roebuck’s more recent rallies, it seemed like he was West Philadelphia’s candidate of choice. Roebuck grew up in the poverty-stricken neighborhood where so many voters in the 188th currently live, although the gentrification happening means that those people are now being forced outside the boundaries of the district. Roebuck was someone who understood the struggle not just of being poor, but of being poor in West Philly. This meant that many West Philadelphia voters felt like they could trust him.

Once this platform succeeded and Roebuck won, he served for 30 years as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Being the incumbent for such a long time, Roebuck undoubtedly became both a fixture of the community and of the government in Pennsylvania. He was regularly seen at neighborhood functions, and could always be counted on to give a speech to any group of kids. I even remember him coming to one of my elementary school plays, where, when the principal shouted him out, the spotlight was taken off of the students and put onto him. When he would debate opponents, the audiences in those rooms were the same as that of a PTA meeting at Penn Alexander (my alma mater). All of the parents in the neighborhood wanted to see Roebuck talk, as did all of those who lived outside of my school’s catchment, where Roebuck was raised. However, Roebuck’s advantages stretched far beyond the scope of the neighborhood that he was serving. In the U.S. Congress, it is well known how the seniority system favors representatives that have been in Congress for multiple terms. In the "Legislative Effectiveness" studies done by Craig Volden and Alan Wiesman, it has been proven that more senior representatives “have successfully pushed larger proportions of their bills further through the legislative process.” When Roebuck was beaten, Pennsylvania lost a community leader that had more pull than almost anyone else in the PA House of Representatives, as Roebuck was one of it’s longest serving members.