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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.
However, Roebuck comes not without his faults. He was and has always been a moderate Democrat, despite the severity of the poverty in West Philly. Roebuck is an avid advocate for public school funding, which I will forever be in support of, but he is also in support of the death penalty, and using tax breaks to lure businesses. He didn’t run on the same platform as his opponent but rather a much less progressive one, which is the opposite of what this neighborhood or country needs.
The current representative of the 188th, Rick Krajewski, is vastly different than Roebuck. Krajewski was raised in New York City by a single mother. I was lucky enough to organize an interview with him, where he said that he, too, grew up poor, but with financial aid, could afford to go to private school. He matriculated to Penn, where he earned his masters in engineering. He found employment as a software developer after graduation, a position that he kept for a few years. While Krajewski had always been interested in politics, founding a campus group called Check One at Penn that served as a space for multiracial students to talk about their identities, it wasn’t until he began working with charity group Occupy Philadelphia that his interest in politics was fully cultivated. Krajewski said that after his time at Penn, Philly was “where [he] was calling home.” That, coupled with the rising real-estate prices of New York, kept him in Philly. Krajewski, similar to Roebuck, says that economic and racial disparities, specifically in education, are what started him in politics. “I grew up in a single income, single parent household, and while a scholarship program landed me at Penn, a lot of kids that grow up working class and are people of color aren’t given the opportunities they deserve,” Krajewski said. “I started to get involved in education access, and did some volunteer teaching at a public school in West Philadelphia.” After seeing the success of other progressive Democrats like Larry Krasner, Krajewski ran for and won the office of the 188th.
When I first found out about Krajewski on the way to my grandmother’s house, my parents seemed to already have him figured out. Jim Roebuck was a longtime member of the West Philly community, while Krajewski was an implant from New York. Roebuck went to a Philadelphia public school, and was obviously qualified to speak on their shortcomings, while Krajewski went to private school in New York, which in my book automatically makes him the enemy. But now, after talking to Krajewski, I must admit that my opinion has changed. He may have ridden the high wave with a New York private school education and an Ivy League degree, but he seemed reluctant to let those privileges define him. Krajewski also has experience working as a teacher in a West Philadelphia school, which I don’t know of Roebuck ever doing. While he initially felt like a New York invader out to dethrone someone who knew what he was doing, it now seems to me like Krajewski is just as knowledgeable as his opponent. Roebuck may be hard to let go, since he was always the guy that I knew and that my parents voted for, but it is undeniable that he was a more standard institution of the Democratic Party. It is Krajewski, after all, who has the support of Sanders, and Krajewski who calls himself a socialist. I can’t say who I would’ve voted for, which I most definitely could've done before reading about and talking to Krajewski. The right decision still isn’t clear to me. But I am glad to have met the man who now represents my district, and while I still have my doubts about Krajewski, I am hopeful that he will make the changes that we need to see in Philadelphia.
Seniority system source:
https://www.legbranch.org/the-value-of-seniority-in-todays-house-of-representatives/
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