Jim Kenney Ends 23-Year Career as Councilman, Ahead of Mayoral Run
By Mike Dunn
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- After twenty-three years as a Philadelphia city councilman, Jim Kenney resigned from office today.
His next stop – to be made officially next week – is a campaign for mayor.
"We thank you and we salute you," said fellow at-large councilmember Blondell Reynolds Brown, who was among the lawmakers publicly praising Kenney as he submitted his resignation in order to run for mayor.
Kenney –- first elected in 1991 -- choked up at times as he bid Council farewell:
"I just want to say, finally, before I walk out of here, hopefully not for the last time, I want to tell all here assembled, all my colleagues, I love you. I really do. I just love you and I'll miss you."
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Kenney, 56, delivered a fifteen-minute speech that was part personal remembrance, part campaign rhetoric. He thanked past and current councilmembers by name, touched on his South Philadelphia roots, and spoke of the lessons of public service that he learned from his firefighter father.
"He'd come home sometimes in the morning after his shift, and you'd wake up in bed and smell this unmistakable smell of burnt rubber and wood. It was terrible. But you also knew your dad was home. As we know, as elected officials over the years, a lot of people didn't come home. And we've been to those funerals, and we've seen those families suffering. We are not running into burning buildings or cutting people out of cars, but let's dedicate ourselves to that type and attitude of public service. And I think in the end we'll all have a better city," Kenney said.
City Council president Darrell Clarke was among those praising Kenney.
"We're going to miss him, particularly as it relates to his institutional knowledge of government. Hard worker, thoughtful, always coming up with creative ideas, and I wish him well in his future endeavor," Clarke said.
And Clarke says he has no plans to call a special election to fill Kenney's seat, as it will be filled anyway in this year's general election.
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Now, Kenney must hit the ground running against three other announced candidates and two who plan to announce next month -- candidates who have already been busily raising cash.
"I've been on the phone since we decided to do this, and I'll be on the phone today and tomorrow," Kenney noted. "With the heightened interest in my resignation and upcoming announcement, we've been doing better in the fundraising. So I think I can catch up pretty well. It does make it a sprint instead of a marathon, but that's sometimes a good thing."
With only has about $80,000 in what was originally his City Council campaign coffers, Kenney estimates he'll need at least $2 million to mount a viable mayoral campaign.
In the meantime, the soon-to-be mayoral candidate says he suddenly has a lot of new friends.
"Iphones are great, but they're hard sometimes because the (calls and messages) keep on coming and coming and coming," he said today. "And they blow up sometimes, and it's hard to get back to everybody."
Kenney had been mulling a run for mayor for months, but candidly admitted that personal finances held him back. The city charter mandated that he resigned his $127,000-a-year job in order to run for mayor.
Kenney's decisionmaking picked up speed after last week's sudden withdrawal from the race of former solicitor Ken Trujillo. Kenney will face five other candidates at this point: former Philadelphia DA Lynne Abraham, state senator Anthony Williams, former city solicitor Nelson Diaz –- all of whom have formally declared –- and Doug Oliver and Milton Street, who plan announcements next month.
