PHILADELPHIA _ Bob Brady, the larger-than-life leader of Philadelphia's Democratic Party, announced on Wednesday that he is not running for re-election to the U.S. House.
He revealed the news in a way that seemed all too perfect for the decadeslong party boss: At a noon meeting, he told ward leaders at the Democratic City Committee's headquarters that he was calling it quits.
Brady's announcement is guaranteed to shake up the city: It could reduce the political clout of Philadelphia's delegation, which besides Brady includes two congressmen with little to no seniority, in an election year in which many observers think Democrats could take back control of the U.S. House.
It will also likely attract more candidates to jump into the race for Brady's 1st Congressional District seat. And though Brady said he is going to continue to serve as party chairman, some will likely see it as a sign that the city's Democratic machine is growing increasingly weaker.
In an exclusive interview hours before the ward leaders' meeting, Brady told the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Daily News that his family, as well as his concerns about how a new congressional redistricting map may affect his fellow city congressmen, factored into his decision. He was adamant that last year's federal investigation into his campaign finances, which snared two of his closest political aides, played no role.
"I've been married for 21 years," Brady said. "For twenty of those years, I've been going to Washington four days a week. I need to come back home."
Brady spent the second half of 2017 under intense scrutiny after it was disclosed that his campaign had given $90,000 to Jimmie Moore, an African-American Democratic challenger in the 2012 primary who then dropped out of the race. One of Brady's aides, Don "DA" Jones, has pleaded guilty in federal court. Another, Ken Smukler, has said he will fight the charges.
"I've got a complete bill of health from the federal government," Brady said. "They told my attorney I am not being charged. They told my attorney in November. No deal was made."
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia declined Wednesday to comment on Brady's characterization of their investigation.
Brady's lawyers _ Ronald Levine and James Eisenhower _ were more circumspect and sought to clarify the congressman's language. The statute of limitations expired in January on almost all of the charges that Brady may have faced.
"Based on our review of the status on the case and the fact that the statute of limitations has run on all the substantive allegations, we advised him that we don't believe he will be charged in the case," Eisenhower said.
Still the investigation took a financial toll. Brady's latest campaign finance report, filed Wednesday, showed that he spent $256,799 in fees to three law firms in the last three months of 2017. That amounted to 83 percent of all his expenditures for that period.
While Brady's aides' cases work their way through the courts, the 1st Congressional District that Brady represents could be about to change. A recent order from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court requires the Republican-controlled state General Assembly to redraw the 2011 map that set boundaries for congressional districts and other state legislative seats.
Brady said he did not want his status as a local party chairman to influence that process in his favor, to the detriment of his fellow Democratic congressmen from Philadelphia, Brendan Boyle and Dwight Evans. "I don't want to be disingenuous and wait for the lines to be drawn and then decide not to run," Brady said. "To be honest with you, are they trying to favor me? Absolutely they're trying to favor me. There's a lot of (potential) maps that have just two congressmen in Philadelphia."
Brady's alleged role in influencing the state's 2011 map was also seen by some Democrats as a potential weakness should he run for re-election: Former Deputy Mayor Nina Ahmad, who announced last year that she was challenging Brady, said that it was "disgusting" that he had "rallied Democrats to support" the map. Brady, however, said, "I didn't draw the map. I didn't have any input in the map."
Wednesday's announcement came as a surprise to many insiders. Lou Agre, a ward leader from Roxborough, said he had been with Brady Saturday campaigning for his re-election to city committee and thought Wednesday's meeting was about routine business.
Ron Donatucci, whose South Philadelphia ward is within Brady's district, also wasn't clear what Wednesday's meeting was about. He said there were a lot of rumors flying but no certainty.
State Sen. Anthony H. Williams, a ward leader in West Philadelphia and within Brady's district, said he spoke with Brady prior to the meeting and Brady told him he has served a long time and that he considered what it would mean to him and his family if he ran again.
"He talked about his wife, his children, his grandchildren that he wants to have an opportunity to spend time with them without the stress of public office," Williams said. "One of his kids is expecting and he's stuck in Washington D.C."
Brady, Williams said, is also frustrated with Washington.
"He's really been affected by that more than anything else," Williams said. "He said 'Tony I did what I wanted to do but this environment is different than when I started.'"
Brady, a deal-maker with a powerful leadership post on the House Committee on Administration, was not a policy wonk with a long legislative record of accomplishment.
He has also been criticized over the years for serving as party chairman as numerous Philly Democrats, including former District Attorney Seth Williams, were convicted of crimes. Last year, former Mayor and Gov. Ed Rendell called on Brady to restrict the power of ward leaders. "We have too much corruption," Rendell said at the time.
But Brady has also been celebrated for helping end labor strikes, bringing back money to his district, and voting against the authorization of the Iraq War. On Wednesday, Brady highlighted an estimated $15.5 billion in federal funding that flowed to Philadelphia since he first went to Washington in a 1998 special election.
Brady also said he is proud of his recent efforts to help rewrite Congress's rules on dealing with sexual harassment cases. Those changes would pay for legal representation if a congressional staffer accused a legislator of harassment as well as prevent members of Congress from paying settlements with taxpayer dollars, as U.S. Rep. Patrick Meehan, a Delaware County Republican, did in a recently disclosed settlement.
The new rules would also make confidentiality agreements voluntary for accusers and lift a so-called "cooling-off" period that requires accusers to keep working with the accused.
Before getting into politics, Brady worked as a union carpenter. Brady got involved in the Democratic Party after a friend suggested that he do remodeling work for then-Council President George Schwartz.
Schwartz mentored Brady, who became Council sergeant-of-arms and a committee person. When Schwartz resigned after being charged in the Abscam scandal, he picked Brady to take his spot as leader of the 34th Ward. He became party chairman in 1986.
Brady said he would leave it up to the city party to decide if it wants to support a candidate in the primary election for his seat. "We will get together and we will pick the person they think is best to serve," he said.
But Brady did not think that selection would be any of the already declared candidates: Lindy Li, Willie Singletary, Michelle Lawrence or Ahmad.
Instead, he suggested Richie Lazer might be a good fit for the job. Lazer, who serves as Mayor Kenney's deputy mayor for labor, has been strongly rumored to be interested in seeking the seat since November.
If Democrats did take back the U.S. House in 2018's mid-term elections, that would have put Brady in majority control of the Administration Committee if he'd won another term. But Brady said that was not a strong enough pull to keep in in the race.
"How much blood do you need?" he asked. "I'm 72 years old. Am I going to be 82 years old? I don't know."
