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THE RUMOR MILL: Fire alarms, Schwartz for Governor and McCaffery for Congress?

An occasional series of articles exploring political gossip in the air, whether there’s truth to it or not.

PHILADELPHIA—Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz (D-13) was at City Hall here today for a press conference on healthcare reform efforts. I made my way up the Mayor’s Reception Room in the hopes of talking to her. Ever since I included her in my list of Democrats who could shake up the Governor’s race, I’ve heard from southeastern Pennsylvania progressives who would love to see her jump in. At least one person close to her has said it’s not so far-fetched a possibility—if some healthcare bill passes this year.

But only a few minutes after she echoed President Obama in calling healthcare reform “a moral and economic imperative,” alarms sounded and all of City Hall evacuated. As the politicos and bureaucrats milled outside and a fire truck pulled up to the east side of City Hall, I asked Schwartz if she’d ever consider running for the Governor’s Mansion.

Let’s just say she didn’t want to stop talking about healthcare, and it probably didn’t help that we were surrounded by a courtyard-sized group of evacuees, with alarm sounds still fresh in our minds.

“I am focused on healthcare and I’m going to keep focusing on that,” she said. “I’ll leave it at that.”

Pressing her, I asked her about Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel’s sentiment that there aren’t any real progressives in the Democratic primary field. Does she agree?

“We’ll see how it goes,” she said cautiously. “It’s always nice to have one of our own players from the southeast.”

Walking away from City Hall, I pulled out my phone to check on another rumor. Word on the street is that Dan McCaffery, state Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery’s brother who just lost a Democratic primary for District Attorney here, is considering a run for Congress in Schwartz’s 13th Congressional District. He’s a big player in northeast Philly, which makes up a big chunk of the primary electorate in that district.

“I just finished up my campaign, so I can’t say I’m considering any races,” he told me in a brief phone interview. McCaffery said he’s wholly focused on helping Democrat Jack Panella get elected to the state Supreme Court to serve with his brother, serving as Panella’s campaign coordinator for southeast Pennsylvania.

Still, after acknowledging that people have approached him about running, he had something interesting to say about Schwartz.

“There’s a general perception that she’s a little out of touch, that they want someone more mainstream for that district,” McCaffery said.

I’ve never known what “mainstream” actually means in politics, so I’ll forgo calling Schwartz for comment.

And if Schwartz vacates the seat to run for governor, would that change his calculus?

“Completely,” he said. “If she were to vacate the seat and it were an open seat, it’s something I would consider.”

There’s a morsel of truth to every rumor. Usually.

UPDATE: As a Philly guy, I can’t believe this didn’t occur to me initially, but there could—and I stress could—be a little bit of political rivalry at play here. McCaffery finished second in this year’s D.A. primary to Seth Williams, but it’s no secret he partly blamed Dan McElhatton for winning some votes that could have been his on Election Day. McElhatton’s son, also named Dan, is Schwartz’s chief of staff. And some of the Schwartz people helped out McElhatton on primary day. Could mean something. Could mean nothing.

July 20, 2009 at 3:18 pm

--Dan Hirschhorn

Tags: Allyson Schwartz, Dan McCaffery, PA-13

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