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Williams looks to break out of ‘the box’

For almost the entirety of his short gubernatorial campaign, Democrat Anthony Williams has been identified with one issue: school choice. And it’s been fair game for supporters and critics alike to tie him to the issue—few Democrats have made it such a centerpiece of their political identity, and the state Senator’s campaign has so far been almost entirely funded by school choice advocates.

But five weeks before primary day, Williams is getting more feisty in trying to break out of what he calls “the box”—and that’s not the box he carries down the street in a campaign commercial. In trying to step out of that single-issue framework, Williams is looking to tie his stance on education into the larger fabric of public policy—and he says he’s got more than enough liberal bona fides.

“Lately people have done a lot of work on making sure I look like a limited, one voice, one purpose [candidate] in this race,” Williams said after accepting an endorsement from Congressman Bob Brady on Monday.

When a reporter asked Williams about school vouchers at his first endorsement news conference last month, he calmly said “here comes the box.” Before it even came up on Monday, Williams was more forceful in trying to focus on other issues. He said he had advocated for more state funding for the arts, supported abortion rights and lobbied SEPTA to change its gender-specific transit pass policy on behalf of LGBT constituencies.

“I’m the only person in this race whose words match their deeds and their performance,” Williams said.

Alas, money speaks loudly in politics, and it’s a given that reporters will bring up his big-money donors.

That $5 donor who did it online means as much to me as anybody else,” Williams said Monday.

Brady warned against trying to tie Williams to just the school choice issue.

“Anybody that thinks he’s a one issue candidate,” Brady said, “they better not go down that path, because I will put him against any one of them, one -on-one on any issue they want to pick out.”

Williams has also been increasingly looking to frame the four-way primary as a two-man race.

“There are two of us who have the ability to be on television from now until the end of the election,” he said. “It’s Dan Onorato and Tony Williams. That’s it. With all due respect to the rest of them, they’re nice people. but they don’t have the resources.”

See a video clip below of Williams’ news conference from Monday.

April 14, 2010 at 9:00 am

--Dan Hirschhorn

Tags: Anthony Williams, Bob Brady, Dan Onorato

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