On Feb. 11, the Swarthmore Town Democratic Committee voted to endorse Conlen Booth’s candidacy for mayor, 15-4. Booth, currently the town’s Fire Chief, was running against Kristen Seymore, a member of the Borough Council and project coordinator for multinational civil engineering company Egis, in the Democratic Party’s primary election, which effectively decides the race in a town that consistently votes overwhelmingly Democratic. In the lead-up and follow-up to the endorsement, Seymore and other town residents have called attention to the large institutional role of the Swarthmore Democratic Committee’s endorsement in the selection of the borough’s mayor.
The committee’s endorsement process for mayor is part of the larger process of creating the Swarthmore Democratic Committee’s slate of endorsed candidates in the Democratic primaries for local elections. While it is typical for political parties at all levels to campaign for their party’s nominee in the general election, involvement in the party’s primary is notable.
Often in Swarthmore, the Democratic Committee’s process is straightforward because there is only one prominent Democratic candidate. This year, however, following a reported uptick in the number of people interested in running, the question of the endorsement took on controversy and attention because Seymore and Booth were both Democrats running for the position. As the Feb. 11 Committee Meeting approached, in the town’s newspaper, The Swarthmorean, and in social circles, many elected and unelected town and party leaders debated what role the committee should take, given their large influence over the process.
In a phone conversation with The Phoenix, Seymore described how the process works from a candidate’s perspective and articulated her concerns about its implications for local democracy and its lack of transparency. “Now, more than ever, with the state of our country, I just feel like if we can give people the say in their government and help them understand the process, we need to be doing that,” she said.
Seymore outlined how, if she wished to be eligible to be endorsed by the Democratic Committee, she was told to pledge not to continue running in the Democratic primary if she was not endorsed. While not legally binding, this pledge creates only two options for candidates: either to not go through the slating process and therefore not be eligible for the powerful resources that come with the committee’s endorsement or pledge to drop out of the race if they don’t receive the committee’s endorsement. Given the town’s overwhelmingly Democratic lean, general elections are rarely close. Therefore, given the resources that come with endorsement and the pledge of unendorsed candidates to drop their campaigns, the committee’s role in the election of a Democratic nominee plays a massive role in the election of every Swarthmore mayor.
According to Seymore, the formation of the Democratic Committee raises additional questions about the decision-making process. Seymore told The Phoenix that six of the committee’s members are elected from the three voting precincts within the limits of Swarthmore, with each precinct electing two committee members for a four-year term. Another six are appointed by the Swarthmore Democratic Party chair, currently Colleen Guiney. The seven members of the Swarthmore Borough Council and the mayor have voting status on the committee, as do State Senator Tim Kearney and Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon given their role as elected Democrats residing in Swarthmore. A record of exactly how many members the committee has and who else is on it could not be found online, with the committee’s website not being updated to include the information and the Delaware County Democratic Committee’s bylaws only listing people who could be on the committee.
Seymore highlighted the revolving door nature of this institution, given the committee’s role in electing the Mayor, members of the Borough Council, and the Committee Chair, who all then become voting members themselves.
Ms. Guiney, who is also chair of the Delaware County Democratic Party, was not immediately available for comment.
Many Swarthmoreans made their voices heard both during and in the leadup to the Feb. 11 endorsement meeting, where the committee voted first on whether they should move forward on an endorsement at all, and second on whether to endorse Seymore or Booth. According to reporting by The Swarthmorean, some, including Borough Council President Jill Gaieski, spoke in favor of the committee endorsing a candidate. “At its most basic level, the Committee’s endorsement process, at both the local and county level, is simply a means of providing informed advice to Democratic voters,” Gaieski said, calling the process the “Democratic Committee’s most solemn obligation.”
Others, including 21 people who sent a letter to Colleen Guiney advocating that the committee not endorse a candidate for mayor, voiced concerns about the committee’s outsize role in electing a mayor who they felt should be elected only by the people. Swarthmorean Emily Bonfiglio connected the process to the larger political environment, saying, “Local politics is something that we can affect, no matter who is in the White House. Don’t take that away from us. I urge the committee to not endorse a candidate. Instead, educate us on the candidates and the issues and then let the Swarthmore community decide who would best serve the town.”
During her candidacy for mayor, Seymore drew attention to Booth’s recent registration with the Democratic Party after many years as an independent. At the meeting, she also responded to criticism from committee members surrounding recent controversies on town matters like the development of luxury condominiums at 110 Park.
Controversially, Seymore did not hold meetings of her Planning and Zoning Committee while many in the town were advocating against the condos. While Democratic Committee Member Rob Oaks highlighted the concern at the meeting, Seymore says the zoning that applied to 110 Park was already in place. Additionally, she noted there is no requirement for committees to meet, and that the borough solicitor had told her not to hold meetings while litigation over the condos was ongoing.
Talking about responding to the loudest voices during the 110 Park controversy, she said, “I would have just been a yes man and gotten along happily with everything … But that wouldn’t have been representative of the majority of Swarthmore, so I can’t do that.”
Neil J. Young is a candidate in this year’s elections for Swarthmore Borough Council. While he has “been a Democrat since the day I came to this country,” he plans to seek the endorsement of the Swarthmore Republican Committee. He feels he is unlikely to win the Democratic Committee’s endorsement but wants to remain on the ballot so that Swarthmore’s voters can have more choice in the local electoral process.
Young says that when he ran for Borough Council in 2023 as a Democrat, there hadn’t been a single contested primary for many years, and that “we didn’t have a culture of contested primaries.” Because the Republicans also hadn’t had a sizable presence in town politics, this meant that the town didn’t have a culture of contested elections at all. “I’ll put it to you that that’s not a sign of a healthy political culture,” he said.
Young also said that he was clear from the beginning of the 2023 endorsement process that he would continue running in the primary even if he didn’t secure the Committee’s endorsement. The fact that Ms. Seymore was pressured to pledge that she wouldn’t continue her campaign against the endorsed Democrat but he wasn’t “speaks to capriciousness and a lack of transparency. That’s the antithesis of a democracy.”
While he was able to win some support as a primary challenger despite his not securing the Committee’s endorsement, Young says the resources that the committee supplies its endorsed candidates make it difficult, citing door-knocking teams, and papers handed out at polling stations to the already-low number of voters who turn out for primary elections.
Despite his loss, Young says that 2023’s voters “actually [could] have a choice and say, I don’t want the endorsed candidates. And many, many people chose not to go with those candidates. Not enough to win the vote, but they had a choice, and I think that’s important.”
On his decision to run as a Republican, Young says, “It’s not about relocating the 2024 presidential election, it’s about making sure that on local issues like collecting the trash and shoveling the snow, there’s an alternative voice to represent a different perspective.”
Swarthmore’s overwhelmingly Democratic voter base means that any Republican nominee for a town position faces tough odds in their candidacy. As the country becomes more geographically polarized, more and more towns and even states are facing similarly uncontested elections. Nearby Philadelphia, for example, also generally votes for Democratic candidates with overwhelming margins. Seymore pointed out that the Philadelphia Democratic Party, known for its machine politics approach, didn’t make an endorsement in the recent Democratic primary for mayor.
“You know, you win some, you lose some. I’m not going to stop fighting, but I am going to keep fighting to allow members of our community to have a vote and have a say on who their next elected officials are,” Seymore said.
