Jim Foster, the now three-time candidate for public office in Philadelphia, has fastened his campaign firmly to tackling Philadelphia’s rampant corruption. That corruption, says Foster, has a far enough reach to keep him from being allowed to participate in the last two debates against Melissa Bailey and Jim Kenney, the Republican and Democratic nominees, who met last night in their third debate of the general election campaign.

“The gangster government here runs on apathy, self protection and fear, and both the Republican and Democratic Parties are part of this gangster government,” Foster said, owner of the Germantown Newspapers.

This “Stalinist government that controls all the media boards and all the moguls in Philadelphia,” he rails, has “virtually eliminated a democratic exchange of views in this election. I am convinced this is a protection racket for big money crony capitalists and the gangsters who run the Democratic and Republican parties.”

Even if you don’t buy Foster’s condemnation of the status quo, you would be hard pressed to find a more passionate voice in this election. He believes that the corruption has drained the passion from the local electorate, which is why just 27 percent went to the polls last election.

According to Foster “the budgets of Philadelphia are falsified,” as quoted in a profile by the Chestnut Hill Local, a paper Foster owns. “They are never reviewed by a third party. Philadelphia is the only city in United States in which the budget isn’t reviewed by an organization that follows a method recognized by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.”

“The level of unpaid real estate taxes is roughly half-a-billion dollars,” Foster said. “They carry that half a billion dollars on their balance sheet as an uncollected assets even though some estimate as much as 70 percent of that amount is not collectible. You can’t carry those as collectible and cash. It’s a dog and pony show.”

The lack of niceties would likely have been welcome to snoozing audience members at the second debate between the two major party candidates, which played-out more like a tea party (as in crumpets, not Birthers) than an adversarial political exhibition. Though Kenney is somewhat infamously quick to name-call, his very talented communications team has successfully filtered his public profile after some early-primary barstool tweeting.

Monday night’s debate saw more sparks, but candidates largely diverted to a national context, even bringing the 2016 presidential campaign into the discussion. Rather than square off eye-to-eye on local issues, the mayoral candidates attacked contenders for the nation’s highest office as proxies for their opponent. Kenney implied the popularity of Donald Trump and the billionaire’s behavior during Republican primary debates tainted the whole party. Bailey took aim at Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server to house State Department emails. Bailey said Clinton’s actions were lawless.

Kenney refused to directly address Bailey’s stated plans for administrative changes at City Hall, saying he was only interested in discussing “doable” options. It’s unclear if Kenney doubted the specifics of Bailey’s plans or just her chances of winning the election. Bailey got in a barb implying Kenney’s boosting of an expanded Port of Philadelphia might be financially motivated, “noting that members of the Holt family, whose company runs the port’s Packer Avenue Marine Terminal, were “significant contributors” to Kenney’s campaign.”

In the Riverwards, the influence of the next mayor and expanding the city’s profile as an “energy hub” is of great concern. Not only is Bridesburg the site of multiple fossil fuel operations, the Riverwards lie in the path of a major Bakken oil transport corridor. Both candidates have expressed a desire to spur energy development — Kenney wishes to reconfigure Philadelphia Gas Works to function more as a private corporation, reported Andrew Maykuth in the Inquirer on October 12. Kenney is unsure where the balance lies between environmental risk and job creation, he told Maykuth.

Further development of the Delaware River waterfront, with rezoning under the Lehigh-Somerset corridor, is probably inevitable no matter who wins the election. It’s important that locals get involved by attending zoning meetings and engaging their Council representatives, to make sure the changes to the neighborhood work for area residents. •