Winning a mayoral race often involves being the most credible voice on the issue dominating that political moment. Kenney went from Council to the mayor’s office in part by using his long-standing support for immigrants and the LGBT community to tap into the rise of the city’s progressive movement. His predecessor, Michael Nutter, who also made the leap from Council, did so by successfully branding himself the anticorruption candidate in the wake of an FBI bug being discovered in former Mayor John Street’s office.