Overall, large donations dominate campaign contributions in Philadelphia. We found that, from 2014-2018, donations of more than $250 made up 90% of political contributions to current city councilors.[1]

We found that three sectors--real estate, labor unions, and law firms--dominate campaign contributions. From 2014-2018, over 27% of all contributions to current councilors came from the real estate industry, 24% came from unions, and 10% came from law firms. Big corporations including Comcast, Independence Blue Cross, and PNC also gave significant amounts.[2]

In this first post, we’ll focus on the real estate and building industry.[3]

In 2018, 19% of all contributions to current city councilors and city council candidates[4] came from the real estate industry. In other words, about 1 out of every 5 dollars donated came from individuals, corporations, and PACs with significant ties to the real estate industry. The real estate industry contributed at least $588,000 total to city councilors and city council candidates last year.

That high amount is similar to past years, as can be seen in the chart for 2014-2018. Real estate gave the most (33%) in 2015, the previous election year, which suggests that there may again be a boom in contributions from this sector in the year ahead.

Why does the real estate industry--and real estate developers in particular--give so much money to city council? Because of a practice called councilmanic prerogative, district council members have decision making power over what does and does not get built in their district. Real estate developers use campaign contributions to build relationships with elected officials so their projects will be prioritized.

Last year, about 1 out of 5 donor dollars came from the real estate industry.

Top real estate donors tend to give to many candidates to build relationships across political factions. For example, Joseph Zuritsky of the Parkway Corporation and his family members have contributed to every single current city councilor over the past 5 years.

If you add in contributions from building trades unions and other entities connected with this industry[5] to the real estate total, these groups combined make up nearly half (47.4%) of all contributions to incumbent city councilors from 2014-2018. While the interests of building trades unions sometimes conflict with those of developers, this shows how much the real estate and building industries influence local politics.

Among incumbents running for city council, Allan Domb, Kenyatta Johnson, and Jannie Blackwell were the top recipients of real estate cash as a percentage of all the money they raised last year.

Allan Domb, who is a real estate developer as well as being on city council, got the highest share of contributions from the real estate industry. In 2018, 43% of Domb’s campaign contributions over $50 came from the real estate industry. 36% of Blackwell’s cash came from the real estate industry. And 33% of Kenyatta Johnson’s campaign cash came from the real estate industry.

Kenyatta Johnson, who represents a rapidly gentrifying district in South Philadelphia, received the highest number of real estate dollars. Last year, he received at least $105,000 from the real estate industry. Allan Domb ($82,000) and Mark Squilla ($71,000) followed Johnson.

Of all current city councilors running for re-election, Helen Gym got the least money from the real estate industry last year--only $4,300, or 3% of her total money raised.