Councilman Neilson selected for 174th House District election

Ed Neilson, a member of City Council for 10 months, appears ready to resign this week so he can run in his third special election in four years.

Democratic ward leaders in Northeast Philadelphia unanimously voted Tuesday night for Neilson to be their party’s candidate in an Aug. 11 special election to fill the vacant 174th District state House seat, according to Neilson spokesman Frank Keel.

Neilson, who lost his bid for a full four-year term in the May 17 primary election, may resign from his at-large seat Friday, Keel said. Council’s summer break starts that day.

The Aug. 11 special election ballot also includes vacant House seats in the 191st District in Southwest Philadelphia and Delaware County, and the 195th District, which stretches from North Philadelphia to 30th Street Station.

Frank Oliver, Democratic leader of the 29th Ward, who was a state representative in the 195th from 1973 to 2010, said he and his fellow ward leaders on Wednesday nominated Donna Bullock as their candidate in the 195th. Bullock, a lawyer, works as special assistant to Council President Darrell L. Clarke.

State Sen. Anthony H. Williams, who leads the Third Ward in West Philadelphia, said ward leaders Wednesday night selected Joanna McClinton as the Democratic candidate in the 191st. She is a lawyer who works on Williams’ Senate staff.

The Democratic City Committee will meet Friday to approve the candidates, who must be certified by the Pennsylvania Department of State by 5 p.m. Monday.

Neilson is a former political director for Electricians Local 98 and worked in Gov. Ed Rendell’s administration. He won a 2012 special election for the 169th District seat. That seat was then moved in redistricting to York County.

Last year, Neilson won a special election for the at-large seat that opened up when Bill Green resigned to head the School Reform Commission.

The 174th District seat is vacant because John Sabatina Jr. won a May 17 special election to fill the state Senate seat vacated in January by Lt. Gov. Mike Stack III.

Tim Dailey and Ross Feinberg are seeking the Republican nomination in the 174th. Republican ward leaders will vote Thursday evening for a candidate.

Dailey, a history teacher at Father Judge High School, lost the May 17 election to Sabatina. Feinberg is the Republican nominee for register of wills in the Nov. 3 general election.

Seats in the 191st and 195th came open when the representatives who held them, Democrats Ronald Waters and Michelle Brownlee, resigned this month after pleading guilty to corruption charges.
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