Candidate Williams Concentrates on Union Support, Sidesteps Questions About School Funding
By Paul Kurtz
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Democratic mayoral candidate Anthony Williams today was brushing off a report that details his ties to three local financial managers who support charter schools and school vouchers.
The report, released by progressive groups and supporters of public education, says three wealthy Main Line hedge fund partners are spending millions on advertisements for Williams in the waning weeks of the campaign.
Joel Greenberg, Jeff Yass, and Arthur Dantchik are staunch supporters of school choice, as is Williams. And that doesn't make him much of a Democrat in the eyes of Mike Morrill, executive director of Keystone Progress.
"In 2010 they donated more than six million dollars to get Senator Anthony Hardy Williams elected governor," Morrill (below) tells KYW Newsradio. "Now they want to make him mayor. In our history, no one corporation has ever invested so heavily to buy a mayor."
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The endgame, according to Morrill, is to turn public schools over to private interests.
But today, Williams focused on a Love Park rally with more than 100 union supporters, and pooh-pooh his critics.
"They talk about three guys that they've been talking about the whole campaign," Williams said after the rally.