Wilson Goode - Election of 1991

Election of 1991

In the election of 1991, Goode was unable to maintain Philadelphia's black vote as a unified bloc. A well-funded and highly publicized attempt to purge Philadelphia City Councilman-at-Large David Cohen, a leading critic of Goode's trash-to-steam proposal, backfired as Cohen came in first in total votes in the 1987 Democratic primary for the five council-at-large seats to be filled, setting an all-time record for most votes received for that position in a Democratic primary. (Fourteen years later, Goode was the only former Mayor of Philadelphia to attend Councilman Cohen's funeral. Goode's son and Cohen's City Council colleague, Wilson Goode, Jr., eulogized Cohen at a special memorial service held in Philadelphia's City Council.)

In the race to succeed Goode as mayor in 1991, the Democratic primary contest was between former Councilman Lucien Blackwell, a Goode loyalist; George Burrell, a Goode critic allied with Congressman William Gray; and James White, Goode's managing director, Ed Rendell, and Peter Hearn, a former chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association. White withdrew before the primary and Rendell won the nomination.