Copyright The Philadelphia Inquirer
Philadelphia City Controller Christy Brady on Tuesday handily defeated a challenge from Republican Ari Patrinos, giving the incumbent Democrat her first full four-year term as the city’s independent financial watchdog. Although Brady has held her role since 2022, she had never run in a regular general election before this fall. The Associated Press called the race for Brady at 9:13 p.m. on Tuesday. » READ MORE: City Controller Christy Brady is facing a challenge from Republican Ari Patrinos Brady first became acting controller when Mayor Jim Kenney appointed her to fill a vacancy created by Rebecca Rhynhart resigning to run for mayor. Brady then won a 2023 special election to serve the remainder of Rhynhart’s term, defeating opponents in the Democratic primary and the November general election. This year, she ran unopposed in the primary and coasted to victory against Patrinos, who raised very little money, declined to criticize Brady, and said he was running to ensure voters had a choice. “The truth is nobody wanted to run, and my ward leader asked me if I would run,” Patrinos said in an interview last month. “I didn’t have any specific attacks on Brady. My concern is that the city is too single-party, and I think the city functions better when you have a two-party system.” Brady is a 30-year veteran of the controller’s office, which audits the city’s finances and investigates allegations of fraud, waste, and abuse. “Because of my experience when I took office two years ago, I hit the ground running,” she said recently. While campaigning this year, Brady touted her office’s audits revealing that the Philadelphia School District had been scammed out of about $700,000 in payments to fake vendors and that fraudulent use of the real estate tax homestead exemption was costing the city and school district about $11.4 million per year. A certified public accountant who graduated from the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science, Brady is a favorite of many in the city’s Democratic establishment and regularly appears at political events with party ward leaders and labor officials. In contrast to several of her recent predecessors, who have largely clashed with the mayors they served alongside, Brady appears to have a harmonious working relationship with Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration. That’s no accident, she said. “In my experience in the controller’s office, when you fight, they’re not going to listen to your recommendation,” Brady said. “When we issue our reports, the mayor has been thanking me for the recommendations. And I really appreciate that relationship because I believe that we can make change.”
