This is Progressive,...er,..Progress?

DanielUA,..over at his blog, Young Philly Politics, bemoans what is painfully obvious about Philadelphia politics, or as I call it, Philliness:

The Stamp Campaign for a Rubber Stamp
Submitted by DanielUA on Thu, 05/18/2006 - 10:15am.

As many of our readers know, friend of Young Philly Politics, Tony Payton, waged a campaign against the Democratic Party apparatus. The Party, loving its outsiders, attempted to get Tony kicked off of the ballot. They failed, and their chosen candidate, Emilio Vazquez, was booted off of the ballot. Tony was the last man standing. He was the only Democrat left on the ballot. Yet, still, the party, the old, insular, party, refused to back down. And so, they waged a write-in, or really, a stamp-in campaign against Tony.

They conducted a stamp campaign, all to get themselves Emilio Vazquez, a rubber stamp. How fitting.

More below...

As of now, the election is not decided. Vaquez, with a wooden stamp campaign is up by 29 votes:

They were just slivers of balsa wood with rubber-stamp edges that inked "EMILIO VAZQUEZ" in 10-point type on ballots Tuesday in the 179th State House District.

Small though they were, the stamps apparently were big enough to catapult Vazquez to a historic victory as a write-in candidate over the only qualified Democrat on the ballot.

He was leading political neophyte Tony Payton Jr., 976-947, according to complete but unofficial returns from the North Philadelphia district. Payton vowed yesterday to contest the results.