COHEN SAYS
REPORTS OF
RENDELL’S DEFEAT
WERE PREMATURE
Invited by the Penn Law Democrats, Cohen, executive vice president of the Comcast Corporation and former chief of staff for Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell, said conventional wisdom favored Rendell’s opponent, Pennsylvania Attorney General Mike Fisher. According to Cohen, most pundits figured a Philadelphia Democrat could not win the governorship in Pennsylvania. The state’s too Republican and too conservative. Rendell’s liberal social policies would not play in Pennsylvania. Those were the arguments. The question was, Would Rendell’s conservative economic positions override his social liberalism? The answer was yes. Turns out, Cohen said, that Rendell’s charm, regional popularity, and excellent campaign were a winning combination. Cohen specified the factors that helped Rendell. He pointed to Rendell’s political base in the Philadelphia region, which makes up more than 40 percent of registered voters in Pennsylvania. Rendell, he said, had historically high approval ratings in the area, and this support gave him a remarkable boost going into the election, as did his longtime cultivation of the local media. Many voters were familiar with him from his Philadelphia Eagles’ commentary on both Comcast TV and in the Philadelphia Daily News. And there’s his charisma: he’s approachable and likeable. All of which paid off on election night when he amassed huge pluralities in vote-rich Philadelphia and surrounding counties. Cohen called Rendell “a quality candidate, which no amount of paid media can compete with.” However, Rendell’s war chest did contribute to his landslide victory. He raised $40 million for his campaign in what became the most expensive gubernatorial race in Pennsylvania history. Fisher, his Republican opponent, “only” raised $13 million. Rendell spent half of his campaign dollars defeating Bob Casey Jr. in the Democratic primary. By the general election, Democrats who had not voted for Rendell in the primary were prepared to support him. On election night, Rendell received sixty percent, or more than 800,000, of his votes from the Philadelphia
region. Astoundingly, Rendell captured almost as many votes in the area as Fisher received statewide,
Cohen noted. Just as astounding, or confounding, Rendell became Pennsylvania’s 45th governor.
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A week after Randy Mastro L’81, one of Mayor Guiliani’s
top aides inaugurated the Dean’s Speakers Series, David L.
Cohen L’81 returned to the law school and analyzed how his
former boss, Ed Rendell, beat the odds to become governor
of Pennsylvania.