The Philadelphia City Controller Race: A Quiet Contest with Big Implications
City Controller Christy Brady, who is seeking her first full term as Philadelphia’s independently elected fiscal watchdog, faces a challenge from Republican Ari Patrinos in the upcoming November 4 general election. While the role of the controller is crucial—overseeing the city’s finances, auditing operations, and investigating fraud, waste, and abuse—this year’s race has been relatively low on drama.
Patrinos, a former stockbroker and teacher, acknowledges that the odds are stacked against him in a city that leans heavily Democratic. He has no specific complaints about Brady’s performance but ran because he felt it was important for someone to run on the Republican ticket. “The truth is nobody wanted to run, and my ward leader asked me if I would run,” Patrinos said. He also mentioned that he hasn’t raised any money for his campaign.
Patrinos’ main concern is the lack of a two-party system in Philadelphia. “I think the city functions better when you have a two-party system,” he said. His focus during the campaign has been on promoting Pat Dugan’s bid for district attorney, a candidate who lost the Democratic primary but accepted the GOP nomination for the general election.
Brady, a Democrat with a $250,000 campaign war chest, has the backing of much of the local political establishment, including the Democratic City Committee and the building trades unions. She has served in the controller’s office for 30 years and has taken a collaborative approach with Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration, unlike some of her predecessors who often clashed with the executive branch.
“I hit the ground running when I took office two years ago,” Brady said, pointing to her office’s audit that uncovered $700,000 in payments to fake vendors by the Philadelphia School District and an investigation into fraudulent use of the property tax homestead exemption, which cost the city and school district about $11.4 million annually.
Brady was appointed acting controller in 2022 by former Mayor Jim Kenney after Rebecca Rhynhart resigned to run for mayor. She then won a special election in 2023 to finish Rhynhart’s term, which ends in January. This year, she ran uncontested in the Democratic primary.
“The biggest question I get [on the campaign trail] is: What does a controller do?” Brady said. “And so I’m getting out there and spreading the word of what we’re currently working on and what we do in the office.”
The controller earns an annual salary of $171,000 and oversees an office with more than 120 employees and a budget of about $11.8 million. Patrinos also had no opponent in the May primary and has spent time campaigning for Dugan, whom he believes is critical to addressing crime in the city.
From Philly to Harvard and Back
Patrinos, who lives in Chestnut Hill, said he was a Democrat until about four years ago, voting for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. His shift was prompted by his alma mater, Harvard College, which he felt embraced a “woke” stance too enthusiastically. “The immediate driving factor was on the cultural front. It was what was going at Harvard,” he said. “I’m a little bit of an anti-woke warrior.”
He felt that Ivy League liberals were indifferent to the negative effects of their policies, especially regarding the pandemic. “These Ivy League liberal types who really don’t have a sense of what’s going on in the lives of average Americans,” he said.
Patrinos became involved in local Republican politics and helped boost President Donald Trump’s Philadelphia campaign in 2024. “I’m not a MAGA guy, so I didn’t join [the GOP] because of Trump,” he said, “but honestly I’m very happy with the higher education stuff, the hardcore stand he’s taken with Harvard.”
Patrinos, a Central High School graduate with a master’s degree in political science from the University of Chicago, worked as a stockbroker in New York before moving back to Philly about 15 years ago. He later became a math and history teacher at West Philadelphia High School and Strawberry Mansion High School. Patrinos suffered a seizure several years ago that temporarily limited his employment opportunities, but he is now seeking other jobs should he come up short against Brady.
If elected, Patrinos said he would audit the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections (L&I), examine whether SEPTA could do a better job preventing fare evasion, and push the school district to prepare more students for careers in information technology.
Controller and Mayor on the Same Page
Brady’s approach to the mayor’s administration is the exception when it comes to the recent history of her office. A decade ago, then-City Controller Alan Butkovitz’s relationship with Mayor Michael A. Nutter became so toxic that Nutter issued a statement calling Butkovitz “a sad and sick person.”
Her predecessors, Mayor Jim Kenney and Rebecca Rhynhart, started with expectations of a better working partnership, given Rhynhart’s previous role under Nutter and Kenney. However, the relationship soured quickly after Rhynhart publicly criticized the administration’s bookkeeping, leading to a personal call from Kenney and the cancellation of planned monthly meetings.
That outcome does not appear likely with Brady and Parker. Brady shares many political allies with Parker, especially the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, a coalition of unions that spends big on elections and is pleased with both Brady and Parker’s tenures so far.
Brady touts her office’s audit of L&I, which revealed inspectors often failed to confirm that construction sites were being run by licensed contractors. This provides ammunition to the trades unions, which often rail against “fly-by-night” contractors that do not employ their members. And the mayor last year split the department into two agencies, with one focused largely on enforcing construction regulations.
Brady said her healthy relationship with the Parker administration should not be confused with a reticence to call out fraud and waste. “I am an independently elected official. I am not afraid to stand up for what’s right,” she said. “I believe in the rules and regulations in city government.”
Her approach to the executive branch, she said, is designed to advance the aim of any auditor: “getting management to implement your recommendations.” “In my experience in the controller’s office, when you fight, they’re not going to listen to your recommendation,” she 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.”
Staff writer Ryan W. Briggs contributed to this article.
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