Linda Thompson’s term isn’t over yet, but it’s already been called historic.
It’s certainly been memorable.
Thompson became the first black mayor and first female mayor of Pennsylvania’s capital city in 2010, ousting 28-year incumbent Stephen Reed in the process. She took over just as a financial crisis enveloped the city.
The tenacity that propelled her into the mayor’s office, however, proved problematic amid a perfect storm of gender bias, racism, media scrutiny, Reed loyalism and the historic financial catastrophe.
Thompson needed to be tough and brave to take on Reed.
She was - and is - both of those things.
But once Thompson was the city’s top executive, those traits, and the approach that she'd used to master Harrisburg street-level politics, didn’t work for the challenges awaiting her.
Then there were her own gaffes, the most recent - and famous - of which was the reference to a “scumbag’’ from Perry County.
Thompson's struggles were epitomized when the Harrisburg Area Chamber lampooned her during an awards ceremony, mocking her physical appearance and the way she speaks.
As she prepares to leave office in January, even those who say her difficulties are largely self-imposed agree there were a number of external factors that exacerbated her problems.
During her appearance on a women’s leadership forum hosted by the National Journal last summer, Thompson put it this way when talking about navigating those outside influences:
“It has been hell.”
An impossible task?
Reed left office in January 2010 very much the way he entered in 1982: amid economic chaos.
He often repeated the story that on his first day in office he found bankruptcy papers on his desk, left by the previous mayor for him to sign. Reed said he put them in a drawer and went to work revitalizing the city. But his own financial decisions bring his story full circle.
He left Thompson with a city on the brink of economic collapse.
Reed recalled the community’s high hopes for Thompson at the outset of her terms.
“If negatives arise in the general public, it is usually due to perceptions of behavior and decisions (or indecisions) with which the public disagrees,” he wrote in an email to PennLive.
Few would disagree with that assessment.
A far tougher sell: Reed’s contention that his wide support base and the city’s financial problems did not affect the public reaction to Thompson.
His supporters undoubtedly were a particularly harsh camp during her term.
On the other side were those who saw Thompson as the ultimate antidote to Reed and the “good old boys network” she occasionally criticizes.
Terry Madonna, director of Franklin & Marshall University’s Center for Politics & Public Affairs, recalled Thompson taking office.
The city’s crushing debt quickly became apparent and, with that, the debates began over whether the city should – or could – solve its financial problems with bankruptcy court, state involvement, the incinerator sale and other measures, Madonna said.
Thompson has acknowledged the financial situation consumed her — not only because of its complexity, but also because it limited her ability to achieve much of anything else.
"I remember making campaign promises that I would hire 25 cops a year," Thompson said. "I wanted the face of this city to be just that. A safe city, a fun city. I wasn't afforded that opportunity."
Thompson says that "nothing trumps" her helping to facilitate Harrisburg's current debt plan. That was her focus, but she believes that she was able to achieve "some good things" aside from the plan:
• The police department has reorganized its patrol division with the hope of putting more cops on the street, and 16 new hires will join the force next year.
• Keystone Opportunity Zone legislation
• Surveillance cameras were installed in partnership with the Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office.
• Six police substations were reopened.
• Replacement will begin in a month of broken, missing and existing streetlights with working LED lights.
• More than 100 dilapidated properties have been demolished during her term.
• Projects representing a $160 million investment are underway or about to start, including The 1500 project,Susquehanna Art Museum, Family Dollar and Hamilton Health Center.
Thompson also had to rebuild a competent staff.
With Reed went a slew of long-time city staffers, and with them the institutional knowledge of how day-to-day operations worked, Thompson said.
She recalled 100 positions being vacated when she started her term in 2010.
What some describe as the revolving door of executive staff came next.
“So many people left that it was difficult for her to manage her image and the city’s image,” said her one-time chief of staff Chuck Ardo, who came out of retirement to work for Thompson at the request of his long-time boss, former Gov. Ed Rendell.
Thompson chalks up those later departures to her “stern” management style, which Ardo characterized as “mean-spirited."
Some former staffers claimed Thompson was insulting, forced employees to pray and physically intimidated them.
Thompson says those accounts were exaggerated by the media and community rumor mill.
She says the way the media treated the topic inspired mistrust, and often discouraged her from trying to set the record straight.
So the spin continued without rebuttal and, truth or fairness notwithstanding, created an unsympathetic image of Thompson that she says the media – and its predominantly suburban audience – seized upon.
Himself known for a combative style some observers say Thompson mirrored, Reed says he watched his one-time political ally learn “something that very negatively afflicts the American political system.”
“Being strident, negative or combative gets media attention,” Reed said. “But I think she misunderstood how some of what she said and did would be perceived by many citizens after media coverage.”
Thompson faced a situation that "would have been tough for anybody."
“The fact is that she was left with some extraordinarily complex problems with no immediate solutions,” Madonna said. “But the leadership she demonstrated was not the kind that builds consensus.”
Thompson’s personality, in Madonna’s view, primarily caused the strongly negative reaction from the public. Gender politics simply exacerbated the situation, he said.
“I believe 80 percent of her problems were self-imposed,” Madonna said. “But I’ve seen it (documented) in the studies and personally, in action, that there are different expectations for men and women, and that it’s not easy for women to raise money and … a whole litany of things.”
The "double bind"
“We often refer to that conflict of expectation and reality (as) a double-bind,” said Dana Brown, who heads the Pennsylvania Center for Women in Politics.
“On one hand, people want women to behave in this gendered fashion: accommodating, nice, collegial. But since she’s a woman politician, you want an assertive, aggressive individual.”
Thompson acknowledges that reality, but won’t outright blame it for harming her image.
Her behavior also suggest an unwillingness - perhaps an inability - to change. Or conform.
When asked about personal sacrifices for her political career, for example, Thomson talks about her family.
Friday night dinners with her parents were among the first casualties of her the 18-hour days that were standard during the first half of her term, she said.
And her three grandchildren.
Thompson recalled her 11-year-old granddaughter was asked by classmates about something that had happened in school which they did not like and which they presumed was Thompson’s doing.
"I told her, you don't have to defend your nana," Thompson said.
The little girl informed her peers that her “nana” was too "smart" for a major misstep, Thompson recalled.
That’s the first time the mayor has talked about her family in front of this reporter during the past nine months.
Thompson could have referenced them earlier in her term or during the campaign to soften her image, although that’s a tricky line to walk for female politicians in particular.
Instead, she’s repeatedly referred to politics as a “contact sport” that she enjoys – while wearing heels, pearls and crisply tailored suits.
She’s noted she doesn’t have time or patience for “whiny” staffers.
Some of Thompson’s most controversial moments - such as wearing fur when Harrisburg couldn’t pay the bills and March 2013’s scumbag-gate - have been defined not only by her actions, but by the what unopposed City Council candidate Shamaine Daniels called “hypercritical” responses to them.
"Women who are assertive are viewed as hostile, or angry, or whatever word might be used to describe her in a negative light,” Daniels said. “That fed into more backlash against her. And then that strengthened her resolve to continue to be assertive. There was this symbiotic energy.”
Kim Bracey, the first black and first female mayor of York, hasn't had similar problems, though, Madonna said.
“She isn’t controversial,” Madonna said of Bracey.
Thompson's different.
“I think it has to do with, first, a stylistic problem, … a tendency to be provocative and make provocative statements, and not to have good interpersonal skills with staff,” Madonna said.
The "scumbag" thing
Thompson frequently criticizes the press for overplaying those staff conflicts and other negative stories.
She believes the media’s general focus on personality over policy contributed to her loss in the spring primary election.
Chief Operating Officer Bob Philbin says he believes Thompson lost the race due to the scumbag incident, specifically, because it dredged up other unflattering past situations.
Yet the scumbag scenario is the first thing Thompson mentions when asked pointedly about her mistakes.
At first, she acknowledged she’s “no perfect leader,” but didn’t get specific.
“Were mistakes made? Yes,” she said. “Did those mistakes lead us to bankruptcy? Did those mistakes lead to losing millions of dollars? Did those mistakes lead to a grand jury? Did those mistakes lead to me walking out of here with handcuffs on my hands? No. I’ve done nothing in this position to hurt this city.”
Pressed, she noted that she shouldn’t have specified a region when, during a press conference about illegal dumping in the city, she referred to a “scumbag from Perry County.”
The comment spawned a firestorm on social media and comments on news websites during the hours that followed, before Thompson issued an apology and defended the comment as being taken out of context.
A Facebook campaign for Thompson’s impeachment came next, followed by a clothing line, novelty food items, and a fundraiser for Dan Miller at the Dugout Sports Bar & Grille in Perry County.
Meanwhile, Thompson had explained she referred to the area because it’s home to the corporate base of a known repeat offender.
City code enforcement hasn’t caught them in action, though, at least not during the past five years: Records show Harrisburg hasn’t issued a violation for illegal dumping against anyone from Perry County during that time.
Given a "rewind button", Thompson said, she wouldn't have specified a region.
The reaction to the remark resonates as excessive, even for some who say Thompson’s unflattering public image is rooted in her personality -- not gender, racial or media bias.
“The comment about the scumbags – I don’t know how else you describe people who come into your community and dump garbage. What else do you say? Good people who dump trash in your yard? How was she supposed to describe those people?” said Ardo, who’s been helping City Controller Miller in his mayoral campaign without an official title.
Daniels agreed.
“Sometimes you’d see people responding (negatively) to how she conducted herself in a situation where she couldn’t have done anything differently,” Daniels said.
More on the media
That wasn’t the first of Thompson’s gaffes, a word she won’t use.
Misunderstandings? Sensationalized media accounts?
Whatever the term, one might argue that they did harm the city. That the public response to them, fair or not, damaged Harrisburg’s reputation, too.
“You don’t really know what motivates people. So, you can’t put too much stock in (reaction),” Ardo said. “But the cumulative effect of it can’t be underestimated.”
Thompson's view is that reporters have tended to focus on almost anything other than her administration's accomplishments. Instead, they hyped her latest verbal slips, or commented on her appearance - a universal for women in politics.
It got to be such that Thompson stopped reading PennLive due to the anonymous comments that, it’s fair to say, could get very ugly. There, it wasn’t so much gender bias, but racism driving the worst of the posts.
Thompson has attributed her ability to push aside public perception, when necessary, to focus on running the city to her faith.
But even with that, Thompson asked her confidants to stop telling her about the anonymous Internet posts, she said.
"I'm human," she said. "Of course it affected me."
Brown noted that “we live in a very raced and gendered world, and the way we react is raced and gendered.”
“Without accountability, people can say the most horrible things,” she said.
That could be why Thompson struck Madonna at times as being “suspicious” of others.
Ardo used the word “defensive.”
Ardo also noted that “people were, after a while, looking for excuses to mock her or ridicule her.”
Looking ahead
Yet during the past several months, Thompson hasn’t given her detractors much to work with.
She’s quieter, more relaxed. And she really seemed to “get her sea legs under her” as far as her public image, Ardo said.
Part of that could stem from her primary loss, some observers say.
Even her political opponents, however, acknowledged she was at her best during the primary.
These days, Thompson is no longer working to win over voters and secure another term.
She instead faces pressure to accomplish certain goals by the fast-approaching end of her term, finalization of the debt plan chief among them.
But according to Thompson, the election didn’t affect her focus.
Then there’s the arrival of Philbin.
Philbin established a rapport and trust with Thompson, Ardo said, something that eluded him and others.
When asked about why Philbin has worked out so well, Thompson said he’s “a competent executive, a consummate professional, a quick study.”
“He follows directives well and (is) a true confidant,” she said.
Asked what’s different, Philbin muses that it could be his military background.
“It certainly taught me to deal with anybody and everybody, to work together toward the task at hand. To manage people based on their strengths, not their weaknesses,” he said. “When you’re working from people’s strengths they’re happier, and confident. They’re self-motivated.”
Thompson also is “very smart, and super sensitive to all kinds of vibes,” Philbin noted.
“You have to be honest and direct with her,” he said.
The Philbin effect seemed too little, too late, at least for another mayoral term.
She won’t comment on any plans to help her longest-serving executive Brenda Alton campaign for lieutenant governor.
And she says she hasn’t decided what’s next.
But Thompson has been hinting that her political career could continue, telling the Dauphin County Democratic Party at a recent dinner honoring her with the Chairwoman’s Award:
“You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
This story was updated to fix typos and add a line about the city's debt deal.