Foster Alexander Dunlap (August 26, 1905 - January 23, 1978) was a Republican lawyer and politician from Philadelphia who served as City Controller from 1954 to 1958.
Dunlap was born in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, in 1905, the son of Alexander and Estella Dunlap. [1] The family moved to North Philadelphia, where Dunlap was raised. He graduated from Temple University and later from that university's law school in 1934. [2] He later studied at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. [3] Dunlap joined the United States Army in World War II and fought in the North Africa campaign. [2] He married Evelyn Gordon, with whom he had two children. [3]
In 1953, Dunlap ran for the Republican nomination for Philadelphia City Controller. The primary was complicated by a split in the party hierarchy between the "regular" faction, led by Republican City Committee chairman William J. Hamilton, and Board of Revision of Taxes President William F. Meade; and an insurgent faction led by former Sheriff Austin Meehan. [4] An independent slate of Republicans headed by Treasurer candidate George W. Gibson also contested the primary. [4] Dunlap was the Hamilton-Meade candidate, and won with 66,557 votes. Meehan's candidate, former Deputy Secretary of Supplies and Services Wilhelm F. Knauer, polled 50,185, and Gibson's running mate, Rudolph F. Price, tallied just 4,566. [5]
In the general election, Dunlap faced Democratic nominee Roland R. Randall. He highlighted the importance of having a Controller from a different party from the mayor, Democrat Joseph S. Clark, Jr., and noted that Clark and his running mate Richardson Dilworth had said the same thing in 1949, when the mayor had been a Republican. [6] Dunlap won with 51% of the vote. [7]
The City Controller sits at the head of an independent auditing department, approves all payments made out of the city treasury, and audits the executive departments. [8] As an independently elected official, the Controller is not responsible to the mayor or the city council and was given expanded powers under the 1951 Charter. [8] Dunlap took office in 1954 and set to work right away in questioning city expenditures that he believed violated procurement policies. [9] He also circulated a questionnaire to city employees asking whether they were members of any "subversive" organizations. [10]
In 1955, at Clark's urging, Dunlap investigated Philadelphia's Traffic Court and found widespread favoritism that he claimed amounted to $1.9 million in fines not being collected. [11] The following year, as Democrats on city council announced plans to amend the 1951 City Charter to allow more political patronage in city jobs, Dunlap voiced his opposition to the plan. [12]
Dunlap was unopposed for renomination in the 1957 election. [13] His vigilance in his duties may have harmed his reelection chances; according to a Philadelphia Inquirer story just before the election, some Republican ward leaders withheld their support for Dunlap because he had investigated corruption of Republican officials. [14] Whatever the reason, he went down to defeat, losing to Democrat Alexander Hemphill. [15] Dunlap returned to his private law practice and moved to Cherry Hill, New Jersey, where he died in 1978. [16] He was buried in Saint Peter Evangelical Lutheran Church Cemetery in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania. [16]
Constance Hopkins Snow Dallas was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she served on the Philadelphia City Council as a representative of the city's 8th district. Born in New York and educated in Europe, Dallas came to Philadelphia as a teenager. After marriage and raising children, she entered local politics as a reform-minded Democrat. Following an unsuccessful run for City Council in 1947, she was elected in 1951, the first woman to serve in that legislative body.
Harry Norwitch was an organized labor leader and Democratic politician from Philadelphia.
The 1951 Philadelphia municipal election, held on Tuesday, November 6, was the first election under the city's new charter, which had been approved by the voters in April, and the first Democratic victory in the city in more than a half-century. The positions contested were those of mayor and district attorney, and all seventeen city council seats. There was also a referendum on whether to consolidate the city and county governments. Citywide, the Democrats took majorities of over 100,000 votes, breaking a 67-year Republican hold on city government. Joseph S. Clark Jr. and Richardson Dilworth, two of the main movers for the charter reform, were elected mayor and district attorney, respectively. Led by local party chairman James A. Finnegan, the Democrats also took fourteen of seventeen city council seats, and all of the citywide offices on the ballot. A referendum on city-county consolidation passed by a wide margin. The election marked the beginning of Democratic dominance of Philadelphia city politics, which continues today.
William Milton Phillips was a Republican businessman and politician from Philadelphia.
Samuel Rose was a Democratic lawyer and politician from Philadelphia.
Michael John Towey was an organized labor leader and Democratic politician from Philadelphia.
Victor Edward Moore was a Philadelphia businessman and Democratic politician. He served three terms on the Philadelphia City Council and as chairman of the Philadelphia Gas Works.
Philadelphia's municipal election of November 3, 1953, was the second held under the city charter of 1951 and represented the first test of the Democratic city government of Mayor Joseph S. Clark Jr. In the 1951 election, the voters had elected a Democratic mayor for the first time in 67 years, breaking the Republican hold on political power in the city. They had also elected a majority-Democratic City Council along with Democrats for district attorney and other citywide offices. In 1953, the voters had the chance to continue the Democratic trend or to block it in the election for City Controller, Register of Wills, and various judges and magistrates. On election day, the Republican organization recovered from their 1951 losses, electing all their candidates citywide. Republicans celebrated the victory, but subsequent Democratic triumphs in the 1955 and 1959 elections made the 1953 result more of an aberration than a true comeback for the once-powerful Philadelphia Republican machine.
Emanuel Weinberg was a Democratic politician from Philadelphia who served two-and-a-half terms on Philadelphia City Council.
The 1957 Philadelphia municipal election, held on November 5, involved the election of the district attorney, city controller, and the remainder of a term for one city council seat, as well as several row offices and judgeships. Democrats were successful citywide, continuing a run of victories racked up after the passage of a new city charter in 1951 despite growing divisions between factions of the party. Victor H. Blanc, the incumbent district attorney, led the Democratic ticket to victory. They held the city council seat and took two citywide offices that Republicans had won in 1953. In the judges' elections, most were endorsed by both parties but in the one race that pitted a Democratic candidate against a Republican, the Democrats were successful in seating their candidate, former Congressman Earl Chudoff.
Joseph Lorenz Kun was a Philadelphia lawyer and judge who served for thirty years on the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.
Paul D'Ortona was a Democratic politician from Philadelphia who served as President of Philadelphia's City Council.
William Aloysius Dwyer Jr. was an American lawyer, judge, and Democratic politician from Philadelphia. He served on the Philadelphia City Council from 1960 to 1963 and on the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas from 1967 until his death in 1982.
Philadelphia's municipal election of November 7, 1961, involved the election of the district attorney, city controller, and several judgeships. Democrats swept all of the city races but saw their vote totals much reduced from those of four years earlier, owing to a growing graft scandal in city government. District Attorney James C. Crumlish, Jr. and City Controller Alexander Hemphill, both incumbents, were returned to office. Several ballot questions were also approved, including one permitting limited sales of alcohol on Sundays.
Alexander Hemphill was a Democratic lawyer and politician from Philadelphia who served as City Controller from 1958 to 1968. After service in World War II and graduation from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Hemphill embarked on a legal career before running for office. In his three terms as city controller, he exposed corruption and malfeasance, often to the discomfort of his fellow Democrats. He ran for mayor of Philadelphia in 1967 against the incumbent Democrat, James Tate, but was unsuccessful, and retired to a private law practice until his death in 1986.
The 1963 Philadelphia's municipal election, held on November 5, involved contests for mayor, all seventeen city council seats, and several other executive and judicial offices. The Democrats lost vote share citywide and the Republicans gained one seat in City Council, but the Democratic acting mayor, James Tate, was elected to a full term and his party maintained their hold on the city government. The election was the first decline in the Democrats' share of the vote since they took control of the city government in the 1951 elections, and showed the growing tension between the reformers and ward bosses within their party.
Francis Daniel Pastorius, V was a Philadelphia attorney and Republican politician.
Austin Andrew Meehan, Sr., was a Republican politician in Philadelphia who served as county sheriff. Before entering politics, Meehan ran his family's paving business and was known as a local basketball star. Beginning as an insurgent within the city's Republican Party, he soon won the favor of party bosses and climbed the ranks of Philadelphia's Republican organization. Meehan served two terms as county sheriff from 1944 to 1952 and was recognized as the unofficial head of the Republican Party in Philadelphia in the 1950s. He remained an influential party member until his death in 1961. He was the father of Billy Meehan.
James T. McDermott was a Pennsylvania judge and politician who served on the state's Supreme Court from 1981 until his death in 1992. Before joining the court, he was active in Philadelphia politics as a Republican candidate for Congress in 1958, city council in 1962, and mayor in 1963. He was a trial court judge on the Court of Common Pleas from 1965 to 1981.
Joseph John Hersch was a Democratic politician from Philadelphia who served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and as a city magistrate before being elected to the Philadelphia City Council.