Transitioning from a waiter in the Philadelphia restaurant scene to running for state representative of the 186th District, Keith Todd strives to spread the word that there is a Republican candidate in the upcoming election. After six years of Republican absence, Keith Todd is campaigning against Democratic State Rep. Kenyatta Johnson.
“It was hard to try and get a coalition of people [to] say a Republican can actually make a run and can actually reach through to voters and make them aware that they actually do have a choice this year,” Todd said.
After living in Philadelphia for 20 years, Todd’s interest in politics while working in the restaurant business. Many politicians he waited on seemed very disconnected from the public, which led Todd to create the 30th Ward Republican Volunteer Committee in 2008. This group aims to place Republicans on various election boards to create fair, two-party representation. On June 7, he was elected the Republican leader in the 30th Ward.
“I got involved with politics because I really just thought the average person voice wasn’t being heard by the career 
politicians,” Todd said.
Because of this, he began to take the needed steps to become a candidate for state representative. In order to be accepted into the political race, he needed 300 signatures on a petition. The next step after gaining the signatures was to create a fund raising committee- people who would help maintain his website and the organization of his volunteers.
After the completion of these steps, Todd is now preparing for the upcoming election on Nov. 2. He believes the community is in desperate need of change.
“There are special needs in the district such as education, recreation and also letting people be able to afford to live in the district,” said Todd. “If your raising their taxes, and there are a lot of people that are elderly and disabled [living] on one income, I find it’s imperative that the state representative should be looking out for those people since the majority of those people are in our district. “
A large part of the 186th District is low-income families who receive subsidies for food. Todd explained how the tax increases created instability within the 186th District- especially for small business- which caused the high unemployment rate that is currently found in the neighborhood. He also believes that this is because the elected government officials have so many benefits. Todd’s first course of action would be sponsoring and voting for a 10 percent pay cut for all elected officials in Pennsylvania.
“I can go on through the list of how a state representative lives like a king while the people in our district basically just struggle to make their everyday electric bill, gas bill, their rent, their mortgage and things of that nature, “ he said.
If elected, Todd also said that he would make sure the state representative would pay what a normal citizen would pay for health insurance in the private sector.
Education is also a huge concern within his campaign. Todd believes that the Philadelphia schools should change the pay scale because currently, the school faculty is getting constant pay increases as the drop out rates are steadily increasing. In the 186th District, four out of every 10 students aren’t on track to graduate.
“The money should follow the child,” Todd said. “It shouldn’t be going to overpaid administrators who get an incredible amount of sick days and vacation time to where they are not really performing their own jobs. “If they were in the private sector they would probably be unemployed.”
He believes the money that goes toward the teacher raises should, instead, be used to better the learning environment of the student. Setting learning standards and goals for the students is also another goal that Todd would like to achieve in the educational system. By the teachers enforcing this standard, the students would be more inclined to push to achieve their academic goal.
Police enforcement is also a current issue that Todd believes is important to the community. When the police address a problem, they will give the desired information verbally.
“After you’ve been attacked, you’re not thinking ‘OK, let me bring out a pad and write everything down,’” Todd explained. “You’re going through so many different emotions that I think that police should give a pamphlet out saying that this is the place you have to call, these are the people you have to call, if this comes up this is the number you have to call. “
By giving out a palm card with the local numbers, this would make it easier for the victims of the crime to seek the information they need.
Todd spreads these campaign ideas mostly by door-to-door contact, and believes that the common citizens voice should be heard.
“I like to say I’m, grass roots,” he said. “I didn’t have volunteers go out an do it.”
By addressing his solutions to the neighborhood’s issues and being involved with the community as much as possible, Todd hopes to win the 186th District state representative position enabling him to express these issues in Harrisburg.
“grass roots’ well he didnt lie there….lol