March 26, 2026
Thom Carroll/For PhillyVoice
Councilmember Isaiah Thomas introduced legislation Thursday to repeal his own proposal to amend Philly's resign-to-run rule. He said he received feedback that it wouldn't have enough support from voters when it was put on the ballot in May.
Just a few weeks after legislation was approved to put an amendment to the city's resign-to-run rule on the May ballot, Councilmember Isaiah Thomas has made a move to repeal his own bill.
The rule requiring elected officials to step down from their positions before beginning a campaign for a new role has been in place since 1951, when the city established its Home Rule Charter. Thomas (D-At-Large) is the latest official to attempt to make changes to the law, but on Thursday he introduced a measure to repeal his own bill, which now needs to go to committee before heading back to the council floor. Thomas said that after hearing feedback from "a lot of different parties," he didn't think voters would approve of his legislation.
"I thought that the version we were producing previously was going to be considered a happy compromise and that's not necessarily the reception that we've gotten back," Thomas said. "We want to go back to the drawing board and revisit what we feel like can both pass out of council, but also be something that's reflective of what voters and constituents want to see."
Thomas initially proposed repealing the rule entirely in the fall, but he later amended his legislation to exclude city employees running for elected office. He also added a provision to say that candidates can't appear on the ballot twice, so officials couldn't run for reelection and a new position simultaneously. His bill, which lawmakers approved 15-1 on Feb. 26, said that the requirement would still be in place for mayoral, district attorney and row office elections.
Thomas' proposal was the third attempt to change the resign-to-run rule. In 2007 and 2014, voters rejected a ballot measure to repeal the rule, and a similar bill in 2020 never made it out of City Council chambers.
With his changes and a new political climate, though, Thomas thought his effort would appeal to voters. At the time, he pointed to an upcoming congressional race to replace U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans (D-3rd), which has multiple politicians gunning for the spot, as an example of how his bill could change elections.
Thomas said he does hope to rework the legislation and get it back on the ballot at some point, but he doesn't have a timeline right now for when it will return.
"We're definitely not going to do anything with the November ballot and the November election, so that leaves next year," Thomas said. "And the 2027 election tends to be a packed ballot, so that's always difficult to put things on a ballot in an odd-number year like 2027."
