Rue Landau

CITY COUNCIL AT LARGE

Rue LANDAU

The 8th Ward proudly endorses Rue Landau for City Council at Large. Philadelphia is at a critical juncture in all parts of our City government — especially City Council. Our Ward was impressed by Rue’s long City government experience, her legal acumen, and her ability to build bridges between people and groups in conflict. When faced with questions about complex issues, Rue gave thoughtful, analytical responses instead of reflexive soundbite answers.

No doubt, this came from Rue’s early legal career at Community Legal Services and subsequent 12-year tenure as the director of both the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations and the Fair Housing Commission, the city’s civil rights and housing enforcement agencies. Appointed by Mayor Michael Nutter in 2008, and again by Mayor Jim Kenney in 2016, Rue transformed the agencies into national models for government and community engagement, social justice, and equitable opportunity. Mayor Kenney shared these words of appreciation in 2020 when Rue moved on from her post: “Rue Landau is among the fiercest advocates for civil rights and issues of social justice that I’ve had the pleasure of working with during my decades in City government.” Mayor Kenney said: “In her dual roles as Executive Director of both the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations and Fair Housing Commission, she has helped shape and enforce some of our city’s most consequential anti-discrimination laws.” Rue went on to serve briefly at the Philadelphia Bar Association as Director of Law and Policy before leaving the Bar to launch her campaign for City Council. In addition to becoming one of the very few City Council members with a law degree (presently only one City Council member has a law degree), Rue would become Philadelphia’s first openly LGBTQ+ Council member.