Politics: Anne of a Thousand Dreams

But she was ignoring a hard reality: It was never going to happen. Dicker changed course; she now opposes not casinos per se, but the sites that were chosen. This has gotten her in trouble not only with the anti-casino true believers, but with others, like Jeff Rush, president of Queen Village Neighbors Association, who saw her parasite position as naive. Rush backs Fumo, because Fumo “is crucial to our fight to re-site. To coin an old phrase, I’ll stay with the devil I know.”

Dicker burned more bridges in 2007, first with her involvement in the City Council campaign for Vern Anastasio, the real estate lawyer who unsuccessfully challenged South Philly Councilman Frank DiCicco as a reform candidate. Anastasio had been a vocal supporter of Dicker in the 175th District race, and she, in turn, cut a high profile volunteering for his campaign — until the day she abruptly quit, without any public explanation.

Dicker says now that she left to focus on the anti-casino fight. But a source involved in the campaign says the relationship soured after Dicker confronted Anastasio about whether he’d plagiarized in an op-ed he wrote, an allegation he denies and says was peddled by his opposition.

Then she made a decision that haunts her still. During the 2007 mayoral primary, Dicker supported millionaire businessman Tom Knox, who had packaged himself as a reformer but, as more details of his past emerged, clearly was anything but. Dicker says she regrets supporting him, and did so only because Knox was the first and most vocal candidate to come down against the casinos. “I was rooting for Michael Nutter, anyway,” she says, “but he refused to oppose the casino plan. I felt I had no choice.” By the end of the campaign, when Knox had crashed and burned, Dicker looked foolish, and her explanation — that she endorsed Knox as a means of strong-arming Nutter, her real favorite — smacked, at the least, of politics as usual.

Which raises the question: Is Anne Dicker really a reformer?

She has become a frequent target of some of the same progressive politicos and bloggers who once breathlessly buoyed her. One recently called her “Johnny Doc’s crack whore,” based on a rumor that she reached out to union boss and Fumo enemy John Dougherty in December to solicit his support against their common foe. Dicker says she left a message for Dougherty — and did not receive a call back from him — only to ask whether he himself was running for Fumo’s seat and, if not, whether he was supporting Joe Vignola, the former city councilman and Controller, who had been contemplating entering the primary race but is said now to be planning a run in the general election as an independent should Fumo defeat Dicker. Dicker is vehement that she wouldn’t accept Dougherty’s support even if it were offered to her, nor would she accept any money “from him or anyone connected to him.”

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