The Philadelphia Republican Party’s endorsed candidate for mayor, Daphne Goggins, hasn’t worked a paid job in eight years due to anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder, she revealed during a phone interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Goggins became the first black woman to receive the endorsement of the Philadelphia GOP on Feb. 13, but her endorsement swiftly came under fire after one of her primary opponents, Billy Ciancaglini, said she hasn’t held a paid job since 2010 and has been relying on federal disability benefits to support herself.
The revelation prompted party chairman Michael Meehan to organize a meeting Monday with ward leaders to reconsider the party’s endorsement of Goggins. The disability benefits she receives are meant for people unable “to perform any job in the national economy,” Meehan said. “I think the mayor’s job is one in the national economy and is a sticking a point.”
The ward leaders voted 29 to 18 on Monday against reconsidering Goggins’ endorsement, solidifying the Philadelphia GOP’s support of her in the lead up to the May 21 primary.
Goggins, who is a ward leader herself, kept her colleagues in the dark prior to Monday’s vote regarding the conditions that qualify her for disability benefits. Goggins said in January she suffers from fibromyalgia, a musculoskeletal pain disorder, but told reporters Monday that isn’t why she collects disability.
Goggins, a 56-year-old single mother of three, revealed to The DCNF on Tuesday that mental illness is what’s kept her away from the paid workforce since 2010.
“The reason I was actually disabled is mental illness,” Goggins said in a phone interview. “I take a chance in saying this because I may lose some voters.”
“Bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety is what I treat for,” she said.
Goggins said her mental illnesses materialized after she stopped snorting cocaine in 2005.
“When I first got clean from snorting cocaine and being a functioning addict, I realized that my job was to stay clean,” she said. “As the years went on I saw the issues that I had. Then I got the breast cancer. Then the diabetes came along. I actually fell into a coma last year because I took the wrong medication.”
“I went from making $60,000 a year to living off of $600 a month and food stamps,” she said.
Goggins says she’s ready to re-enter the workforce after her nearly decade-long hiatus. Her first stop is the mayorship of the sixth-largest city in the U.S.
“I’ve managed my life enough to be able to be a mayor because I’ve worked on it and I have been endorsed by my party,” she said.
Goggins said she will only give up her disability benefits if she becomes Philadelphia’s next mayor.
Goggins’ primary opponent, Democrat-turned-Republican Ciancaglini, lambasted her justification to continue collecting disability while claiming she is fit to be the mayor.
“That is not how disability works,” Ciancaglini told The DCNF. “You don’t say, ‘I’ll get healed if I get a better job.'”
Goggins said she is “physically, emotionally and mentally capable of handling the duties of Mayor of Philadelphia,” in a statement Saturday in response to the revelation that she’s been on disability benefits for nearly a decade.
“If you can physically, mentally and emotionally do that, you can be a secretary, a teacher, a data-entry analyst,” Ciancaglini said. “Daphne wants to keep collecting disability by saying, ‘I’m unable to work,’ but yet, ‘I’m going to run for mayor, and if I win then I’ll say I’m healed.'”
When asked why she says she is capable of serving as mayor but won’t make efforts to reenter the paid workforce, Goggins responded: “So do they want me to give up my income now and not pay my bills?”
“I think I’ve gotten to the point where I can reenter the workforce,” she said. “Now, I’m not absolutely sure of that, and that’s the problem. You are never sure. Things happen. You’re never sure, but I’m taking this chance because I believe God wants me to.”
Goggins said she’s confident she has what it takes to serve as mayor of the sixth-largest city in the country because her cabinet would do most of the work for her.
Goggins was blunt about her chances to become the city’s next mayor.
“I’m going to be honest with you. Everything that I’ve done in my life I’ve failed at,” she said. “So chances of winning are just as good as chances of losing for me. So I’m going to say it’s 50-50.”
“But I don’t understand what none of that has to do with me,” said Goggins, who says her own mental illnesses shouldn’t prevent her from serving as mayor.
“Why should I be ashamed of having mental illness?” she asked. “I think that the voters of Philadelphia should get to decide.”
“And I think they just might choose me,” she added.
The odds of a Republican being elected Mayor of Philadelphia are approximately the same as the air suddenly disappearing from your living room, so no harm, no foul here, but … really?
