Francis Silvestri Rizzo (born March 5, 1943), commonly known as Frank Rizzo Jr., is an American politician. He is the son of former Philadelphia Mayor

Frank Rizzo Francis Lazarro Rizzo (October 23, 1920 – July 16, 1991) was an American police officer and politician. He served as commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) from 1967 to 1971 and mayor of Philadelphia from 1972 to 1980. He wa ...

and served as a Republican and briefly as an Independent member of the

Philadelphia City Council The Philadelphia City Council is the legislative body of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States. It is composed of 17 councilmembers: ten members elected by district and seven members elected at-large from throughou ...

for a combined sixteen years.

Career

Rizzo, originally a Democrat, registered as a Republican to vote for his father,

, in the 1987 Republican primary. He was elected to a Philadelphia City Council-at-Large seat in 1995. He defeated Councilwoman Joan Specter, wife of then-

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

Arlen Specter Arlen Specter (February 12, 1930 – October 14, 2012) was an American lawyer, author and politician who served as a United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1981 to 2011. Specter was a Democrat from 1951 to 1965, then a Republican fr ...

. He shares his father's support of labor and community organizations. The younger Rizzo easily won re-election as councilman-at-large in 1999, 2003 and 2007. In 2011, he finished seventh out of nine candidates in the Republican primary, following his participation in the controversial Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP), under which he received a lump-sum payment from his city pension while continuing to receive his salary as a member of the city council. He was not a candidate in the general election. After his defeat, he left the Republican Party and became an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

. In November 2013, he announced that he had rejoined the Democratic Party."Frank Rizzo to become Democrat, may run for mayor in 2015"
Philly.com. Retrieved March 7, 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rizzo, Frank Jr. 1943 births Living people Pennsylvania Republicans Pennsylvania Democrats Philadelphia City Council members American people of Italian descent 20th-century Pennsylvania politicians 21st-century Pennsylvania politicians