Linda Deliah Thompson (born 1960) is an American politician and former mayor of

Harrisburg Harrisburg is the capital city of the Pennsylvania, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the List of c ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

serving from January 4, 2010, until January 6, 2014. Thompson was Harrisburg's first female and first black mayor. In 2016 Thompson established LDT Ministries.

Early life

Born and raised in Harrisburg, Thompson graduated from Harrisburg High School in 1979. She went on to attend

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

where she received a

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

in Communications. While in Washington, Thompson interned at the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

Political career

In 2001, Thompson was elected to serve on the

Harrisburg City Council The Harrisburg City Council is the legislative branch of the city government of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and consists of seven members elected at-large.

. She was re-elected and appointed President of City Council in 2005. While on council, Thompson introduced legislation to sell off city-owned Western artifacts in order to raise money to pay down debts. She also amended the 2009 budget to include $100,000 to pay for a citywide bulk trash pickup. Thompson decided not to run for re-election in 2009 and instead ran for the Democratic nomination for Mayor. In the May primary, Thompson beat former mayor

Stephen R. Reed Stephen Russell Reed (August 9, 1949 – January 25, 2020) was the longest-serving mayor of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Dubbed "Mayor-for-Life," he was re-elected to seven four-year terms, serving from 1982 to 2010. After leaving office, Reed fac ...

by nearly 1,000 votes to win the election. Despite her upset win in the Democratic primary, Thompson went on to win the general election by only about 800 votes against

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

challenger Nevin Mindlin. Failure to reach an agreement on how to assign the budget and what should or should not be included, as well as an Act 47 proposal by the state turned down by the City Council, led to a fiscal emergency she attempted to resolve. In the primaries for the 2013 Harrisburg mayoral election Thompson was defeated for re-nomination as mayor by Harrisburg businessman Eric R. Papenfuse, who won the primary, and City Controller Dan Miller, who placed second. Thompson was the Democratic nominee for the 4th Congressional District of Pennsylvania in 2014. She was defeated by incumbent Republican Scott Perry.

Controversies

In late March 2013 Mayor Thompson was discussing the

privatization Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

of city waste collection, she stated, "We're not opening up our flood gates for some scumbag that comes from

Perry County Perry County may refer to: United States *Perry County, Alabama *Perry County, Arkansas *Perry County, Illinois *Perry County, Indiana *Perry County, Kentucky *Perry County, Mississippi *Perry County, Missouri *Perry County, Ohio *Perry Coun ...

who … comes here and wants to dump for free." The comment brought about a firestorm of backlash.Mayor Linda Thompson's 'scumbag' comment causes firestorm

Harrisburg Patriot-News ''The Patriot-News'' is the largest newspaper serving the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area. In 2005, the newspaper was ranked in the top 100 in daily and Sunday circulation in the United States. It has been owned by Advance Publicati ...

, March 28, 2013. Accessed 2013.

References

External links

LDT Ministries

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Linda D. 1960 births Living people Mayors of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Harrisburg City Council members African-American mayors in Pennsylvania Women mayors of places in Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Democrats Women city councillors in Pennsylvania African-American city council members in Pennsylvania 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women African-American women mayors

Early life

Political career

Controversies

See also

References

External links