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...it involves backslapping and ass-kissing...things that I can do very well, but very rarely do b/c I hate them.
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Better get used to it, Syc. If you're serious about this, you'll be doing a lot of it. And you'd better be convincing, too. Remember the old story about Harry Truman? This happened in 1924, just after he lost his reelection campaign for judge in Jackson County, MO. Truman was talking to one of his mother's neighbors, an elderly woman who had known him all his life.
"Well, at least I know you voted for me," Truman said.
"No, Harry. I didn't," replied his old friend.
"Really? Well, why not?"
"Because you didn't ask me to, Harry."
People won't vote for you if they don't know who you are, or if they think you're taking them for granted. So, go out... get involved in the community... join civic groups... volunteer... meet lots of people... whatever. I don't know anything about the vagaries of local politics in Philadelphia, and I wouldn't presume to advise you in any case. BUT...
...I'm from Maryland, and down here our political memory contains a figure of almost legendary proportions, even if the rest of the country has already forgotten him. Remember Spiro Agnew? Agnew went from president of the Loch Raven High School PTA to Vice President of the United States in just a little more than 10 years, thanks to a conscientiously applied program of back-slapping and ass-kissing. Never mind that he was a vicious, lying, treacherous, embezzling little weasel who destroyed almost everything he touched... the point is, back-slapping and ass-kissing WORK, if you do enough of it!
If you need something to perk you up, grab of copy of
The Great Shark Hunt by Hunter S. Thompson and read chapter XII: "Freak Power in the Rockies". It's about a grass-roots voter registration campaign by a bunch of hippies, and their attempt to get their own candidate elected mayor of Aspen, CO. Very funny, and very uplifting.