The Next Mayor

The one official candidate for mayor, Michael Nutter, has written to Paul Vallas to urge for more information and more public discussion of proposed school budget cuts.

The letter calls for a stringent review of the district's books, as Mayor Street recently called for. But there are a couple of noteable new ideas in Nutter's letter:

Nutter suggested PICA audit the district books, to serve as an "independent financial oversight entity"

He asked for an accounting of what the proposed budget cuts would do to each school

He asked for "week of public hearings in City Council chambers" so parents and other stakeholders can understand the cuts.

The letter's mentioned in Mensah M. Dean's coverage of the first meeting of Street's Philadelphia Educational Advisory Task force -- aka the Mayor's wedge to get back into the school district.

I used to think these coin operated toilet kiosks would be such a great idea. You're walking around town and you really have to go. Rather than risk all of the dirty looks that you'll get when you try to use the bathroom at the Westin Hotel while clad in your finest jogging or walking attire (I speak from experience), you can pop a quarter in the slot and get 15 minutes of privacy from one of these many, conveniently located public toilets. They're guaranteed to be clean since they completely self-clean after every use. Maybe they could even put a nice LCD screen in there so you can watch the news or get tips on where to go for the latest movies. All for the price of a local, 1-minute long phone call from a soon to be extinct "pay phone."

Yes, that would be great, wouldn't it? I wonder how such things have worked out for other cities. Ok... Google, what can you give me on "automated public toilets?" Bingo. Seattle seems to have tried this already. Seattle's a good clean city that doesn't have as much a problem with crime and cleanliness as Philadelphia at least judging from my weeklong visit back in 2000. They're biggest issue seems to be freeing up their waterfront by building a tunnel for a major highway that cuts the water off from the rest of the city. Gee, I'm glad we don't have that problem. Oh... wait.

Anyway if the toilets work there, maybe they have a chance here. If they don't, I doubt Philadelphia's government would be able to keep them clean, maintained and secure. Let me just read this editorial from the Seattle Times to find out.

Oh. Well, so much for that idea.

And so I just ran.

*gasp* *huff* *puff* *wheeeeze* *grunt* *ow ow ow* *phew*

That about describes the sounds coming from me during yesterday's Dash for Democracy. Yes, I actually ran the Inaugural Committee of Seventy-sponsored 5k (or 4.8k as I learned later, totally shattering the surprised good feelings I had when I crossed the finish line 2 minutes ahead of my expected pace). Some things I learned from yesterday's race include:

1. My colleague here at WHYY, Jeff Bundy, is really fast. I had always known this but when I saw him running the other way on Market Street, meaning he had run all the way past City Hall, Love Park and around Logan Circle before I had even gotten to Broad Street, it was confirmed.

2. Hot wings, beer, macaroni and cheese, french fries and lots of mayonnaise do not make a good pre-race dinner.

3. The new smoke-free atmosphere at the bar in which I ate the above is a Philadelphia policy initiative that all distance runners should be thankful for.

4. Chaka Fattah is faster than I am.

5. People don't listen to their "traffic on the 2's" as often as they should, judging by the huge back-ups on each North-South street that intersected the stretch of the course on Market East.

6. Running on a treadmill in a nice warm gym is not the way to prepare for the seering burn that one's lungs experience in 30 degree running conditions.

7. I have 6 months until the next 5k I plan on running. I better get to training.

As promised, Jeff and I walked around and looked for someone whose costume best exemplified an issue in the 2007 mayor's race. The winner, Tara, came dressed as the money that she feels is corrupting the electoral process. She was advocating the public financing of elections. If you look very carefully, you'll see that in the picture I took of Tara, I coincidentally got millionaire, potentially self-financed candidate, Tom Knox! Talk about irony. A woman talking about getting money out of politics in the same picture as a guy who has already put $5 million bucks into his own campaign.

For her efforts, Tara received an official The Next Mayor t-shirt and she'll get an opportunity to write a blog post on this blog about whatever she wants. I'll be putting up her post, unedited, soon.

Along with Fattah, who was among the runners and Knox, who got 15 seconds of microphone time at the Power 99 table, the as-yet-only-declared-candidate, Michael Nutter was also on hand to celebrate this event. Other photos from the Dash are included here.

...and we are looking for any reports of polling place confusion, machine breakdowns, or political hanky-panky. On the positive side, we also want to hear about long lines and excited voters. What did you experience as you voted?

We're getting good reports of voting with the new machines. One commenter said:

"My husband and I were excited to vote in Overbrook Farms today. We arrived before 8A and there were no lines, the 2 machines were easy to use, and we were each privileged to cast our votes in under 60 seconds from start to finish. Well done Philadelphia!"

Personally, I would like to send props to Haverford Township's 7th ward. I was voter number 161, which is a pretty good turnout for the hour when I voted, and it was a breeze. I parked, walked through the gauntlet of people waving fliers at me, talked to some polite, informed and extremely helpful poll volunteers and cast my vote in no more than 15 minutes. Easy as pie.

Voting shenanigans report...Christopher Sheridan, policy director of the Committee of 70, says thus far it's been "garden variety stuff" at the polls this morning, with mostly reports of friction between campaign volunteers. Here's a nasty one from the Northeast, in the Brendan Boyle/George Kenney State House race in the 170th:

"Some of our teenage volunteers were handing out campaign literature this evening when they were confronted by angry Kenney supporters. The men came out to confront our volunteers yelling, "Get off our turf! Go home white trash! Go back to Olney!"

Ewww.

Presented verbatim, check out this voter's experience:

When I arrived at the Roberto Clemente Recreation Center at 18th and Green streets at 8:30 a.m., there was a line of nearly 20 people waiting silently to vote that extended outside.

Suddenly, there was a lot of loud talking, that made me suspect that there was some sort of disturbance going on. I wondered if the police needed to be called.

Curious, I went to the front of the line and noticed a disheveled man in a gray sweatshirt holding a pack of Newport cigarettes. He appeared to be in some sort of dispute with the poll workers. It was hard to make out what it was about. But there was a lot of back and forth between him and the four other poll workers. From his appearance, I assumed he was homeless and maybe hanging around too much. I guessed that the workers had asked him to leave and he had refused.

But as the line inched forward, I could see that the man appeared to be helping the poll workers. At on point, he entered the voting booth with a voter. When he wasn’t doing that, he stood - at times all bent over - in the rear of the voting machines, touching the back of them from time to time.

As I made my way from the hallway into the room, the man started calling out to me. I ignored him but he wouldn’t stop. When I turned to face him and give him an “are you crazy look” he said, “Oh, you’re not ready for me yet, hah, hah?” as well as some other things that I couldn’t make out.

Meanwhile, there was more joshing and guffawing going on among two of the poll workers - one of whom had her hair tied up in a bandanna. When I got to the front, the poll worker, another one who’d been laughing and talking and making all manner of complaints about a would-be worker who’d arrived carrying a sleeping infant in her arms, jumped up as if she were startled and looked at me in a really crazy way. Instead of reacting, I simply stated my name.

She turned and started explaining the spelling of my last name in an exaggerated fashion and then handed me the book to me to sign. Glancing down, I noticed that the place where she indicated was next to someone else’s name. I informed her of her error and then went into the booth. After I voted, the homeless looking guy yelled out to me, “Hey, slim, do you want my business card.”

I didn’t turn around. I was too disgusted. It seems wrong that civic-minded people should be subjected to this kind of tomfoolery when faced with such an important task as voting.

In one of the odder twists to today's proceedings, it seems that the union support for Senator Santorum, led chiefly by Electricians Local 98 leader and potentital mayoral candidate John Dougherty has caused some odd pieces of campaign literature to spring up around the city. According to bloggers at Young Philly Politics who have been out an about today, Local 98 is handing out "Rendell-Santorum" literature.

For those of you who don't know the background, Dougherty and Philly Building Trades President Pat Gillespie are throwing their personal support behind Santorum for his role in bringing construction jobs associated with the new IRS center and for his support of dredging the Delaware River.

Anyway, I'm heading out to see if I can grab some of this lit. Could make a nice souvenir.

UPDATE from Wendy: We've also heard there are lawn signs. And a tipster writes:

There are Rendell/Santorum signs all over the city. Doorhangers all over the NE tout that split, and say they're paid for by Local 98 (Johnny Doc). There were similar signs, yard-sign style, outside my polling place in Roxborough, with a union bug for Graphics union. We heard that the Dem ward leader got a CP court injunction to have them removed.

LATEST UPDATE: Daily News City Editor Gar Joseph brings this final report from the Famous Deli at lunchtime:

Democratic Party Chairman and Congressman Bob Brady says the Democrats did get an injunction against the Rendell/Santorum signs.

Gar had heard that unionized carpenters had been pulling out the lawn signs after the injunction was handed down. So he asked Brady.

Said Brady: "We don't need no injunction."

Another tipster -- who we know, but who has a sensitive job and asked us for anonymity -- writes:

Election day workers showed up at a Philly Rendell campaign office and were told that Philadelphia residents would not be called at all and instead to call Berks County to help out Lois Murphy. Many of us didn’t really know a whole lot about Lois Murphy but we made the calls anyway. The point was that the Rendell organization was so confident about Philly that they weren’t putting the effort there and instead trying to get Lois Murphy elected. Funny to think of all these Philadelphians (sounding like Philadelphians) calling Berks County people…

The other funny thing I noticed. There weren’t nearly as many “visibility” people on the streets (that’s what they call the sign waivers) as in 2002. Again, I think it was a matter of priorities…And the people who do it tend to be a lot of yuppie types (and 40—somethings). But what’s funny is that it really is embarrassing detail and if you look you’ll see most of them waving signs in a manner which conceals their identity. You just see legs and hands (not even a nose like Ziggy).

Whoa. Check out this report from Wendy's former employer, the Allentown Morning Call:

A man entered an Allentown polling site, signed in and proceeded to smash one of the electronic voting machines with a metal cat paperweight, poll volunteers said.

Apparently, the voter -- "a registered independent" -- thought electronic ballots were a Republican plot to steal the election.

But the VERY BEST PART OF THIS STORY IS:

"He smashed it with the cat's ears," said volunteer Jim Govostis, who watched the incident unfold at Raker Center, a nursing home owned by Good Shepherd, a little before 1 p.m.

Voters wish that going into the polling place was less of a pamphlet-strewn minefield, and one person found the new machines tough to use.

TPM Cafe has a report of "countywide" problems in Allegheny County...also mentions Philly problems.

Back from my expedition to find some of that Local 98 literature touting the team of Rendell and Santorum. It's true. I found some guys at 4th and Washington, in front of a high rise apartment building that I suppose was serving as a polling place, and walked up and asked them for a piece of their lit. They happily obliged. Someone else that I ran into remarked that she asked them why Santorum and Rendell were campaigning together and the guys just shrugged and indicated that they're just handing out what they were told to hand out.

Anyway, here's what the piece looks like:

If you look really close, in the lower left corner you see this:

Like I said before, politics makes strange bedfellows.

From there Jeff and I walked to the Famous 4th Street Delicatessen where I tried to explain the tradition of it being the site where all of the city Democratic politicos go for lunch on Election Day. As I was explaining how it all began, lo and behold, one of the founders of the tradition, Neil Oxman, walked up and explained how he, David Glancy (Democratic City Committee chair), Pete Camiel (former chair) and Doc Sweitzer (Neil's business partner at the Campaign Group) just started having lunch their back in the late 70s. From that point on the tradition grew until it became a "must-do" on any politician's list.

I snapped a few pictures and quickly discovered that photography is not in my skill set (along with grammar and punctuation). Here's a shot of Congressman Brady after he was handed a Bob Casey button:

And the back of Vince Fumo as he ran by the gathered media so that he could get to his corned beef on rye:

Maybe that was the jacket he was wearing when he met billionaire Campbell's Soup heiress Dodo Hamilton.

I was waiting for the Governor himself to show up and thought I was on the right track when his longtime advisor and the man who many consider to be the "man behind the curtain" of Rendell's Wizard of Philadelphia arrived:

That's Comcast VP David L. Cohen in the middle, with political media consultant Neil Oxman on the left and another longtime member of Rendell's inner circle, Arthur Makadon on the right.

Oh yeah, the governor didn't show. Very disappointing.

As always, your input is welcome. If you have any interesting pics, feel free to email them to me and I get them up.

ABC, perhaps figuring anchor Charles Gibson will have something to talk about earlier in the evening, has decided to move its wall-to-wall coverage up a half-hour, so it's now to begin at 9:30 tonight.

Which means Gibson's going to get the big "Dancing with the Stars" lead-in tonight, and Ted Danson's "Help Me Help You" is going bye-bye until Nov. 28.

So far, CBS and NBC are still scheduled to get their meet-our-new-anchor parties started at 10 p.m.

Fox News' Shepard Smith just explained why we're hearing so much about "voter fraud alerts."

Shep's take on this: The two parties go into places where they expect to have problems winning, file some complaints about voting irregularities and then, if and when the votes come in against them, claim voter fraud.

He did say both parties do this. That's what fair and balanced is all about. Although his tone of voice when he says "fair" suggests that Shep thinks someone's whining.

CNN's William Schneider does a very bad impression of "Hogan Heroes" know-nothing Sgt. Schultz, as he explains why we're not hearing anything from exit polls.

At least not till 5 p.m., when the cone of silence is lifted and the pundits get another chance to get it wrong before the polls even close.

The only interesting thing around here is a collection of mock election posters asking us to vote for Richard Snowden as “King of the Hill." lThe signs sported a cartoon representation of Mr. Snowden’s face w/ a big crown on his head with an image of one of the signs inside it. They asked us to “Vote YES for King of the Hill because I am…
__ A Genius
__ A Coward (Bully)
__ Just Rich
__ Other”

Unfortunately, "King of the Hill" was not a ballot question.

Fox News' Shepard Smith keeps talking about a "six-year itch" -- no, nothing you need to see your doctor for -- and I was curious about his suggestion that what may or may not be happening with the Democrats today is just something that happens six years into every administration (except, apparently the Clinton administration, where voters may have just gotten itchy early).

A Nexis search turned up a Roll Call piece from Sept. 12, 2005, by Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Report, in which he attributed the "itch" to Kevin Phillips, who wrote for the Christian Science Monitor in 1984 that "U.S. voters have invariably found themselves beginning to sour on administrations after six years."

Not so invariably, argued Rothenberg, who seemed to think other factors were at work in some of those elections and that Phillips' stats don't constitute a trend. (In newspaper parlance, though, three is the magic number, trend-wise, two being either a coincidence or a trend waiting to be identified.)

The point that's getting hammered pretty hard on Fox, by Smith, at least, is that history dictates that the Democrats should win big tonight -- big being more than just winning the House by a seat or two -- and that anything less than big will be a "moral victory" for Republicans (though so far, Smith's efforts to put the words "moral victory" into a Republican's mouth appear to have been unsuccessful).

Carlos Matos, Democratic leader of the 19th Ward and the son-in-law of Marge Tartaglione, chairwoman of the City Commission, the agency that oversees city elections is featured in a couple YouTube videos shot by someone named "pennjeff." I'm not sure what the point of the video clips is but it sounds like the interviewer is trying to learn how the Democratic machine in Philly gets people to vote for Democrats. Judge for yourself:

The Washington Post is reporting that some of the busloads of "volunteers" who were paid to hand out fake sample ballots in Maryland were recruited from "a homeless shelter in Philadelphia."

Why are we still shipping jobs out of state?

Here's a report from the field from Flavia Colgan over at her Citizen Hunter weblog.

Still seems largely a well-attended, successful election out there. Chris Sheridan at The Committee of Seventy called the day "pretty mellow." Here's what voters had to say...

Bonnie Grant, voting at 6th Street and Chelten Avenue in East Oak Lane:

I voted at 8:10 a.m. this morning and although there was a Dem giving out the ballot, there was not a Republican in sight. Maybe they were concentrating where they knew they had a chance? I also volunteered at Rendell-Casey-Murphy HQ doing phones over lunchtime, and everyone seemed upbeat and confident. In fact, there were probably too many volunteers for the jobs available. Also, my friend worked the poll at 5th and Nedro in Olney (she said Rendell stopped by) and it was the same: only a Democrat ballot being distributed, no Republican ballot.

Keep visiting for returns...

CNN has projected (and please note that word) that Bob Menendez has won in NJ.

Unrelated, money quote from their coverage: "They used to say that all politics was local. Not this time," said CNN political analyst Bill Schneider.

When props are due: The Inquirer has created a cool, automatically refreshing election-returns Web widget. And it has called the Rendell race.

"Casey scores upset over Santorum in Pa."

It's not uncommon for Stockholm Syndrome to set in on election night, particularly when reporters are dispatched to faraway campaign gatherings for doomed candidates.

So we'll give the reporter covering the Lynn Swann campaign for Channel 29 -- a report aired on "content partner" WHYY (Channel 12) -- a pass for her apparent willingness to believe that Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett's report to Swann supporters about voting irregularities in some rural counties meant that Swann's song might not be over, after all.

Just figured I'd chime in with a live blog from the "WHYY Net Center." I'm here in the studio treating our viewers to your comments and input as well as a round up of national blogs.

Ok, I'm going back on in a few minutes.

I don't know what this does to Shepard Smith's six-year itch, but George Will just told ABC's Charles Gibson that the House changes hands every 14 years. "It's time," he said.

Somehow, though, "14-year itch" doesn't sound as if it would catch on.

The Daily News' Chris Brennan says the Dems have picked up two seats in the State House...but they may be losing two seats, the minority leader and the whip, as well.

With more than 80 percent of the precincts in -- though nothing from Chester -- CNN has Sestak with 56% of the vote, while Weldon has 44%

With 84% in, and 57% of the vote

Jon Stewart, in his Comedy Central "Midterm Midtacular," reports that "Rick Santorum has been 'raptured' to a better place." And shows it happening.

Finally, someone in TV fake news who knows how to use graphics.

It's 11:19 and Dan Rather's finally made it to your TV screen (assuming you're tuned to Comedy Central).

Stewart and he have worked out a routine where Dan avoids his famous Rather-isms and Stewart expresses disappointment.

Finally, he offers up a few clearly scripted ones, including, "If you ain't got the yolk, you can't emulsify the Hollandaise."

OK, maybe Dan shouldn't quit his day job, which Comedy Central obligingly identifies as "global correspondent, HDNet."

Rather, for those of you who actually have HDNet, premieres there Nov. 14 with "Dan Rather Reports."

Nothing like being dissed by your own anchor -- Channel 6's Jim Gardner, coming off a remote chat between Gov. Rendell and WPVI's own Vernon Odom, who, like the guv, is a man of size, quipped to Gary Papa: "I hope they weren't standing on a weak floor."

Did I really hear him say that?

Here's what we know.

Santorum lost.
Rendell won.
Weldon lost.
Democrats Lois Murphy and Patrick Murphy, in two suburban Congressional races, are clinging to narrow leads. Mike Fitzpatrick just made an appearance, but he did not concede, and says he's going home. Rumors are swirling that his opponent, Patrick Murphy, is about to make a statement, but he hasn't appeared yet.

As for state races...

In western PA, Republican Melissa Hart lost.
In northeastern PA, the mistress-choking adulterer (well, he is) lost.

In the State House, Democratic whip Mike Veon lost after 21 years as a legislator. The Dems need to gain eight seats to take control of the house; they appeared to be closing that gap early this morning, but the rest of the races seem to be too close to call.

We'll bring you another update tonight if there is one. If not, CHECK BACK TOMORROW (OK, today) for the start of the next one...the 2007 race for Mayor begins TODAY!

No, not that race. That was last weekend. (It was the Dash for Democracy, and yes, that's Chaka Fattah listening to the national anthem before the start.)

The race for Philadelphia mayor begins today. You'll see candidates-in-everything-but-name out stumping. You'll hear announcements from pols that sound a lot like campaign statements.

We've been waiting a whole year for this moment, so we are very excited.

But now's a good chance for us to say: We want to hear from you.

We want to hear your questions for the candidates. We want to hear about the issues that you want addressed.

We want to know when one of our Would-Be Mayors is headed to your neighborhood to campaign. (And we love photos.)

Please send us everything you know -- and the things you need to know -- about this race. We pledge to work as hard as we can to cover it for you.

Comment here on our blog or send an e-mail to Wendy or Dan, or to the entire project.

All except Brady are expected to attend a 1 p.m. event at the African-American Chamber of Commerce. The event is designed to discuss minority business development (expect the men on the stage to be referred to as "community leaders," not "candidates"); it will be the first time they will be together before the public in this election.

In addition:

Jonathan Saidel will hand out fliers this morning with dozens of supporters at the Bridge and Pratt Terminal in Northeast Philadelphia.

Michael Nutter will greet voters at the Broad and Olney SEPTA stop at 7 a.m.

Dwight Evans will attend 10 a.m. news conference at City Hall about Philadelphia Gas Works.

Tom Knox will meet with voters at Barrister's Bar in Center City at 7 tonight.

And Nutter, the only declared candidate and a busy guy, will attend a screening of a documentary about the 2003 mayor's race at Friends Select School at 7:30 p.m.

The one candidate for mayor, Michael Nutter, and four of the men who seem to be flirting with the idea -- State Rep. Dwight Evans, former City Controller Jonathan Saidel, former UnitedHealthcare boss Tom Knox, and U.S. Congressman Chaka Fattah -- participated in a forum at an African-American Chamber of Commerce event today. (Brady called out with laryngitis; Dougherty pleaded schedule conflict.)

Under discussion was minority business development, crime and education. The Daily News' Catherine Lucey was there and did actual reporting (and the Daily News' Jori Klein took these photos) -- so instead we'll offer what seemed like the most surprising or interesting points the Would-Bes made. We also collected the unasked questions at the end of the day and will ask the participants to answer a selection.

1) Dwight Evans made a good point that the city should have a entrepreneurial charter school. If we have one for future architects (which is pretty awesome, actually), why not for future business owners? Hey, doesn't he run a bunch of schools?

2) Jonathan Saidel offered a tale of a African-American business owner who waited a full year to have his MBEC certification turned down. The agency said he wasn't black. (Being able to claim that, as city controller, you investigated MBEC, the city's minority-owned business development agency, plays well in a crowd of African-American business owners. And it takes particular guts to tell that story with the new MBEC leader present.)

"The problem he faced wasn't that he wasn't African-American," Saidel said. "It was that he wasn't a friend of somebody."

3) Michael Nutter pointed out that the city and the school district too often feel like wholly separate, disconnected bureaucracies instead of the interdependent system that they truly are. He said he wants to "remove the disconnect" between the city and the district. (Now might be a good time to try that idea.)

4) The best part of Tom Knox's speech -- which he read, and we have the feeling we're going to have to hear more than one more time -- was when he pointed out that an underfunded school system is the biggest barrier to equal economic participation that the city has.

5) Fattah wouldn't talk about plans for the future, instead touting programs he's promoted as a Congressman. But he did say His Big Decision about whether or not to run would come in about a week. We'll keep you posted.

Since I spent the day with 5 of the likely mayoral candidates 4 of the likely mayoral candidates and 1 announced candidate ok, ok... 3 likely mayoral candidates, 1 announced candidate and 1 guy who said he's running for mayor but hasn't announced his candidacy, I didn't get a chance to do much of an Election Day post-mortem.

It appears now, according to Blinq (by way of Philly Will Do) that the identity of the rabble rouser responsible for these videos and the video below is a Penn student and wannabe documentary maker named Stephen Morse. Apparently, Mr. Morse is working on some kind of school project about Philadelphia politics. Suggested titles: Nightmare on Market Street; National Lampoon's Election Day; Awesome, I F'ing Videotaped That Guy While He Was Voting, and Invincible II: Philadelphia's Democratic Machine.

Blinq also pointed out that Mr. Morse's video became fodder for the conservative blogosphere and was included in a story by the New York Times. I can't end this post without pointing out my favorite quote from that Times story:

...many of the biggest names in political blogging ... had been corralled by a member of the mainstream news media, CNN, at Tryst, a trendy Washington coffeehouse, last night.

“Bloggers look a lot better than I thought they would,” Mr. Stavropoulos said.

Click "Continue Reading" to see the video.