The Next Mayor

Sorry about the silence today, folks. We've been cooking up something for tomorrow. Please check back then, because we will want your input.

During our absence, two of our favorite local blogs are on the beat:

Young Philly Politics has Bob Brady blogging again, and RubyLegs over at Phillyville wrote about it. He's threatening t-shirts of this quote: "I hit a wrong key and deleted myself, daaaaaa."

Please sign us up for several.

Also, Philebrity has more than a word of support for DA Lynne Abraham and a thorough whacking for John Street in the ongoing DA/Mayor hostilities: "Abraham dared to voice what all of us have been whispering since forever already: Yes, that Street is a lame duck. Good for her. Seriously." Philebrity has dubbed 2007 the Year Without A Mayor. And with six people jockeying to fill a vacancy.

(ETA: U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, a potential candidate for mayor, has become the first candidate to commit to the reforms spelled out in the Committee of 70's Ethics Agenda, released today. Read 70's statement in this later post.)

The Committee of Seventy wants to know what it left out of its sweeping, almost 30-point Ethics Agenda.

By now, I hope you've read the document -- if not, take a detour and check it out. Everything from gifts to gerrymandering is touched upon in it. And Seventy has asked each of the Would-be Mayors for his official response: Will YOU commit to the ethical behavior outlined in the agenda?

We will be following their responses closely and posting them as they arrive.

But in the meantime, the Committee of 70 wants to know what you think. What has been left out? What's confusing? What is overly optimistic?

Obviously, the Committee of 70 is a partner in this project, and we did get a sneak peek at the agenda. However, we're not here to praise the document, but to decide if these kinds of commitments are what it will take to finally begin cleaning up a culture of corruption in this city.

You've voiced a desire for better government several times on this blog -- and it even showed up in our first poll of the mayor's race, last year, where 76 percent of those polled said they would be much more likely to support a candidate who had a plan to reduce government corruption.

So, your thoughts?

With the law firm of Cohen, Placitella and Roth, P.C., where he'll chair the "newly formed government relations practice." Complete press release after the jump...

Bob Brady is the first candidate to commit to the 28 reforms outlined in 70's ethics agenda, the Committee reports. Read 70s statement after the jump...

WHYY's Susan Phillips talked to Congressman Fattah earlier and got his initial response to Seventy's ethics agenda. While he didn't sign on as completely as Congressman Brady apparently did, he applauded the agenda and assured Susan that he'd be coming out with his own ethics agenda in the coming weeks.

Apparently, speaking about Seventy, Fattah is "very supportive of what they said in terms of overarching principles and in particulars."

He also promises that he'll be inviting people sometime "around the middle of the month to a press conference and lay out our agenda and our commitments relative to the question of ethics and transparency in government."

I'll send along more, including the .mp3 of the WHYY News story when it becomes available.

In a statement released moments ago, John Dougherty gives his response to the Committee of Seventy's ethics agenda:

A code of ethics should exist within the soul of a person, not on a piece of paper or in some quasi-public organization’s interpretation of a credible ethics agenda. Throughout my professional life, I have always adhered to the highest ethical standards and would continue to do so as mayor of this city. The three overarching principles set forth by the Committee of 70 mirror the tenets of the Redevelopment Authority’s Land Disposition Policy that I, as RDA board chair, put in place two years ago. My first official act after being elected IBEW Local 98 Business Manager in 1993 was to install a code of ethics that we live by to this day. I am strongly in support of expanding the state’s Sunshine Laws and believe that we need more openness and transparency in our government. On the issue of ethics reform, I’m ahead of the curve.

One thing is for sure, the guy calls it like he sees it.

Is anyone else confused as to why the discussion of lowering crime rates has turned into a referendum on a police commissioner who doesn't work here anymore?

For that matter, why are there rallies in support of a police commissioner who is about to retire?

And for THAT matter, why is Knox speaking at them?

Is any of this adding up to a plan to fight crime, or is the police commissioner talk just politics, though politics that somehow seems more palatable than, say, a deal to install a Republican as head of the Democratically controlled state House?

The only part of this that makes logical sense is that the cops would like an insider to replace Sylvester Johnson when he retires next year. That, I understand.

Chaka Fattah, Jr.

In the it's a small world category, Fattah Jr.'s former company, "Fattagraphy" (clever, eh?) comes up on Open Secrets as a recipient of $5000 bucks for services rendered as a photographer for... wait for it...

Congressman Robert A. Brady (D-PA) in March of 2002.

...head... spinning...

This sounds like the first of what may prove to be many family or personal skeletons released from the closets of several of our candidates. While I don't want to focus too much attention on them, this is supposed to be about issues afterall, I don't think it would be right to ignore them completely. So here's the deal, unless it's something really big (ie Milton Street big), such things will get their 15 minutes on the blog but not on the main page.

Good lord, we should have had this up ages ago...

(ETA) More importantly, crime is still issue No. 1. In fact, the release says the pollster "was astonished at the magnitude of identification of violent crime as the top issue."
When asked an open-ended question about what issue was the most important one for the city, "nearly two-thirds of those polled – said murder, violent crime or gun violence was the top problem for City officials. ... Public corruption, jobs and school performance trail distantly at 7% a piece.”

Other interesting facts...Fattah benefits from 95% name recognition; Fattah wins his district handily but even beat Brady by a slim margin in his own district; 89% of those surveyed said "a candidate’s race or ethnicity would have no impact on their vote."

The group behind the poll is the pro-business lobby Pennsylvanians for Effective Government. Read the poll release here.

Mayoral Candidate Dwight Evans has offered his services as a sort of couples counselor for Lynne Abraham and Mayor Street.

In a statement today, he said he wanted to see the two work together. "We can’t stop the violence if two of our most visible leaders are at odds with one another,” Evans said.

“I think we can all agree that it is in Philadelphia’s best interest to resolve our differences and come together to fight to restore the public’s safety," he also said. "Please know that I stand ready to assist both of you in this fight.”

(ETA: Apparently, Fattah Jr. has settled this debt; details in this sneak peek at Friday's Clout. Scroll to last item.)

I realize Dan linked to it in an earlier post, but just to be explicit...did you guys see this in Dan Gross' column in the Daily News today?

'I WILL GLADLY pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today" may have worked for Wimpy, but Chaka Fattah Jr. is in quite a pickle with his food tab.

The Capital Grille (1338 Chestnut) yesterday filed a police report alleging that American Royalty, a luxury concierge company run by the 24-year-old son of U.S. Rep.Chaka Fattah, has run up a $14,000 tab at the restaurant and has refused to pay the charges.

"It's a business dispute, and we are working to resolve it quickly," said Chaka Jr. when we reached him last night. "It's a company account and I did inform them the bill would be paid," he said.

The elder Fattah, a mayoral candidate, declined to comment last night on his son's predicament. Capital Grille manager Carol Griffin confirmed that a police report had been filed, but offered no further comment.

Police sources say that typically, in such a matter, an arrest is unlikely, but the department would advise the establishment to take it to the district attorney's office.

Michael Nutter will greet commuters at SEPTA's 52nd and Market Street El platform Friday morning, from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.

Commuters, this is important: He has, in the past, handed out Nutter Butters.

More on Timoney, this time from Dan over at Young Philly Politics:

"according to a Channel 6 News report I saw today, murders in Miami went up a staggering 28 percent in 2006..."

Hey, maybe he's the best option -- I just don't understand why he's the ONLY option, other than an insider, right now.

Someone with a good amount of experience crunching poll numbers sent me an email challenging my skepticism of the sample of the latest poll. To review, I had written that the Pennsylvanians for Effective Government poll seemed flawed:

since 60+ percent of registered Dems are black and the poll had a sample that was 50-50 black/white. I suspect Fattah would have been closer to the 31-33 that he got before if they had sampled differently.

The email I received (and I'll keep the sender anonymous since he didn't express that I could identify him) said:

hey Dan - just read a comment from you on your blog - it is true that most estimates have the democratic party to be about 60% minority - but not black - here's how to get to that number - the city is 42% white and 44% black - a couple political consultants and myself recently crunched these numbers and came up with these numbers for the democratic party 48% black, 39% white, 9% latino, 4% asian....

all that to say, I didnt find PEG's sample to be that much off - which surprised me cuz their pollster's crap and they've got suspiscious agendas, but their numbers look like several campaigns numbers i've seen

Hope that helps for all you political junkies (like me) who are out there.

Philadelphia Magazine's Sasha Issenberg, who you may know from his starring role in Tigre Hill's Shame of the City, is tracking the 2007 race in his Campaign Journal.

He brings a unique blend of historical analysis, political science, and critique of campaign strategy to his work. Besides that, anyone who can recall a simpler time when police commissioners wore their hearts on their sleeves and their nightsticks in the cummerbunds, is worth a read.

Michael Nutter has put out a more detailed repsonse to the Committee of 70's Ethics Agenda, in which he says he "strongly supports the proposals" of the agenda.

Then he details his track record on ethics reform -- and challenges the other candidates to do the same.

We would be happy to post that information, candidates...please send your statement to me at this address.

Today, Chaka Fattah will release a plan for fighting illegal guns in Philadelphia. This is part of the candidate's crime plan, which was developed by a group led by Lawrence Sherman, the University of Pennsylvania criminologist.

The plan calls for more cops to investigate illegal guns and homicides, more money to reward tipsters who lead cops to illegal guns (something he plans to launch immediately) and more surveillance cameras monitoring high-crime areas.

It's important to note that this is only Fattah's gun plan, a part of a larger plan to fight crime. He seems to be planning a number of press conferences that will detail parts of the plan.

Comments, anyone?

(Not to be outdone, Dwight Evans, we understand, is planning a crime-focused event this afternoon. We plan to have reporters at each event.)

Wow. Ok. I'll admit it. I am impressed.

I just got back from Congressman Fattah's event to unveil his "Plan for a Gun Safe Philadelphia" and boy is my note-writing hand tired.

I'll try to recap a little but I'm sure I'll miss something so stay tuned for further coverage from the Daily News's Catherine Lucey and WHYY's Shai Ben-Yaacov.

First we heard from a guest speaker named Nick Filopoulos, a shop owner whose store in North Philadelphia is on a block that had, until a few months ago, been beset with all kinds of gun violence and illegal activity. As far as I could tell, and the gentleman had a very thick accent so this is what I picked up, Congressman Fattah was responsible for funding surveillance cameras for that block which led to a dramatic decrease in the number of incidents.

Fattah then took the podium in the chapel at Mercy Hospital in West Philadelphia, a hospital which probably has seen more than its fair share of gunshot victims, and began by - get this - acknowledging all of the work that his fellow candidates have done on this issue. No one was left out - Nutter for helping to get funding for more cops, Evans for his work in Harrisburg, Knox for his petition drive, Dougherty for his "Enough is Enough" program and Brady for convening two violence summits. Can't say I've ever seen anyone do this before and it kind of gives me hope that this election may actually stay clean, civil, and issues-based. But I guess that remains to be seen.

Fattah then proceeded to lay out most of the 7 major themes of his plan and the 27 specific points of the plan. These points ranged from some proven evidence-based strategies based on the work of Professor Lawrence Sherman at Penn (more on that later) to other more "feel good" measures like a proposal for a gun buyback program (Goods for Guns), which have been shown through studies to be somewhat ineffective. Ironically, Sherman, who apparently headed the group that came up with this policy paper, was once quoted as saying that gun buy back programs are "the program that is best known to be ineffective." But hey, I can't fault the guy for offering to give grocery money to people for guns.

You can read the whole plan if you want. The coverage of the event will probably focus on the 1000 surveillance cameras that Fattah is proposing, his ducking and weaving when the questions came up about how he plans on paying for all of these proposals and his ideas for where he'll find the next Police Commissioner.

My questions were simple. Having heard Lawrence Sherman at least three times now (on Radio Times here and here with Dwight Evans and at the NCC at this event), I know that he's been touting the effectiveness and evidence-based success of programs designed to find illegal guns and remove them in an effort to prevent gun-related deaths. Many in the media would boil it down to "stop and frisk" but that phrase doesn't adequately describe the method and conjures up images of cops wantonly stopping people on the street for no cause (other than being the wrong color and on the wrong corner) and searching them.

Sherman's study focused on a program used in Kansas City in which a number of cops were taken off of routine duty and specially trained to spot very specific behavioral and physical cues that a person does when he or she is carrying a gun. According to this method, with the proper training, a cop is able to tell that someone is carrying a gun and be able to prove that he had constitutionally allowable probable cause to search that person. In essence, using this training, cops can stop someone, engage them in conversation and search them, and if they find a gun (most often a gun possessed illegally), they can arrest the individual and confiscate the gun. Sherman's point is that the program doesn't often end up increasing the number of gun confiscations but it does provide a deterrent effect in that people who would normally carry guns, if they know that "the gun patrol" is out and about, are more likely to leave them at home. The evidence in the Kansas City case shows (and this can be found in Fattah's plan) that in the target areas, there was a 49% drop in gun crimes.

Now, as I mentioned, I heard Professor Sherman present this plan at the National Constitution Center where he had met with a great deal of skepticism from DA Lynne Abraham and Commissioner Sylvester Johnson. Abraham basically said that such a program would just lead to lawsuit after lawsuit as people claim a violation of their civil rights. So there is some resistance out there to this program, even when an expert like Sherman is able to explain it fully and lay to rest any fears that this is just a "stop and frisk" policy as it is known in its most negative connotation.

If you read Fattah's plan, and if you heard him speak today, you'd notice that he effectively danced around exactly what it is that the "specially trained patrol officers" would be doing. From the plan:

Designate Patrol Officers to Go After Illegal Guns. With our existing police force, we will designate specially trained patrol officers in each Police District to go after illegal guns and the criminals who are most likely to use them. This targeted enforcement has been proven to be effective in other cities.

I read that twice. Can we agree that it doesn't specifically mention the exact procedure used by the cops according to the Kansas City program studied by Professor Sherman? Fattah even mentioned what the training was, ie being able to spot those physical and behavioral cues. But I listened very carefully and don't remember that he actually said that those officers could then stop and frisk the individuals under suspicion. So I asked him whether he specifically means that cops would be able to use their "special training" to stop and search people who were otherwise not committing any crimes and not running away from police. Would cops be able, based soley on this training and the physical and behavioral cues being exhibited by the gun carrier be able to stop and search that individual?

I expected him to dance around the answer some more. But this is where the dancing stopped. He said that he has no disagreement with anything I said. (He then proceeded to point out that if I read that point in the paper, I'd have gotten my answer... something that I still disagree with.) And that's where I was impressed. A very politically difficult proposal, something that could be spun by saavy opponents playing up to the fears of an audience without all of the background, as a violation of civil rights, but also an effective, evidence-based solution, and Fattah agreed with it.

As I said, the DA had her own problems with the program back in December at the NCC and I'll try to reach her for her comment, but I gotta admit, if Fattah can commit to that and succeed in having such a program implemented throughout the "hotspots" where gun violence is most prevalent, we may actually have an effective crime fighting strategy.

For those of you with a little time on your hands, try this little game, which actually looks more like an essay question on an "AP Criminology" exam.

Compare and contrast the Evans Crime Plan to the Fattah Crime Plan. I'll have my essay done by the end of the week.

Crime continues to be the issue today, as Michael Nutter has re-released his 14-point plan for fighting crime that he offered in testimony to the state Judiciary Committee in August. He says these 14 points, if implemented together, will produce substantial and sustained reductions in violent crime.

They include additional police (paid for by state money, local money and money from federal homeland security funds that can free up other city resources); better deployment and creating an undercover Repeat Offenders’ Unit; encouraging police to "stop and frisk" (with credit again given to Kansas); work on stiffening state gun laws; more surveillance cameras and other ideas. Read the entire 14 points below the jump, or read Nutter's blog entry on his ideas here.

Tom Knox has a new statement out saying he "wholeheartedly" endorses the Committee of 70's ethics agenda "after a lively discussion with board members about the nuts and bolts of how the plan would affect the operation of city government." Read his statement after the jump or on our ethics agenda page.

A commenter to my blog report about the Fattah event yesterday correctly pointed out that Michael Nutter's crime plan, given as a testimony to State Judiciary Committee in August (always a great way to get media coverage!), includes the same use of the Kansas City Plan:

Get handguns off the streets by encouraging more frequent police use of their Constitutional stop & frisk powers recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court, the most effective method known for reducing gun violence (as shown in 5 separate tests in Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Indianapolis).

Anyway, click on "Continue Reading" for the comment and my response:

With a bold show of unity, West and East Mt. Airy are coming together to host one big candidate forum tonight at 7:30. Details are on The Next Mayor calendar.

According to Zak Abdul-Rahim, the Director of the East Mount Airy Neighbors, Knox, Nutter, Evans and Green Party Candidate Kerry Foster are expected to attend. Apparently Fattah's and Brady's pesky day jobs are keeping them on the Hill for a 7pm vote. With Brady's luck, this will be one of those time where they vote in reverse alphabetical order. Yes, literalists, I know there's no way he'd be able to make it back in time.

I'll also be there, hanging out at a table in the back with some Next Mayor brochures, looking for feedback from anyone who comes by. Man, I hope there'll be refreshments.

"Pennsyltucky Politics Blog." Sorta says it all.

And the effort, by Brett Lieberman of the Patriot-News in H'burg, is pretty darn good, too. Though he be in the state capital, he mentions yesterday's Fattah event in today' s post.

Don't forget, by the way, to check out our new Crime page, where we've posted crime plans offered by the candidates so far for your comparison.

Michael Nutter announced that his fund-raising efforts have raised a total of $1.7 million as of Dec. 31. After paying expenses, Nutter has $1.3 million for his mayoral campaign.

He said the donations came from 1,700 donors. He didn't detail who gave the money in this release but said he would on Jan. 31, when campaign finance reports are due to be filed, and said he has adhered to all fund-raising limits.

“I have received contributions from individuals who can write fairly large checks, but I have also received contributions from those who have contributed $25 or less. People have even written checks for $10 and told me it was the first time they had ever made a political donation,” said Nutter.

Because we are approaching the Jan. 31 deadline for campaign finance reports, expect the money race to be a focus of campaign coverage in upcoming weeks.

(ETA: The Daily News' Catherine Lucey checked this out -- it was the welcome video from his Web site. It's not on the site any more.)

Philebrity has posted a clip from You Tube of Jonathan Saidel. It sure looks like a campaign ad -- it's 60 seconds, and talks about why being mayor is important to him -- but it could be a get-to-know me thing from his Web site (which is still up, by the way).

Ah, take a moment to remember the campaign that wasn't.

(eta from Dan: Is there a hidden message in the fact that Philebrity posted that Saidel video directly above a video of the Geico Caveman)

I have some catching up to do with recaps from events that happened on Monday night and last night, so I better get started.

After spending the early afternoon with Chaka Fattah in West Philadelphia at one kind of crime-related event, I went to North Philly to sit in on an entirely different kind of event with Dwight Evans. Here's the recap of the event from the Daily News's Bob Warner:

Another mayoral candidate, State Rep. Dwight Evans, met a different set of critics yesterday [Monday] - 20 juveniles who have gotten into trouble with police for carrying guns, knives or narcotics.

"I would say he's out of touch," Woods said. "It's hard to understand the neighborhoods when you're sitting in an office."

Click "Continue Reading" to get my perspective of this event.

Over at Young Philly Politics, Dan has started an excellent thread on the need for public financing of elections, taking off from the Committee of 70s Ethics Agenda and our coverage of it.

And check out the equally excellent discussion of judge election vs. selection, too.

So, Michael Nutter has raised $1.7 million. How about the other Would-be Mayors?

The Daily News' Bob Warner found out, exclusively for the Next Mayor blog (thanks, Bob!). Here's the update:

Officially or unofficially, several of Nutter’s rivals - state Rep. Dwight Evans and U. S. Rep. Bob Brady - suggested they’d raised comparable amounts.

The one exception was U. S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, whose campaign spokesman, Solomon Jones, said they planned no disclosure of Fattah’s fund-raising until the Congressman’s official report is filed at the end of the month.

Millionaire businessman Tom Knox has already contributed $5 million to his own campaign – leading the city Board of Ethics issue a ruling last month doubling the city’s contribution limits. The limits now stand at $5,000 a year for individual donors and $20,000 for unincorporated businesses and political action committees.

Queena Bass, the former Jefferson University Hospital employee who jumped into the race way back in February, said she hadn’t raised any money and didn’t plan to. “I have a bullhorn and fliers and that’s how I’m running my campaign,” she said.

Where to begin? In the first, big, neighborhood-oriented candidate forum of the election season, the candidates in attendance and the good people of Mt. Airy came up big. Over 300 people packed the Brossman Center at the Lutheran Theological Seminary on Germantown Ave to see Dwight Evans, Tom Knox, Michael Nutter and Green Party nominee Dr. Kerry Foster (I'll have more about him soon).

I warn you it's long. But if you have the time, click "Continue Reading" and press on!

The first 30-second spot, called "For Michael," continues describing Knox's personal history as an explanation for why he wants to run for mayor.

The text: "I have known a lot of success in business – more than I ever dreamed. But I have also known the pain of losing my brother Michael to the devastation of drugs. I am running for Mayor of Philadelphia for him and for every family in our city that is threatened by drug abuse. To not just lead the fight against drugs, violence and crime – but to get families the help they need to save a loved one before its too late."

The second ad is below the jump.

Yeah, yeah. Michael Nutter released his fundraising totals and they are impressive. But if I were he, I'd be much more excited by this endorsement:

In the politico arena, I elect so-squeaky-it-hurts ex-Councilman Michael Nutter to the Hot List for his dapper suits and dadlike smile. The man rolled at least two deep at the City Paper 25th anniversary party — just imagine the places he could take his posse if he won mayorship!

Mayorship?

Check out today's Clout, where Daily News staff writer Gar Joseph has a unique way of ranking the declared and probable candidates for mayor.

WHYY's Stephanie Marudas has a story that you can listen to about Foxwoods Casino's efforts to reach out to their new neighbors. And Susan Phillips from WHYY filed this story about how area banks are teaming up to provide more small business loans in low and moderate income neighborhoods. Both require some sort of .mp3 playing software.

Meanwhile, check out this op-ed in today's Daily News by former City Councilman, current President of the Institute for the Study of Civic Values, and one of the participants of Community Forum #5 (requires Quick Time) - Ed Schwartz. Mr. Schwartz talks about budget priorities and explains how one of them - fighting recidivism - is getting the short end of the stick.

Catch ya on the flip side.

Oh yeah, and Chaka Fattah puts his two cents in on the Allen Iverson trade.

The Philadelphia Tribune was able to pin down the four declared candidates and get their positions on the state of mass transit in Philadelphia.

Without reading it thoroughly, let me see if can sum up what they said:

Chaka Fattah: My campaign will be putting out a detailed position paper on transit in the coming weeks.

Dwight Evans: I got (insert dollar amount here) in funding for SEPTA already but I have nothing to say about what I'll do going forward.

Michael Nutter: I'm going to blow it up and start over.

Tom Knox: SEPTA is important. I know what budgets are and I know we need to get more money.

Anyone else have their own spin on what they said? Feel free to sound off in the comments.

Don't worry sports fans. Pitchers and catchers report in less than a month. I'll meet you on Broad Street for the World Series parade!

We will watch for sightings of the would-be mayors at events commemorating Dr. King today.

Fattah is helping to sponsor a "groceries for guns" initiative with City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds-Brown, the police department, Men United for a Better Philadelphia and People for People. Apparently, the event -- at the North Broad St. YMCA -- is aptly named: People are invited to trade in their guns and get groceries. $200 in grocery vouchers per gun; $400 in vouchers maximum for each person.

Wow.

Knox and Nutter released their complete schedules; Knox will be assembling and handing out emergency preparedness kits in "underserved neighborhoods" with Gov. Rendell, Mayor Street and Paul Vallas, among other stops on his agenda; Nutter will be at King Day of Service activities at two schools, including Martin Luther King High, as well as a church service, a memorial breakfast and memorial lunch.

Evans has not released a schedule that we can find, but he has posted a letter on his site that encourages involvement in the events at Martin Luther King High school, so one would assume that he will be there.

Michael Nutter has announced that he will reveal his plan for "Safety Now" tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. The candidate chose to announce his plan at his childhood home, which is just two blocks from the site where the 21-year-old son of a Philadelphia police officer was killed Jan. 10.

Read the press release after the jump.

And don't forget: We are building a comparison of the candidates' crime plans on our crime page.

And Chaka Fattah will unveil his ethics plan on Tuesday as well, at 11 a.m. at the The Ethical Society on South Rittenhouse Square. See what he said about the Committee of 70's Ethics Agenda here.

Read them here:

Nutter's crime plan, which is as advertised in Catherine Lucey's story this morning;

and Fattah's ethics plan.

ETA: OK, now I have taken a deeper look at both plans.

YOU SHOULD GO READ THEM.

Nutter's includes one idea that is a significant advance from the plans he has put forward before: "Declare a limited crime emergency in targeted enforcement zones, as authorized by the City Code."

That is what it sounds like: Declare that some neighborhoods are so violence-stricken that they get special treatment, from extra cops to stricter curfews.

He also supports stop and frisk and surveillance cameras in high-crime areas.

But it is Fattah's ethics plan that sent my eyebrows skyrocketing. It is detailed plan to clean up and open government to its citizens. Frankly, achieving 10 percent of these goals would be a massive step forward.

A few caveats: Many of his ideas are covered by law now or have been done before (see the part about the Inspector General). Some may not be doable, including the VERY GOOD IDEA to personally visit each of the city’s 10 Councilmanic Districts quarterly. Check this out:

"Mayor Fattah and the city’s Deputy Commissioners will conduct business from temporary offices located in recreation centers or other city buildings within each District. Modern communications technology will allow the Administration to do the work of city government from the city’s neighborhoods."

Not to mention the plan to "hold a full day of open-invitation half hour meetings with publicly-spirited citizens" every month (!)

That is a LOT of meetings. People who know more about this than me say it would be extremely difficult to pull off.

Still, the plan is broad and a powerful statement about the suprising role that ethics is playing in this election. Go read it.

Our good friends at Phillyville have taken some time to dissect Nutter's crime plan, "Safety Now." They notice both the sincerest form of flattery and some thought given to crime-fighting strategy. Read the analysis here.

I have to say: At least these guys are talking about issues. We may want more details or to know if this will really work, but just look at the plans released yesterday. This is the kind of information the candidates should be sharing with us, so we have time to think and talk about it.

And we will keep these plans up on the site, for as long as necessary, so we can make sure they do what they said they would!

Nutter's crime plan.
Fattah's ethics plan.

ETA: Also, check out the spirited discussion on Nutter's plan at Young Philly Politics.

Now this is something really worth talking about.

Tom Knox has put out a statement today decrying last week's water main break at 3rd and Girard and the lack of funding for city infrastructure that led to it.

That break was "only the latest example,” Knox said in the press release. “In the past two years, we’ve also seen broken water mains at North 3rd near Poplar, 4th & Girard, and 10th & Girard. Northern Liberties has a system of 100-year-old water mains that clearly can’t handle the demands of a growing neighborhood, and it’s time to fix them.”

Knox says the planning commission has recommended that the city spend $185 million yearly on capital expenditures, including boring-but-essential stuff like water mains. But the city has been spending only $59 million.

He blames this on mismanaged debt; no doubt, that is true. City budget watchdogs PICA have repeatedly pointed out that the city is getting into too much debt and the devastating impact -- particularly on infrastructure -- this could have.

But Knox doesn't offer a specific solution to this, other than to say, "As mayor, I will cut the waste and unsound business practices so we can get the City back on a sound financial footing and make these much-needed investments." (Check out the recent story by Dave Davies on Knox's role in the Rendell administration, where he was charged with finding efficiencies -- with some success.)

So the state representative and candidate for mayor told us today that he has a very big announcement coming Thursday evening with laborers' union Local 332, otherwise known as Sam Staten's union.

He wouldn't say what it is, naturally.

However, I will venture a guess. Evans has been endorsed by at least two union groups so far in the campaign: Transportation Workers Union Local 234, and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776.

The state representative also told us he feels good about his plan to reintroduce a package of gun bills in the state legislature, saying that house judiciary chairman Tom Caltagirone, D-Berks, has said he will at least get them heard.

What the heck. I'm going for it.

Anyone care to submit your own clever captions for the picture featured in our weekly contest?

Who has the credentials to be mayor?

That question dominated a mayoral forum Wednesday night at the University of the Sciences featuring Democratic candidates State Rep. Dwight Evans, businessman Tom Knox and former City Councilman Michael Nutter. U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah sent word that he had to stay in Washington DC.

Also in attendance was Green Party candidate Kerry Foster.

For most of the 90-minute session, emceed by KYW anchor Marc Howard, the candidates jousted over their ideas on education, crime and taxes – and took a few polite digs at each other.

Yes, they're still being polite. For now.

The Democrats quickly tried to distinguish themselves to the crowd of several hundred.

Knox talked about his private sector background, saying “I’m the only candidate that’s actually run a large business.”

Evans stressed his record as chair of the Appropriations Committee in the State House of Representatives. “What I think I offer, different from anyone else, is a record," he said.

And Nutter emphasized his City Council tenure, telling the crowd: “It’s a wealth of experience at the local level which is completely different from anyone else who is running.”

They stuck with those themes throughout the session.

Knox said the city needed better management, lower taxes and a better trained workforce. He repeatedly noted that he had run large businesses and turned them around.

“Every company I’ve had actually was successful,” he said.

Dwight stressed that the city must reduce violence and repeated his pledge to bring back former Police Commissioner John Timoney to Philadelphia if elected. He also focused on his experience as a state representative, telling the audience to look to his record.

“You can’t have somebody stand before you and tell you I’m a reform agent, a change agent,” he said. “What did they do when they had the power?”

Nutter spoke about his various City Hall accomplishments – like pushing for legislation to reduce the wage tax and getting Mayor Street to hire more cops.

“The only person sitting here who has put a police officer on the street is myself,” he said.

This program note for Radio Times:

Reporter Roundtable on PA & Phila politics.
We'll discuss the Governor's legislative priorities that he laid out this week, and whether the newly democratic controlled state house is likely to help Rendell achieve his aims. Also we'll get an update on the Philadelphia Mayoral Race, as a crowded field of democrats vie for the democratic nomination in May. We'll talk with BRAD BUMSTED, Harrisburg correspondent for The Pittsburgh Tribune Review, and DAVE DAVIES, senior writer for The Philadelphia Daily News.

That's today at 10am on 91FM. If you're particularly tech saavy you can click here at 10am to listen live on your computer via a number of different choices.

By 12:30 or so you'll be able to right click on this link and save the whole hour as a podcast.

Who will be at the Frankford El tomorrow from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.

From the press release:

The commuter stops have become a big part of Nutter’s campaign for Mayor. “Greeting commuters is the best way for me to keep in touch with Philadelphians and it’s also the best way for them to get to know me,” said Nutter.

(Personally, the El is the best way for me to get both to work and to Phillies games, but that's only when that horrific bus isn't running from 40th street west. Read more about transit in the race in this post.)

Read the release after the jump.

From Sam Staten Jr.'s Laborers’ Local 332.

Staten said in the press release:

“Dwight Evans is the most qualified candidate – announced or unannounced – running for mayor of the City of Philadelphia,” said Sam Staten, Jr., Assistant Business Manager and President of Laborers' Local 332. “Evans has a proven track record in Philadelphia and in Harrisburg and is committed to turning this city around. He is a man of his word. He has a plan for job creation, crime reduction, and community improvement.

Read the whole release after the jump.

Michael Nutter has sent us a very strongly worded statement taking issue with Mayor Street's recent comments on crime. Street's comments seemed to refer to some of the points in Nutter's new "Safety Now" crime plan.

Some of the quotes from Nutter's statement (and the caps are his):

"This Mayor appears to be completely out of touch with the reality of gun violence on the streets of Strawberry Mansion, Point Breeze, and Kingsessing. I am here today to say that there ARE things a Mayor can do TODAY to make all Philadelphians safer. We are NOT trapped in violent conditions completely beyond our control."

Nutter disagreed with Street's opposition to targeted declarations of "crime emergencies," a key part of Nutter's "Safety Now" crime plan, saying:

"In the Mayor’s world, the public relations of the City would be worse with a declared emergency than it is with 406 homicides last year and 26 in the first 18 days of this year. To me, the City’s reputation is foundering on the inaction of this Administration in the face of violence. ... In the Mayor’s world, a more aggressive policing strategy is something to be feared. To me, the police are not the problem here but part of the solution. This is not the police department of the 60’s."

He also defends his support of additional surveillance cameras, saying that "when the University of Pennsylvania has 84 surveillance cameras and the entire City of Philadelphia has only 18, something’s wrong."

And he takes on the odd point that Street made yesterday that the war in Iraq was adding to a general lawnessless in the culture and in Philadelphia. "It’s hard to imagine Mayor LaGuardia blaming World War II for murders in New York during the 1940s," Nutter said.

Your thoughts?

Now this is cool (link available for a week):

Plan Will Allow 911 and 311 Lines to Accept Digital Images

“If you see a crime in progress or a dangerous building condition, you’ll be able to transmit images to 911, or online to nyc.gov,” the mayor said in his annual State of the City address. “And we’ll start extending the same technology to 311 to allow New Yorkers to step forward and document nonemergency quality of life concerns, holding city agencies accountable for correcting them quickly and efficiently.”

I guess we'd have to get a 311 system here before we could think about that. Anyone care to guess how many pictures of middle fingers would be received by Philadelphia's city government?

While the mayor and police commissioner continue to tell us that the rising homicide rate is a "national problem" and play the "it's happening everywhere, so don't blame us" game, maybe they should take a look at what's going on right next store in Delaware County.

I just found this article which tells us that the County Delaware had a 43% decline in its murder rate in 2006. Perhaps we have something to learn from our neighbors to the west.

Finally we have a reaction from the administration to Michael Nutter's criticisms of Mayor Street's comments on crime.

Admittedly, the administration was pretty busy today -- with a summit on crime.

As reported by the Daily News' Catherine Lucey:

Late in the day, Street spokesman Joe Grace fired back at Nutter.

“It’s a little ironic to hear about the administration’s supposed inaction on a day when we meet with 400 community activists and leaders to go over every initiative the city is taking to combat violence.”

Grace said that Street also yesterday met with Senators Arlen Specter and Bob Casey to discuss getting more federal funding for anti-violence efforts.

“I think citizens and voters want a lot more than somebody standing on the sidelines criticizing,” Grace said.

Where many saw Tom Knox Friday night? (Or so we are assuming, since we weren't there...)

At the Pearl movie theater, where the candidate and his wife were scheduled (!) to see "The Pursuit of Happyness," described in that schedule as an "inspirational film starring Philadelphia native Will Smith."

Said Knox in the press release: “North Philadelphia needs more investment, not less, and when I’m mayor, I’ll do everything in my power to revitalize neighborhood shopping. Part of my job will be to get the guns off the streets, so people in the neighborhood and the students at Temple can go out to dinner, see a movie and walk the streets at night.”

(ETA: Tom Knox also hung out at the Draught Horse near Temple University Friday night, where his press people say the bar crowd was a little surprised to see him not on TV, and "he was questioned closely by students on local issues – especially education.")

Where to see Chaka Fattah?

At breakfast Saturday, Jan. 20 at 10 a.m. at the Haddington Multi-Service Center in West Philly, where the Congressman will give out a $294,000 grant to the city’s Weed and Seed Project. The project aims to weed out criminals and seed communities with new economic development efforts; Fattah's release says the city has plans for a vendors’ mall at N. 52nd
Street and Wyalusing Avenue and for entrepreneurial training for young adults in the community.

Where to see Michael Nutter (who was speaking his mind Friday) and Tom Knox?

At today's Philly for Change mayoral event. This is no longer a forum, folks -- Fattah had said no, and Dwight Evans has asked off to attend a funeral. However, you can go to have what might be more useful meet-and-greet time with both Nutter and Knox, who -- according to Philly for Change -- plan to speak and take questions.

Have a great weekend!

Another day, another “Meet the Candidates” session.

You might as well get used to it folks. Between now and the primary, every activist group, association and church in town will want to host the Democratic mayoral candidates.

Today’s event at the First Unitarian Church on 21st and Chestnut streets was sponsored by Americans for Democratic Action and Philly for Change. Originally billed as a forum with all the declared candidates, it turned into an informal question session with millionaire Tom Knox and former City Councilman Michael Nutter after the two other candidates – State Rep. Dwight Evans and U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah – pulled out.

(Evans had to attend a funeral. Fattah reportedly said that he wasn’t attending forums until all the candidates had declared.)

But Knox and Nutter gamely sat through more than an hour of questioning about schools, taxes and recycling from the Center City crowd of about 200. (Shockingly, they both think we need better schools, lower taxes and more recycling.) Daily News columnist Elmer Smith served as a moderator.

What may otherwise have been a quiet morning was enlivened by Queena Bass, a local woman who has attempted to run for mayor before and says she plans to run again this time. Bass got up in front of the audience and loudly demanded a seat on stage with the other candidates.

“Ladies and gentleman, I am tired of being ignored in the city of Philadelphia,” said Bass, who was accompanied by her father and brother. “I have suffered in this city.”

Smith did not allow Bass – who has received little coverage from the mainstream media because she has no visible organization, base or funding – up on stage, but she was afforded time for opening and closing remarks.

A few points from Nutter and Knox.

Knox – a deputy mayor under Ed Rendell – stressed his business background throughout the session.

He said there are $400 million wasted dollars in the city budget at the moment. He did not elaborate on how he came to this figure. He also said that hiring good people was the key to an ethical government. And that businesses don’t come to Philadelphia because Philly lacks a trained workforce.

Nutter focused on his various accomplishments as a City Councilman – the ethics laws he passed and his efforts to lower taxes. He said as mayor he would more closely monitor schools and push a tough public safety program.

His dry delivery drew several laughs from the crowd. One funny moment came when he was asked if a Milton Street Milton Street airport deal would happen in his administration, Nutter said:

“Let me assure you that my brother will never be indicted or get a contract.”

He paused. “Actually, I don’t have a brother.”

Considering how often this film is being used by the Nutter campaign as a fundraising and messaging tool, I thought it would be good to link everyone to a pretty good discussion going on about it over at YPP.

If you ever do get a chance to see it, look for me and my 15 frames of fame! Yes, my screen time was literally a half of a second. If you're registered over at YPP feel free to join in the discussion. If not, comment away here!

And Ray, if you happen to read this, just remember that one of the biggest pieces of evidence to "contextualize" this film is to remember that the filmmaker is a big supporter of Sam Katz... as well as a pretty talented guy.

While crime may be the quarterback of issues being talked about for the mayor's race, it's important not to forget the hard-working and underappreciated offensive lineman. And before this analogy gets out of control, let's turn the discussion towards education.

The news pivot for this is this article in today's New York Times about the trend in big city school districts away from middle schools (typically 6th to 8th grade) and towards elementary schools (K-8). In New York, many schools are even reorganizing to become 6th through 12th grade high schools. Paul Vallas and the School District of Philadelphia are featured prominently in the article due to Mr. Vallas' belief in the inadequacies of the middle school system. To wit:

Paul Vallas, chief executive of the Philadelphia school system, thinks so, and he has closed 17 traditional middle schools since 2002, while converting some three dozen elementary schools into K-8s. “The fifth to sixth grade transition is just too traumatic,” he said. “At a time when children are undergoing emotional, physical, social changes, and when they need stability and consistency, suddenly they’re thrust into this alien environment.”

This would seem to make perfect sense. I, myself, am the product of a K-8 (1-8, actually) education. In fact, some would say it seems that that's the only education I received. I know it worked for me but at the same time, I went to a suburban parochial school with the same 30-35 kids for 8 years. However, as you may know from some of the things I've written about the candidate's crime plans, I'm also a sucker for statistical evidence. So my faith in K-8 was rattled when I saw this:

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that students at Philadelphia’s established K-8 schools outperformed students at traditional middle schools, but that those schools had fewer poor and minority students and more experienced teachers, which could have largely explained the results.

“The bump in student achievement that administrators may achieve in converting to K-8s may not make as big a difference as they would hope for,” said Vaughan Byrnes, one of the Johns Hopkins researchers.

WHYY's Stephanie Marudas actually had a story on this morning about this very study and included the reaction of the school district.

What, you might ask, does this have to do with the mayor's race? This specific part of the "education issue" might not have that much to do with it besides being yet another thing on which any candidate for mayor should be expected to have an opinion. My point in bringing this up is that as I set about writing this post, I noticed that among all of my various blog categories I had nothing for "schools" or "education." Have we gotten to the point, with the state takeover and the School Reform Commission, that we don't expect the next mayor to say much about education aside from whether they like Paul Vallas or not?

Well, I certainly don't think so. Stay tuned as we at The Next Mayor build our Education Issues content. I don't want to go into too many details but we have been in touch with some folks who have made it their mission to bring education (as an issue) into the mayor's race. Until then I encourage you to check out some of the videos from our Community Forums, during which it became clear that no matter what power the mayor has over the schools on paper, folks still expect the buck to stop with him. These videos are on Youtube for universal viewing here, here, here, and here.

I ran across at least three different places where the strengths and weaknesses of the various crime proposals that have been put out by the candidates for mayor were debated over the weekend.

Michael Currie Schaffer did this piece comparing the plans and rhetoric of the candidates, at least those that have actually produce such plans. He distinguishes Michael Nutter's by saying that:

...he drew much more attention for an impassioned demand that Mayor Street declare a state of emergency that would allow police to frisk those suspected of carrying illegal guns.

Fattah's plan, on the other hand, is characterized by a "dominant theme" that is "help for the poor." He describes the policing part of Fattah's plan as consisting of "more police to target guns, and includes the suggestion that high-tech cameras be used to scrutinize just who might be carrying a weapon in public."

Stu Bykofsky devoted his column today to Michael Nutter and, after getting in the usual reminder about Nutter's role in getting the smoking ban passed (of which, Byko is not a big fan), he does a pro and con of Nutter's plan for expanding police power in targeted enforcement zones.

As I read this column, I couldn't help but think that Bykofsky was trying to mimic the evolution of thinking that could occur if people take the time to dig into the details of Nutter's plan. He starts off skeptical, saying:

It (Nutter's plan) will happen only in "high-crime" and "high-violence" neighborhoods. Nutter calls them "targeted-enforcement zones," but the fact is they are black neighborhoods and low-income neighborhoods.

He then steps in to defend Nutter when he writes that saying that minority neighborhoods are where most murders take place is not racist but "not caring about it does." Finally, he brings in the opinion of a civil rights expert who says explains that, "there are stop-and-frisk strategies that, if police officers are properly trained and they are properly implemented, do not violate the Constitution."

Nutter's "stop and frisk" (again, we in the media have resorted to boiling down what is really a very complex and complicated policy idea into three words) plan got some play on television yesterday as it was batted around by the talking bobbleheads on Channel 6's Inside Story.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to see the show yesterday so if anyone taped it and wants to send me a copy let me know. Better yet, if you have the capability to put it on YouTube, I'll link to it from here.

What I want to know is whether anyone on Inside Story mentioned something that Schaffer and Bykofsky seem to have left out: Fattah's plan includes the same "stop and frisk" policy as Nutter's.

I made the point to pin him down on that specifically when he unveiled the plan back on Elvis's birthday (January the 8th for all you Philistines out there). As I said in my write-up of the event:

If you read Fattah's plan, and if you heard him speak today, you'd notice that he effectively danced around exactly what it is that the "specially trained patrol officers" would be doing. From the plan:

I expected him to dance around the answer some more. But this is where the dancing stopped. He said that he has no disagreement with anything I said. (He then proceeded to point out that if I read that point in the paper, I'd have gotten my answer... something that I still disagree with.)

He even refers to Lawrence Sherman's work as the basis for that recommendation and Professor Sherman himself was at Fattah's event. Yet Bykofsky only connects Nutter to Sherman, calling Sherman "Nutter's mentor."

So what's the deal here? Why aren't people talking about that part of Fattah's plan in the same way they're talking about Nutter's? Is it because in Fattah's plan, it was only one recommendation out of about a thousand? Is it because the phrase "stop and frisk" doesn't appear in Fattah's plan even though the policies he describes and the ideas he's gotten from Sherman are exactly the same as what Nutter calls "stop and frisk?"

I don't mean to pick on Bykofsky or Schaffer but I feel like I'm seeing something that no one else is seeing, which I tend to believe means that I'm waaaay off base. Thoughts, anyone?

Just received via the emails:

BOB BRADY TO ANNOUNCE CANDIDACY FOR MAYOR

Monday, January 22, 2007

(PHILADELPHIA) - Congressman Bob Brady will announce his candidacy for Philadelphia mayor on Thursday, laying out a comprehensive agenda for making the community safer, improving public schools, strengthening the economy, and lowering the tax burden for small businesses and families.

The announcement is scheduled for:

5:00 PM
Thursday, January 25
Philadelphia Convention Center
Room 204
Philadelphia, PA

Bob Brady for Mayor

The game is afoot. Let the comments begin.

Union leader John Dougherty has just announced that he will not be running the mayor's race.

In a news release, he said his decision was due to family health concerns.

"Members of my family continue to face serious health challenges.  I cannot, in good conscience, devote the time and energy necessary to mount a viable campaign for mayor at this time, knowing that the people I love most in this world still need me by their sides, not out on the campaign trail for the next four months," Dougherty said.

Dougherty said he would not rule out running in the future. And who he will support in the race remains to be seen.

For the whole release click here

And start posting those comments! What do you think this means?

We're at the University of Pennsylvania with a great crowd and a great panel, talking about how to make poverty an issue in the mayor's race. We'll be sending in a full report a little later, but for now: some points to consider...all raised by the panel...

*A growing number of Philadelphians are not working
*One out of four Philadelphians are in poverty
*One in four Philadelphians aged 16 to 64 do not have a high school diploma
*We are next to last among the 50 biggest U.S. cities when ranked by the percent of people who have a high school diploma. The last: New Orleans.

That sounds like an issue for the Next Mayor to me. So does the panel -- one said we should ask the candidates, "What is your plan to lift people out of poverty?"

Read more coverage after the jump.

He's not pleased:

"I am disappointed that there seems to be no relief in sight from this Administration. Philadelphia needs federal resources to make our neighborhoods safe, modernize our schools, and lift people out of poverty," he said in a statement.

Full statement after the jump.

Talk about your injustices.

Statement after the jump. Warning to the humor-impaired -- this IS A JOKE.

Wednesday at 1 p.m., Michael Nutter will announce plans to file a lawsuit to revoke the business licenses of two Philadelphia gun shops.

He didn't say which ones. But gun shops that break federal firearms regulations have been much in the news lately, with two shops -- Delia's Gun Shop, on Torresdale Avenue near Devereaux Avenue in Wissinoming, and C&C Sports Center, on Geiger Road near Gantry in the Northeast -- detailed in a recent report by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

“Licensed gun shop owners who do not heed obvious red flags on multiple purchases of guns are just as guilty as the person purchasing guns for illegal resale on our streets. Gun dealers must be held accountable," Nutter said in the release.

More details to come from the press conference tomorrow in the 6100 block of Torresdale Avenue at 1 p.m.

Meanwhile...Chaka Fattah has just said he will detail a plan for "vastly improving healthcare in Philadelphia" Thursday at noon at St. Christopher’s Hospital. Could be an effort to care for the uninsured, since he mentions that a "staggering 140,000 Philadelphians are uninsured and lack access to affordable, quality care."

Oh, and then there's Brady's shindig at 5 p.m., of course.

I hadn't realized that the Daily News was soliciting letters by asking weekly questions until I saw this item in today's paper:

To combat violence, is it time for some stop-and-frisk?
IT SEEMS LIKE one of the top issues in the upcoming Philadelphia mayoral race will be gun violence and what to do about it.

Among the suggestions from one candidate is to declare Philly's worst neighborhoods emergency zones where residents could be subject to curfews and "stop and frisk" searches for illegal weapons. Does that make sense?

First, I'd like to bang this drum again and point out that there's more than "one candidate" calling for this procedure. Second, let me also point out that there's much more behind this part of both Nutter's and Fattah's plans than just randomly conducting "stop and frisk" searches. Listen to Professor Lawrence Sherman describe the program in great detail here.

Ok. Now that you're "armed" with all of the information. Feel free to answer the question.

Another event to keep in mind for January 25th (a busy day indeed) is this uber-important, issues-based and thoughtful event being put on by The Next Great City Initiative.

"PennFuture and a coalition of nearly 70 Philadelphia partner organizations will roll out the “The Next Great City Report and Recommendations”. The Next Great City coalition calls for the next Mayor and City Council of Philadelphia to take the actions recommended in the report to improve the environment in neighborhoods across the city."

I encourage everyone to check it out.

Click here for location and time details.

At 9 a.m. this morning, a coalition of dozens of organizations ranging from labor groups to environmental activists will be challenging the candidates for mayor to get behind a series of environmental actions that the group calls, "affordable," "revenue-neutral" or having "an identified funding source." These actions, according to The Next Great City, represent "some immediate, doable and powerful improvements to neighborhoods" that the next mayor can accomplish "over the next four years."

Their plan is to roll out these recommendations this morning at the Atwater Kent Museum ("where history inspires the future") in the Experience Philadelphia Gallery. We at the Next Mayor Project will be seeking responses from the candidates throughout the day.

In fact, we barely had to ask Michael Nutter, who issued a statement Wednesday night saying he "strongly endorses" the Next Great City agenda, particularly recycling expansion and improving neighborhood trees (which was an issue he worked on as a city councilman.) Read his full statement.

We will post other responses as we get them here on the blog and on our site.

We'll also be at the event and will provide a firsthand account as soon as we can walk ourselves three blocks back to work.

Next Great City's main event will be on February 15th at the Academy of Natural Sciences when the candidates will be invited to participate in a public forum to share their response to NGC's recommendations as well as their own plans for good, sustainable, neighborhood-improving growth.

Now, you may be wondering, "what are these recommendations?" Check out our coverage page.

More to follow after this morning's press conference.

By now you may have seen the package of information that we've put on thenextmayor.com that details the recommendations of the Next Great City initiative (NGC) and the statement that we've already gotten from Candidate Nutter. I won't go into detail here about all of those recommendations but I encourage you to give them a read and let us know what you think. You can also go to NGC's website and give them your comments.

And I know what you're thinking. Of course they're going to endorse these recommendations. Who would be against reducing asthma rates or improving transit stops or recycling? Is any candidate seriously considering running as the "screw recycling" candidate? A friend of mine leaned over to me at the event and said that it's too bad that people have this perception that running on environmental issues is a "problem" in this city because the fact is that environment and labor are two of the biggest pieces of the Democratic Party base and this is an overwhelmingly Democratic city. In fact, you can add to Nutter's response the response that Candidate Fattah delivered in person at the event.

During the question and answer session with panelists who represented some of the organizations that are part of the NGC coalition, Fattah, who arrived at 10:25 for the 9am event, stood up and said that he fully endorses all of the recommendations and that he hopes his fellow candidates do the same. I have no doubt that they will. Bob "spinning the sh*t" Brady will become Bob "endorsing the sh*t" Brady. Tom Knox will undoubtedly take the For Sale Sign down from City Hall while he's climbing on board. And Dwight Evans, who was represented at this morning event by a high level staffer, will answer this "question of leadership" with his endorsement and remind us of how many of these recommendations he's already put in effect in West Oak Lane.

For the record, Michael Nutter was also in attendance, arriving shortly before the event started and staying through the Power Point presentation of the recommendations. In fact, the Nutter-Fattah relay team guaranteed that at least one candidate was present the entire time.

Fortunately a very smart and perceptive member of the audience asked the question that I had. What happens when all of the candidates say, "sure, I love this plan, sign me up?" John Hanger, President and CEO of Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future fielded the question.

"There are some tough lifts in here," said Hanger. He made the point that there are reasons why the zoning code hasn't been changed in decades and why the stormwater fee structure has remained the way it has for so long. And we've already seen examples of folks who would be opposed to planting more street trees. Clearly, there are powerful constituencies who would oppose many of these recommendations and who could have influence over the candidates.

Hanger promised that as NGC continues to meet with the candidates and when they conduct their forum on February 15th they would pin the candidates down on the specifics and get their commitments to individual parts of the plan. Getting public, unequivocal commitments to some of the action items actually stands hit a candidate right in their campaign contributions. For example, if the powerful, deep-pocketed folks who own surface parking lots (a group that stands to pay more under restructured stormwater fees), here a candidate pledge to uphold that recommendation, they'll be much less likely to make that $5000 contribution. We'll be sure to pass along all of the information that NGC gets from the candidates as well as an account of the February 15th forum (and video from the forum if possible).

So that leaves us with the following to figure out:
Who would be against these recommendations?
What do the candidates say to them?
Of those groups that would oppose any of the recommendations, who makes contributions to the candidates (an indication of what the candidates said to them)?

Gee... kinda makes those campaign finance disclosures a LOT more interesting. Don't cha think?

Stay tuned for more.

Like the front page says, today is a busy day for everyone involved in the mayor's race. Aside from the Next Great City event from this morning (covered for WHYY by Stephanie Marudas, and also attracting Channel 6, the Daily News, KYW 1060 and at least one other television camera), there was the Fattah event on healthcare, an Evans event on public safety at Magee Rehab, and, of course, the Brady announcement.

WHYY and the Daily News will have reporters at all of them. As their stories are published, I'll link to them from here and the main page.

Philebrity has unearthed what appears to be a truly nasty bit of Philadelphia racism: A You Tube clip, entitled "Bob Brady for mayor," with a bizzaro collection of images of African-American people dancing, Mayor Street, and Mumia Abu Jamal.

The only thing that ties the images together is that, if you are an enormous racist, I guess they seem threatening or something.

We only watched snippets of it because 1) it's both weird AND racist and 2) You Tube is a pain. But Philebrity reports that "suddenly, Bob Brady’s face appears on the screen. The montage continues, until just about the end, where a legend bears: “THIS MAY, DO THE RIGHT THING."

And then, we saw this part...the clip ends with a screen that reads "Fattah for Mayor" with the "Fattah" crossed out and "Brady" inserted.

Oh, for pete's sake, whoever the mystery racist (the You Tube account is Ward34D, and we all know Brady runs Philly's 34th ward) is that created this thing.

I'm happy to talk about the role that race could play in this campaign, based on voting patterns, the demographics of this city and the fact that, as of tonight, we have an interesting mix of extremely qualified African-American candidates and extremely qualified white candidates. And based on the fact that race relations in Philadelphia is something we SHOULD talk about, as people who care for our city.

But this business is just revolting.

Back to issues, thank goodness.

Chaka Fattah has issued his plan for a healthier Philadelphia. We read it thoroughly.

It's quite broad, though there is plenty it doesn't do, and if he's elected, he's probably already overcommitted his administration's time (between this and his lets-meet-a-lot ethics plan).

That said, this is a big statement. There are some very cool points. Our favorites:

*Fattah proposes covering all city workers, including unionized employees, through a single insurer -- which would be selected by a competitive bidding process. He points out that over the last five years, Philly has reduced its work force by seven percent, but its health insurance costs have increased by 60 percent -- and that Philadelphia’s health care cost per employee was higher than that of most other major cities. He also points out that joining one plan would save a lot of administrative grief for unions.

This contract would include performance criteria (I would hope so) and prefer insurers who would create Philly jobs, by being based here (woo-hoo for Cigna, Independence Blue Cross and United HealthCare!) or do back-office work here. The plan would also invite the School District of Philadelphia, the Community College of Philadelphia and other large employers in the region to join the purchasing pool as well -- another good idea.

*He has this neat idea to provide every uninsured Philadelphian with an annual check-up. How? Asking doctors and nurse practitioners -- starting with the Pennsylvania Medical Society -- to do them for free. He wants to pair this with screening to see if the patients are eligible for additional coverage. "The city’s hospitals already provide free emergency health care to those who cannot afford to pay," he said in his plan. "While this is valuable, it is also important to provide for the most basic medical assistance to residents as a preventive measure." At this point, we can start the countdown to hear from all those with reasons that this won't work. However, I can't help but think that this seems doable. If the city could pull it off, what a huge step forward.

*He wants to explore incentives to keep doctors in Philly. The malpractice rates here have cost us both doctors and medical options. (Please feel free to disagree with this point in the comments, where I will ask you how many maternity wards in this city are no longer delivering babies.) Fixing the reasons that malpractice rates are so high is unrealistic -- but maybe we can change the economics another way, through incentives of some kind. Teachers who serve in places that struggle to find teachers get breaks on their student loans (same for doctors, actually). How about something like that?

*"Appoint a strong permanent executive to head the Department of Public Health." 'Nuff said.

*Target diseases that affect Philadelphians, including HIV/AIDS and asthma.

*Build on and expand the work of the Nurse-Family Partnership. I promise this: If Chaka Fattah is elected, I will watch to see that he does at least this. If you need to know why, check out Philadelphia Safe and Sound's yearly report of the well-being of children and youth in our city. Out of every 1,000 live babies born in our city, 10.5 died in 2004 (the last year data was available) -- which is actually a small improvement. And the rate of low-birth-weight babies is GROWING in our city.

Fattah's report, like his ethics plan, is large and sometimes seems unworkable -- can we really ensure that the struggling city health care centers have night and weekend hours, much less lead a city-wide public health campaign targeting one disease per month?

And there is much that he doesn't do -- this wouldn't expand health insurance programs, for example, just make sure we get all eligible people into programs that exist now.

Still, a ambitious and thought-provoking plan.

After you're done being made dumber by the youtube video referenced in the previous post, you can check out this compilation of today's news stories. It took a while because there's so damn much today.

Anyway, if you check it out you'll see a couple good pieces that are on Philadelphia Magazine's website from the February issue of the magazine. Sasha Issenberg asks "Are Democrats ready for a black Rizzo?" There's also a profile of Bob Brady, the "Maybe Mayor." (I like it, though I'm going to stick with Bob "[insert verb here] the Sh*t" Brady).

In Susan Phillip's piece previewing the today's Brady announcement that aired this morning on WHHY-91FM, political consultant and golf caddy-extraordinaire Neil Oxman breaks down Brady's strengths and weaknesses.

Meanwhile, Philadelpia Will Do, wonders why candidates in this year's mayoral election all seem to be from a "town called depression."

And rather than link to all of the good stuff in today's City Paper, why don't you just go to the corner and get one. It's free for pete's sake!

Ok. I'm off to Bob "Announce the Sh*t" Brady's big event. Catch you on the flipside.

All the cool kids, including fellow bloggers Dan and Catherine, are over at the Brady shindig. We'll post anything interesting as soon as it breaks.

Apparently, one of the promises that Bob Brady just made at his announcement: To keep the elephants at the Philadelphia Zoo.

For real.

Apparently, he promised the moon on many other things too, including eliminating the Business Privilege Tax.

He also said that Saidel -- Robin to his Batman -- would be with him every step of the way.

The scene at Brady's announcement, according to Daily News reporter Catherine Lucey:

A giant, mostly labor crowd, overflowed the room at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Former mayoral candidate Jonathan Saidel did introduce his good friend, now-candidate Bob Brady; Saidel was energetic, but Catherine said "when he wasn't yelling, [he] looked a little sad."

Among the things Saidel shouted: "He don't need no on the job training to be mayor of this city."

Brady offered up a "pretty solid" speech, Catherine said, in which he said he'd fix crime, education, and cut taxes as mayor. (He also promised this reporter a pony.) He was upbeat and energetic too.

And a new catchphrase is born...well, borrowed from John Edwards: "Don't lose hope, help is on the way."

In all seriousness, Brady did set this important goal: he said he would put "1,000 new police, parole and parent truant officers on the beat in my first four years as mayor."

Much applause, and cue the confetti and family onstage. The celebratory music: "Let's get it started" by the Black Eyed Peas. Then, in a nod to the older folks in the room, it switched to "Takin' care of business."

And the dirty tricks have begun. A Daily News reporter found this poster on the ground in Center City.

This is a great time to make this offer: IF YOU SEE AN ELECTION SHENANIGAN, E-MAIL US. We'll keep a running library.

Tips as to the sources of said dirty tricks are always welcome as well, of course.

Evans will release his education plan Monday. Full media alert after the jump.

The guy at the end of this Dwight Evans campaign video might be a bit crude, but he does have a point.

I'm leaving the office soon for a weekend in the frozen wilderness of the great, white North after having spent last night in the presence of the great, white campaign rally. Ok. I meant, "mostly white and male, with plenty of union jackets and placards boasting the names of building trades locals." I should know better than to try deviate from Dave Davies' account. In fact, when I got there and a saw two Daily News reporters, Inquirer, Business Journal Susan Phillips from WHYY and scores of television cameras, I figured I could put my notebook away and just enjoy the music.

Anyway, those are among the many stories gathered in today's headlines. In keeping with the Issues-driven nature of this project, I made sure to put the Daily News and Inquirer accounts of yesterday's Next Great City event at the top. I encourage you to check them out but keep in mind what I said yesterday about holding the candidates that sign on to this agenda true to their word.

You'll also see that candidate Fattah has a health care plan and City Council is working on keeping us healthy by banning trans-fats from our city's dining establishments. It's too bad, I just developed a taste for a cool refreshing glass of trans-fat.

Finally, Philadelphia Will Do gives their own review of what appeared to be a VERY intimate interview of Bob Brady in Philadelphia Magazine.

That gives us our quote of the day:
"He’s going to be my driver, my confidant, my David L. Cohen, my pillow to cry on, my crutch to crutch on." (Bob Brady)

We missed this a few days ago but it seems that Congressman Fattah (he's "Congressman" when he's doing that job), addressed the U.S. Conference of Mayor's in Washington last Tuesday shortly before the President gave his State of the Union address.

From the press release:

Speaking to a bi-partisan audience of the nation’s leading mayors, convened by New York City’s Michael R. Bloomberg and Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston, for their first-ever Summit, Congressman Fattah outlined the steps underway in Philadelphia to remove illegal guns from the streets. Those measures include stepped up and targeted policing, and reward programs.

"Those measures" also happen to be major points in candidate Fattah's crime plan.

I know I promised not to bring this point up any more since I was convinced by someone with a lot of experience in Philly politics that voters don't consider this. But, it seems like Fattah's role in Congress as part of the Congressional Task Force on Illegal Guns, would give him a great platform for pushing changes at the federal level. If he becomes just another mayor sitting in that audience listening to some other congressman, will he be able to turn to someone in Congress from this area with his experience and clout?

Nutter has a press release out today, on the eve of the 4th anniversary of the Iraq war, that says any troop "surge" should happen here:

“I’m calling for a surge in federal resources where they are wanted, needed, and could actually do some good – on the streets of Philadelphia," the release reads in part.

I am not sure we want the Army patrolling Sansom, but the point remains:

Why did we have to cut 300 Housing Authority Jobs - why?

Federal budget cuts. And why?

I think you know.

Let's all remember: All of the candidates, except for Bob Brady, have said they support the environmental goals of the Next Great City agenda. Read the full agenda and the candidates responses here.

To be honest, I haven't called Brady on it yet, since he just announced Thursday night. (Of course, he was promising a lot of things that night, so maybe I missed it.)

We'll check with his shiny new campaign next week and see if they have a statement.

If you'd like to go say hi...Michael Nutter will host a campaign open house Saturday at 2 p.m.; details below the jump.

Tom Knox has a statement out on prison conditions, which a judge called unconstitutional this week. He hints at something important -- that we need to prevent one-time offenders from committing crimes again -- though he says only in general terms how he'd do that.

“If you improve support services to prisoners – if you make sure they know how to read and write, you give them some kind of career training and you make sure there are enough probation officers to help place them in jobs and keep them on the right path, you won’t have so many of the same people taking up space at $80 a day.”

Others in the city are working on the ex-offender issue, including City Councilman Wilson Goode, Jr., and former City Councilman Ed Schwartz. This is a very important piece of a crime platform; though preventing repeat crimes must be incredibly difficult (not to mention expensive, for proper drug treatment and education), if we could even reduce them, we would solve so much of Philly's crime problem.

We'll keep tabs on what the candidates say about this through the primary.

Education is a funny thing in this mayor's race.

In Philadelphia, the quality of the public educational system is an issue that underlies almost everything. After all, without good schools, young families move out of the city (and when the schools get better, they move back). Without good schools, graduates (and, particularly, non-graduates) struggle to find good jobs, and are tempted into the eas(ier) money of crime. Without good schools, the quality of our labor force declines and businesses leave.

Indeed, research like the work of the recent drop-out study and its companion report (on what to do about the problem) seems to present the schools at the heart of a web of effort needed to support the entire city.

Problem is, what can the mayor do about the schools?

In 2001, the state took over the School District of Philadelphia and installed the School Reform Commission. The mayor gets to name two people to that, but that's not even a majority. Instead of running the school district, the city government gets a smallish voice in it.

It's a little like SEPTA -- a major issue for the city to deal with, and yet an institution that the mayor has little control over.

Which is not to say the mayor has NO influence. And that's where education becomes a very interesting issue in the race for mayor.

Mayor Street seems to be interested in flexing his muscles in the schools matter a bit. He's named a task force on the schools and held a number of attention-getting public meetings.

Plus, we have candidates in this race who know city schools well and are unlikely to sit on the sidelines. Chaka Fattah's announcement speech dwelt on education -- hey, he even announced at a city school, the high-tech School of the Future in the city's Parkside section. Michael Nutter worked on schools as a City Councilman. And then there's Dwight Evans, who has taught in the public schools, backed charter schools as a legislator, supported private school manager Foundations Inc. and runs a well-regarded charter school in West Oak Lane.

Today, we'll get to hear Evans' education plan. It could be the first detailed education plan offered in the race, and may establish just how aggressive the candidates are going to be when talking about the schools in Philadelphia.

Do they want the city to take them back? Are they content with the work of the SRC, which includes impressive district-driven reforms but also has left the schools with a $70 million deficit? Will they push for city control? Or do the candidates intend to influence instead of run the schools? After all, the city has enormous sway over the district, even if the mayor is a bit of a bystander.

Evans says today he will talk about:

*increasing school safety
*expanding early childhood education opportunities
*lowering class size
*modernizing classrooms, and
*ending the dropout crisis.

We will report on Evans' plan in detail as soon as it hits our desk -- as we will do with any education plan from all the Would-be Mayors.

Can be read here. We'll be posting a complete analysis this afternoon.

(ETA the correct time of this post and to clear up some language.)

OK, now we have a copy of Evans' education plan. It's a large and well-developed plan that makes lots of promises -- and mentions other needs without setting a specific goal.

Still, he does see the central role of the schools in the formation of the city -- and he understands that they cannot work alone.

First of all, Evans is not talking about taking back the schools, or tearing up the last five years and starting with a locally elected or controlled school board. He is talking about working with and through the SRC to make the reforms happen, which is not surprising, since as a state lawmaker he was a key player in the effort to take over the schools.

But he certainly is talking about classroom issues. Though the mayor has no direct control over the schools, Evans says he is committing to reducing class size "to no more than 22 students, and striving to reduce most classrooms to fewer than 20" and to equip all classrooms with laptops. He said he's developed a legislative package to improve teacher recruitment and retention, which would develop a Governor's School for Teaching in Philadelphia, offer teacher signing bonuses, launch a special effort to recruit African-American men to teaching and offer student loan forgiveness to specialized teachers.

As for dropouts, he says he would expand programs that target at-risk youth (he specifically singled out Don't Fall Down in the 'Hood), and increase the number of alternative education spots available. I also like the idea of an early warning system to search for dropouts, because we do know how to single out kids who are at risk of leaving school.

As with many of the other plans from candidates, there are many points in here that Evans hits but doesn't specify what he'd do about them. He spends a bullet point decrying teen pregnancy but doesn't really say how he'd prevent it -- though he has a more specific recommendation about a program to help students who have already given birth get through school.

There are several points about personalizing educational paths, which would allow students some latitude in the way that they leave school. It may sound wifty, but this is increasingly of interest to education researchers who say it suits kids better than a one-year-per-grade, one-size-fits-all model. Ninth-graders would have to fill out a "Personal Education Plan" and he calls for the expansion of Project 720 programs in the city, which is education jargon for a high school that helps kids figure out their own path through high school to college. Evans also wants more kids in "dual enrollment" programs that earn high school and college degrees at the same time.

There were some places that I thought he could have stepped up in a more significant way. The Community College of Philadelphia needs more money to grow -- Michael Nutter was talking up a bill to add to the college's funding before he left City Council. Evans praises CCP and says he would "back" the institution, but there are no dollar signs in that paragraph.

Not all the ideas are big ones; some are common sense and acheivable. Evans says he wants to bring health clinics into schools and encourage schools to meet higher environmental standards by creating a "public-private Green Schools Fund" to give them bonus money.

And he focuses on school safety, asking each school to do a complete safety audit every year -- finding physical problems such as broken door locks, but also staffing problems such as a lack of counselors. (That won't be hard to find. The last time the Daily News took a look, there was one counselor for every 800 kids in Philly schools.) He thinks these fixes can be funded by state and federal money (and that's a good point, since a yearly audit could uncover such horrors that there would be some state and federal money put to the effort.)

He would also assign more city police to schools, increase conflict-management training for kids and require better crisis planning in schools, and he also suggests a "security dads" program to get men patrolling school hallways, which sounds like the Community Based Organization volunteers the district is increasingly reliant upon.

He talks a good bit about the physical needs of the schools, which need $1.5 billion in capital improvements and to build new schools. Problem is, these projects are often held up at the whim of City Councilpeople or by community opposition; City Councilwoman Carol Campbell is holding up one school right now so that her father's name can be put on it. He says he wants to eliminate political barriers to school building, but that seems to be more of a wish than a doable goal (and hey, if he can do it, then he should get to work and get rid of Councilmanic privilege altogether). A more workable idea is his concept of giving a tax break to land owners who donate land to the school district.

One part of his program focuses attention where the mayor can make a real difference: Child care, preschool and after-school care. He plans to seek $50 million to expand these programs, by maximizing state and federal money specifically for early childhood education, by seeking private grants through the district's fund-raising arm and partnering with the business community.

There is some evidence that what we are able to fund in early childhood falls far short of the need: Only 16 percent of eligible families in Pennsylvania were receiving subsidized child care slots, Evans' plan says. And the problem in high quality centers is worse: A 2001 United Way study found that two out of 10 centers in Philadelphia provide good-quality child care services, while the rest ranged from poor to mediocre," it says.

I hope there's no money that could be sending kids to preschool left on the table now, but it is possible that state and federal programs aren't being used as well as they could be. And certainly, businesses can step up: There's an interesting point in the plan about creating pilot daycare programs -- funded with $150,000 grants from the city -- in the city that can model services that work, including drop-off care for just a few hours and parent training programs.

Whew. A huge plan, with some gaps in specifics because it is so broad. But it gets the very important idea that schools can't function alone.

Your thoughts?

So far in this race, there are big ideas -- plans for "Safety Now," for healthier Philadelphians, for continued education reforms.

And then there are these common sense concepts:

Build some affordable housing:apartments to rent and homes to buy. Ask developers to include affordable (not $300,000, or $500,000, or $700,000) housing in their developments, so folks of different income levels live together.

Help more struggling people pay their home heating bills.

Expand a popular program to help people fix up their homes and keep them occupied longer.

None of this is as sweeping as the education plan that Dwight Evans released earlier today (and please, campaigns, don't call and fuss at me: nor is it as sweeping as Michael Nutter's "Safety Now" or Fattah's Plan for a Healthier Philadelphia).

But this is doable, sensible stuff. I certainly hope it's stuff that all the candidates -- who are promising a lot right now -- will simply do.

It's the "PeopleFirst" platform that will be promoted by Acorn, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, at an event Tuesday. Acorn plans to collect 25,000 signatures on a petition supporting the platform and host a community forum later in the primary season.

For more on the event, click here. For more on the platform, click here.

What do young Philadelphians want the city to focus on?

There's a new survey that just launched that aims to collect that info. Fill it out -- and then send it to all your friends, please. City or suburbs -- it doesn't matter.

What does matter is that young people get a voice in this election.

You can thank Young America PAC, Young Involved Philadelphia, the Chamber's Young Professional Network and Committee of Seventy for this excellent idea. We'll report the results as soon as the survey ends (on Feb. 12) and we get them.

Philly wants crime cameras.

That's one of the results of the latest Keystone Poll, which will be released in the Daily News tomorrow.

That poll -- which we will post on our main site starting about 3 a.m., but still spend your 60 cents on a copy of the paper, it's worth it -- will reveal the latest standings among candidates and say which issues Philadelphians care about most.

In the meantime, we wheedled out of the keepers of the poll this one interesting fact: 56 percent of those polled said they were "much more" likely to support a mayoral candidate who supports the use of anti-crime survelliance cameras.

So far, Nutter, Fattah and Evans have come out in favor of those.

Much news today from Congressman-Candidate Fattah.

Fattah met with families of soldiers killed in Iraq, including Celeste Zappala of Philadelphia, and said he was co-sponsoring “The Bring Our Troops Home and Iraq Sovereignty Act.” The legislation would cut funding for the war and bring American troops home, Fattah's press release said.

“This Administration continues to be out of step not only with the American people but with top military leaders, foreign policy experts and a growing bi-partisan group of elected officials regarding the war in Iraq," Fattah said in the release.

Fattah is an old-school war opponent. He voted against the original Iraq War resolution in 2002.

And in other Fattah news:

He endorsed a new report from the Blue Ribbon Commission on Mental and Behavioral Health, which called for more resources to support children's mental health and echoed some of the recommendations in Fattah's healthcare plan.

AND he said that he'd detail a housing plan on Thursday. "This commitment includes focusing on keeping homeowners in their homes, helping Philadelphia renters become Philadelphia homeowners and building more affordable housing" reads the media alert.

Spending money on ads, it turns out, is a fine way to get yourself known to voters.

In the second Daily News Keystone Poll of the mayoral race, Tom Knox has pulled within a margin-of-error-sized hair of Chaka Fattah. When the poll was last taken, in July 2006, Knox had not announced his candidacy or started his television ads and had only 1 percent of the likely vote.

Now, he's at 22 percent and Fattah is at 26 percent.

A whopping 65 percent of those polled said they'd seen Knox's ads, the only ads from a candidate so far and a near-constant on the airwaves. Catherine Lucey says in today's Daily News that Knox has spent $2 million of his own money on the commercials.

She also reports this important piece of information: The ads are off the air now for a bit while the campaign decides exactly how to pipe Tom into our homes next.

Other candidates made gains as well, though they were much smaller and within the roughly 6 percent margin of error (which is high because only registered Democrats were counted for the horse-race question).

When voters were asked the key question -- "If the race were held today, who would you vote for?" -- Michael Nutter went from 10 percent to 12 percent of those polled and Brady from 5 percent to 8 percent. Fattah and Evans were basically flat.

Full poll results are on our main site.

I know we are here to talk about the issues, but boy, here's a big one to talk about: With enough money, you can buy yourself front-runner status in a mayor's race! Sure, Knox's number will slip when the others start spending what they've raised (and we will know how much that is tomorrow as well, when fund-raising reports are due; keep watching the blog for all updates). Still, Knox has said he'll spend $15 million of his own money on the race. How many of the candidates can raise that much in a crowded field and with donation limits?

Wow.

Oh, and as to the actual issues:

Crime-stopping cameras, as we reported here yesterday, are a hit in Philly, with 56 percent of those polled saying they'd support a candidate who backed them.

Six out of 10 Philadelphians think the city is "off on the wrong track," about the same, high number as in July, and setting the stage for a newcomer. 50 percent of those polled think the city is worse off than four years ago -- a slight decrease, actually, from July.

Crime is still far and away the number-one issue to voters, with 67 percent saying it is the most important problem facing the city today. Pollster Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin & Marshall College, told the Daily News' Bob Warner that crime "will dominate this election like no other issue dominated Philadelphia politics since the reform issue in the 1950s."

After that, it's education, with 7 percent; unemployment and the economy, with 5 percent; "government, politicians, leadership" (I assume this means bad politicians and a lack of leadership) with 4 percent and "social problems" with 3 percent. These are all basically unchanged from July.

Other news of note...John Street's unfavorables have grown, with most people saying he's doing a "fair" or "poor" job running the city...experience working in city government is important to voters, with half saying they'd be "much more" likely to vote for a candidate that had it...48 percent of those polled said they want control of the schools returned to the city, while 33 percent said they didn't.

Finally, here's some red meat for the commenting:

The question: Generally speaking, do you think having casinos in Philadelphia will be more positive than negative, OR more negative than positive for the city?

43% More positive than negative
47% More negative than positive
10% Do Not Know

That's pretty close to even.

Ooh, and this is good, too, from the Daily News story: "More than 30 percent of white registered Democrats said they would vote for one of the three African-American candidates. Among black candidates, Nutter pulled the most white support with 16.8 percent. The rest of the white vote split with 28.3 percent for Knox, 12.4 percent for Brady, and 26.5 percent undecided."

Here's some VERY interesting fallout from today's poll.

Dave Davies of the Daily News reports:

City Councilman Jim Kenney wants to take the fundraising gloves off of the non-millionaire candidates in the mayor’s race.

Kenney will introduce a bill in City Council tomorrow amending the city’s campaign finance law to lift the contribution limits for mayoral candidates in a race where a self-funded candidate kicks in $2 million or more.

Businessman Tom Knox’s $2 million TV advertising spree which has taken him from nowhere to second place in this week’s Keystone poll.

If Kenny’s bill passes and is signed by the mayor, it would leave Bob Brady, Dwight Evans, Mike Nutter and Chaka Fattah free to collect checks as big as they want until the May 15 primary.

But the change still won’t return the city to the days of unlimited pay-to-play contributions.

Inaddition to the campaign fianance law, the city has a new set of pay-to-play contracting laws which restrict contributions from anyone who wants to do business with, or get a financial benefit from the city.

So big law firms, insurance companies, developers, etc still can’t make mondo contributions unless they’re prepared to forego city business for four years.

Who does that leave to write the big checks? Unions for one, many of which support Brady, whom Kenney also supports. And maybe some trade associations or Harrisburg PACS….. it will be interesting to see who the money players are if the bill passes.

Kenney says he thinks he as the support of most Council Democrats, and believes the bill is needed to restore some fairness to the mayor’s race.

“Every five minutes on television I see a Tom Knox ad,” Kenney said. “Unfortunately the campaign finance restrictions have left one candidate with the ability to get his message out on the one really effective medium.”

“Today’s Daily News pushed me over the top on this,” Kenney said, referring to Knox’s showing the Keysone poll. “Tom Knox bought 22 points worth of name recognition. If he weren’t in the race, we wouldn’t even be talking about this change.”

This is really great. Guess who's birthday it is?

Tom Knox's!

Some birthday present he got himself, huh?

He's 66.

As Councilman Kenney prepares to introduce a bill that would remove the limits on some large donations in the mayor's race, Michael Nutter has scheduled a press conference to condemn the bill.

It will be Thursday at noon, outside City Council chambers.

Lifting the limits, conventional wisdom says, would benefit Brady (who could get big checks from big labor) and Evans (ditto), while hurting candidates who are working a broader base of smaller and individual donors. That would include Nutter.

Of course, Kenney's bill is triggered by Tom Knox's jump in the latest mayoral poll, which showed that the cost of a 21 point jump in poll numbers right now is just over $2 million in TV advertising.

It's a tough issue. Millionaires have the right to spend as much of their personal fortune as they want to on running, because the First Amendment protects political speech, and what's more obviously political speech than spending millions to promote your political goals? But we see that such spending absolutely has the power to move the race -- though it's early, folks -- and so some people want to respond by opening up the spigots for other candidates who don't have $15 million to spend running for mayor.

And yet, campaign donation limits were one way that the city was attempting to reform its pay-to-play culture. Yes, even Kenney's bill would not change the new rules that prohibit developers and law firms from writing huge checks to campaigns (they'd still lose their ability to bid on city business if they do). But, under the Kenney proposal, what's to stop a union or PAC from exerting a lot of political influence? Is it a good idea to allow unfettered union donations, for example, when one issue raised in this race is reform of the city's zoning and construction codes? And what other groups could be given a wide-open field to pay and play in?

Therefore, expect Nutter tomorrow to link this issue to ethics reform, which he championed as a City Councilman and has raised early in this primary.

Today was the deadline for campaign finance reports from 2006.

This is when we find out how much the candidates raised last year, from whom (in many cases) and how much they have left to spend. It's an interesting report in part because the rules have changed: now, individuals can give a candidate no more than $5,000 a year, while law firms, unions, political action committees and other unincorporated businesses can give no more than $20,000 a year. So there was a lot of pressure to raise money by Dec. 31.

And the war chest news is:

Michael Nutter: Had $1,393,435 on hand at the end of 2006. Took donations from more than 1,400 donors.
Dwight Evans: Had $1,218,324 on hand, 1,300 different donors.
Bob Brady: $404,513 on hand, from 139 donors
Chaka Fattah: $391,429 on hand, from 146 donors.

As for Tom Knox, he had $3,418,297 on hand, mostly from him -- though he did report 345 other donors as well.

Now, that's what they have left. Those who have spent a lot of it, obviously, have lower balances. Fattah, for example, said in a press release that he had raised $1.62 million in 2006. (Note that the cash on hand in the release refers to Jan. 31, not Dec. 31 as reported above.)

He also cleared up the question of what to do if you gave to Fattah's Congressional campaign and want to keep backing your guy: "according to a letter Fattah sent today, contributors to Fattah for Congress may choose to transfer their contributions to Fattah for Mayor."

But Fattah also had the best quote of the day, which put the entire day in perspective: "At the end of the day, this is an election, not an auction," Fattah said in his news release.

We also got one release from a City Council candidate -- a race that may have as much or more to do with the future of our city as the mayor's race:

"Matt McClure, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the 4th Councilmanic District, announced that he has raised over $72,000 in just seven months for his campaign last year," reads McClure's press release. "McClure, who filed his end of the year report with the City of Philadelphia today, still has almost $69,000 cash-on-hand as of December 31."

I should publicly thank the five mayoral candidates and McClure, who made their information more accessible to the public by sharing it with the media. Every time that campaigns voluntarily share this information in accessible formats they show their commitment to an open and fair campaign.

I should also thank Daily News reporter Bob Warner, who for years has cajoled the reports out of the candidates and made them easier for our newsroom to use, a difficult job that enables an incredible amount of reporting.

For example, that's how Bob and his colleagues know that today's reports are comparable to where the candidates were eight years ago, the last Democratic mayoral primary with multiple candidates. "At the end of 1998, attorney Marty Weinberg had amassed $2.4 million, and, like Knox, he promised a heavy advertising campaign to boost his name recognition," Bob, Catherine Lucey and Dave Davies say in their story. "With backing from incumbent mayor Ed Rendell, John Street had piled up nearly $1.7 million. Evans and former Councilwoman Happy Fernandez had raised more than $700,000 each, while former Councilman John White had $570,000.

"Their total was $6.1 million, not far from the $6.8 million that the five Democratic candidates reported yesterday."

He mentions in this release that he wants to create a "Mayor’s Office of Substance Abuse" to tackle the drug problems.

He actually describes a three-pronged approach to drug treatment:

*A Treatment Innovation Fund, "which will support innovative programs like Treatment Court and the Forensic Intensive Recovery program."
*A Mayor’s Office of Substance Abuse and charge it with creating a citywide strategy for curbing addiction.
*Expand the police department and give it the technological tools it needs to flood drug hotspots and deter drug dealers.