Pick Me, Pick Me! (The Next Mayor)

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.

Comments (5)

Dave

Is it just me or is Evans running on a one-issue platform? If all he's going to do if elected is throw money at the crime problem (the way Street has thrown money at the blight problem) then I don't think I'm really interested. Both of those problems are visible problems with many other problems as causes. Unless somebody addresses the other issues (which generally cost less money to address, but require more effort and competence), throwing money at crime and blight is going to do little good.

Posted by Dave | January 17, 2007 10:42 PM

A Free Man:

Hot on the heels of the carnage in Philadelphia, all of the mayoral hopefulls have proposed a grab bag of new crime/gun control measures--never mind that they wouldn't have stopped the Philadelphia murders, whose perpetrators broke dozens of laws already on the books. These politicians are seizing the moment to advance their otherwise frustrated gun-control agenda.

Posted by A Free Man | January 18, 2007 11:57 AM

knwmn:

Dwight Evans is running for mayor and he tells us to examine his record. Certainly no one else would run on his record. He helped to engineer the take over of the schools and while his campaign propsered our children did not. He let the state take over the parking authority, and while politicians became more powerful the city has to ask, Where's the money?
Dwight Evans for Mayor, I don't think so.

Posted by knwmn | January 18, 2007 9:24 PM

Our children (not mine. I don't have any) are prospering more now than when the city ran the school district. There are some holes in Evans' record (like working on transit policies and funding since 1991 and our transit system being a mess), but I don't think the state takeover of the school district is one of them.

Posted by Dave | January 18, 2007 10:11 PM

sj:

I dont think the state takeover is going to be a negative for Evans at all. MOre has happened in the last 5 years than in the 20 prior years. I think he has a good record, but I dont know what his plan is for increasing jobs and cutting taxes.

Posted by sj | January 19, 2007 1:41 PM

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