The Next Mayor

From Michael Nutter, who held a press conference today to denounce the bill and released this statement:

"Philadelphia residents should be outraged by this back-door attempt to return to the shameful past that led to campaign finance reform...Philadelphia citizens should not be fooled by this legislation and they should not believe anyone who tries to spin it as 'reform.' And any Mayoral candidate who supports this legislation cannot claim to be a 'reformer.'”

Nutter took on the idea of changing the law after one poll, pointing out that the numbers involved border on the ridiculous, especially since the horse-race portion involves only 262 registered Democrats. "Fifty-eight residents expressed interest in one guy and all of a sudden, City Council wants to repeal years of effort to achieve campaign finance reform in Philadelphia," scoffed Nutter.

From Tom Knox, who also issued a brief statement:

"Philadelphia voters are smart enough to understand what’s happening here – the supporters of the status quo are circling the wagons."

Dwight Evans has called on council to reject the Kenney bill as well. But he has a idea to consider instead:

He thinks as a rich candidate pours more and more of his or her own money into the campaign, the limits on campaign donations should increase -- but not disappear.

From his statement:

“I was disappointed to learn that Councilman Jim Kenney has put forth a proposal to eliminate caps on political donations to candidates running for office in Philadelphia,” Evans wrote in the letter to Council. “Those who support such a proposal are signaling their support of the pay-to-play, machine-driven politics that reward the few at the expense of the many

And he explains his idea: "for example, if a candidate were to spend in excess of $2 million of personal resources in a campaign, then the limits on individual contributions should increase by a factor of four."

"Coupled with requirements for 24-hour disclosure of any donation over $1,000, this would move toward leveling the playing field while maintaining public scrutiny and preventing a return to the “Wild-West” days of old," Evans said.

One important thing to remember: Nutter and Evans both collected the money they have now from a large base. Evans from 1,300 donors and Nutter from 1,400 donors.

Opposition has grown all day to Councilman James Kenney's idea to lift campaign limits for mayoral candidates. So far today, Michael Nutter held a press conference and issued a statement to condemn the idea; Evans put out a statement opposing it (and suggesting an alternative) and Tom Knox, the guy who got this all started, put out a one-paragraph statement that...well, I'm not sure what it actually means, except obviously he's above the fray.

The issue is this: Tom Knox spent $2 million in ads, bought himself a big jump in the polls, and got everyone (particularly those who back Bob Brady) a bit freaked out and looking for ways to raise more money faster.

I've posted the candidates' responses all day. I also reached out to the Committee of 70, our partner in The Next Mayor and people who understand campaign finance well.

President and Chief Executive Officer Zack Stalberg said Seventy "believes the bill is extremely bad" and added that the good-government group "will oppose it when it comes to a hearing."

He's also sent letters to each of the candidates asking them to declare how they feel about the bill.

"Prior to the establishment of the donation limits Philadelphia was in a situation where public officials were bought and sold routinely," Zack said. "The current system may have some flaws. But it definitely reduced the size of a permissiable donation to a level where you can no longer buy influence. And that's good."

Zack said he wished it were possible to limit how much a candidate can spend of his or her own money, but the U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that's not possible. But, in a case like Knox's, he pointed out: "At least it's his own money, and no one is buying him."

"Each of these candidates have gotten name recognition in their own way," he pointed out. Knox may have bought his, but he didn't have a high-profile public position where he could generate it for years before running for Mayor.

I asked Zack to explain how Kenney's bill, if it passed, would work with the pay-to-play legislation that is already in place. Which groups would be allowed unrestricted donations if Kenney's bill passed, and which wouldn't?

"My quick reading of this is that outfits or individuals that want city contracts would still be limited," Zack said. "But that leaves a world of idiots out there who are still trying to buy influence and favors."

He also pointed out that Kenney's bill would change the rules of this race in the middle of it, which has been enough of a problem with the campaign finance limits already.

"All of the candidates agreed to the ethics agenda," Zack reminded them, "which called for a review of of the rules after this election." Any candidate who supports the Kenney bill is "violating the spirit of the ethics agenda that they already agreed to."

Not to mention violating the spirit of reform that this city wants and has voted for, he added.

When I'm not spending time as an avid philatelist, I like to think that I know a thing or two about cartography. So imagine my surprise and excitement when I heard this story on NPR today. Of course, it hurts a little that it was done by an NPR reporter and not an 'HYY reporter for NPR, but that's a different story.

This story has everything. It combines my weird fascination with maps (probably stemming from my desire always to be somewhere besides where I am), supermarkets in the inner city (if I haven't mentioned that already on this blog, don't worry, I will), and politics. It even mentions Dwight Evans.

Give it a listen, it was a pretty fascinating piece. And to think, all of this great work being done at Penn, right under our noses. Does anyone know if there's a connection between them and the City (Planning or otherwise) so that they could actually put these maps to use?

(edited to add) Here's some more information about mapping projects being done at Penn. When I get some time, I'll have to dig through it.

And the wording of the link is so great that I have to list it:
www.BobBradyWorks.com

Can be found at Michael Nutter's Web site.

And there's a hint that this issue may show up in the City Council races. From YPP's Dan (though we added the emphasis):

Dear Councilpeople Greenlee, Reynolds-Brown, Tasco, DiCicco, Kenney, Miller and others:

You all have a chance to make this go away. You have a chance not to hand your opponents a huge stick to whack you with. You have a chance to show that you listen. You have a chance to show that when only one-quarter of Philadelphia thinks we are on the right track, that you will not make nakedly bold moves to preserve that status quo.

Make this law go away, and, we can forget it happened.

Not only is this morally wrong, you are hurting your chances to keep your own jobs, and you are going to show yourselves as out of touch. Get ready for ads and fliers from every single one of your opponents detailing that you are on the side of the well connected, and the status quo.

Chaka Fattah Thursday introduced a plan to help Philadelphians buy homes and stay in them when times get tough.

His housing plan features a tax credit for first-time homebuyers of up to $4,000, calls for increasing the Housing Trust Fund by devoting expiring tax abatements to it (which the campaign says could be worth $43 million by 2015) and calls for creating a $10 million Philadelphia Homeowners' Emergency Assistance Program to loan money to Philadelphia homeowners facing foreclosure. The last initiative is modeled on a state program that Fattah helped create.

A tax credit for first-time homebuyers is particularly attractive, since transfer taxes in the city are an expensive surprise for anyone who doesn't have some equity built up.

And the Housing Trust Fund is an essential program for affordable housing in the city; it steps in to help make affordable housing projects possible, to help pay for home repairs for low- and moderate-income families and, in extreme cases, help people on the brink of homelessness.

It may be increasingly needed as PHA attempts to sell its scattered-site housing and more Philadelphia families are forced to find new homes to live in.

Michael Nutter has now sent a letter to supporters encouraging them to sign his online petition opposing the James Kenney bill. The letter can be read here; the petition, here.

Whew, Fattah pouring out the policy papers. He says he will introduce his small-business plan Monday. Announcement after the jump.

In case I haven't mention it, The Next Mayor is on Youtube. So far, most of the videos are excerpts from our series of Community Forums that we held here at WHYY but there are also some of our "I Am Philadelphia" videos in which we got a people at various events to tell the next mayor (the guy, not the project) what they want him to do when he gets into office.

I plan on putting a whole lot more of those up as well as more Zack's corner (starring Committee of Seventy's Zack Stalberg) and our Counter Intelligence videos.

If you have a Youtube account (which is free to get) you can click here to subscribe so that every time I put a new video up you'll get it.

So far we haven't had any George Allen-esque youtube moments, but it's early yet.

A new comment came in regarding this post by Wendy who pointed out a "dirty trick" campaign sign that appeared about 90 minutes after Congressman Brady entered the race.

Here's the comment from "Mook":
In reference to the Bob is shady poster found on the ground in City Hall, Bob Brady is the type of person that will give you a definite answer, either yes or no. You will know were you stand with him. He brings people to the table and does not play the shell game with them. He lays it out clear and plain before your face so there is no misunderstanding him or the situation and he gets results. If that is "shady" we need more of that today.

Personally I like dealing with someone that gives you the facts and does not dance around the issues.

Earlier today, a WHYY News reporter went to a press event that Congressman Brady conducted with some health care executives to discuss the closure of Graduate Hospital. The media advisory can be found here. The event itself was destined to be a real snoozer but the way the game is played, a good journalist will go to any event that a candidate has in an effort to get them on the record about the hot topic of the day. The 'HYY reporter was just about the only one there.

Clearly, the hot topic today is the Kenney Bill, aptly named by Wendy "The Brady Relief Act." After receiving different stories from Brady's handlers about whether he would answer questions about his position on the Kenney Bill (he is for it), the reporter asked Brady directly about the bill. Brady refused to even open his mouth and say "yes" or "no" lest his voice be recorded for use in the story. Apparently he just shook his head and steamed right through. Again, notice from the advisory that, "There will be a media availability immediately following the meeting." It seems that by "media availability" they meant, "a quick, silent run through the media."

Granted, Brady's not the only politician that has used such a tactic and I'm sure he won't be the only competitor in this race to do it. I bring this up because the commenter above is pretty typical of the general feeling about Brady. He's a "straight shooter." He "tells it like it is." He doesn't "dance around the issues."

But it appears, that at least in this case, that the label "straight shooter" is a little off target.

From today's Inquirer:

Councilwoman Marian Tasco, a ward leader who is backing Evans, said she signed on as a cosponsor because the city needs a "conversation" about flaws in the 2003 limits.

"We were responding to 'pay-to-play' and the pressure of the media" following the City Hall corruption probe, Tasco said. "I actually didn't pay any attention to the bill."

Does this anyone else reminded of the scene from Fahrenheit 9/11 where Michael Moore asked whether our elected representatives in Congress actually read the entire USA PATRIOT Act and Representative Conyers replied:

Sit down son, we don't actually read most of the bills.

Philadelphia City Council, Craptastic since 1951.

While not quite as incendiary as the "race card" or dumb as the "flip flopper card," the "Fumo card" can be just as damaging in this mayoral race. We find in today's Metro that at least one reporter actually made it to the candidate forum last night at Congregation Rodeph Shalom, and for his efforts he was rewarded with this primo quote:

“He’s been supported by Vince Fumo for years and that’s why he’s in power,” Knox said of Kenney last night at a mayoral forum at Rodeph Shalom Synagogue attended by all of the candidates except Brady. “Vince Fumo wants to see Bob Brady elected mayor so he can continue his grip on our economy."

Gee, and Knox seemed like such a nice guy from those $2 million dollar commercials. While we've heard third party commentators mention the Brady-Fumo connection and several of the stories about Kenney's bill also made that connection, this seems to be the first time that a candidate has come out and laid the that four-letter "F" word at the foot of one of his opponents. Methinks Congressman Brady has some choice "F" words for Mr. Knox.

The gloves, gentlemen, are off.

On Monday, 11 a.m., outside the (!) federal court building. Media alert below the jump.

You can sign up the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and Philadelphia Forward as opposing the attempt to repeal the campaign finance limits.

Congressman -- not candidate, in this story -- Chaka Fattah has launched an hotline for tips on illegal guns. And the program, through the Citizens Crime Commission, offers rewards of $1,000 for tips that lead to seizure of guns and arrests of the person who has them.

That number, boys and girls: 215-546-TIPS. It's 24/7.

That reward is more than the usual gun buy-back program (you'll remember that, earlier this year, Fattah launched an effort to trade guns for grocery cards, and the max there was about $400). But the point is not just to get guns off the street but to arrest the person who has them illegally.

Unfortunately, many gun charges do not result in long jail stays.

Still, as Fattah's partner in this effort, state Sen. Vincent Hughes, said, the point is to do what they can, since the state legislature won't strengthen gun laws in the city.

Check out the letter (mentioned first in today's Daily News ) that Dwight Evans and Tom Knox wrote to Bob Brady:

Dear Chairman Brady:

I was dismayed to read the recent article in the Philadelphia Daily News in which you stated your intention to continue as chairman of the Democratic City Committee while you continue to serve as a congressman and seek the Democratic Party's nomination for Mayor in the May primary. The issue is not, as the article suggests, whether you have the time to serve in all three capacities or whether you would violate the City's ethics or campaign laws by doing so. The issue is your disregard for the obvious conflict of interest presented by your continuing to preside over the party and to control its apparatus while you are a candidate.

And the letter concludes:

I therefore respectfully request that you immediately step down as party chairman as you pursue the Democratic Party’s nomination for Mayor.

You can read the whole letter at Evans' Web site.

Wow, Brady's having a rough week. Knox is publicly calling him on the Fumo connection (and, with a federal investigation of Fumo heating up, the timing on that could be awkward). The people of this city who aren't on City Council have been appalled at the brazen attempt to boost Brady's coffers with the Jim Kenney-sponsored Brady Relief Act (and, actually, I didn't name it, that was a very clever pundit at the paper where I work). And now Brady running a Democratic primary as Democratic party chair and getting called on it.

Fact is, this race was doing pretty well before the threatened machine got defensive. We were talking issues and beginning to talk about how many of the promises of change were realistic and affordable.

The stuff swirling around Brady this week was particularly disheartening because it was so old-fashioned.

So it's good to see the pols themselves -- especially Evans, who is no newcomer when it comes to the game of politics -- speak out against it.

Did you see Brady's own response to the Kenney-bill fracas, in the editorial section of today's Daily News?

Here it is.

No one ever got cut on the corners of a square deal. But when it comes to spending in the Philadelphia mayor's race, voters are beginning to see that it's anything but a square deal.

Here's the REAL deal: In an attempt designed to level the playing field for ordinary candidates and millionaires, City Council actually made the playing field anything but level.

This is pay to play for millionaires only.

Growing up in Overbrook, I didn't know many millionaires. My friends and I understood that having money gave some people an advantage when it came to buying things. We just didn't know City Hall was one of them. Maybe we were naïve. But no mayoral candidate from John Street to Frank Rizzo bought their way into office.

Jim Kenney is a smart guy. This is not about the individual millionaire who tries to buy City Hall. The U.S. Supreme Court, under the free speech clause of the Constitution, protects the right of any millionaire to spend his money on a run for political office. So here's my bottom line:

• Report all contributions on-line within 24 hours.

• Provide electronic copies immediately to the Committee of Seventy.

• Encourage news organizations to publish contributions daily.

These simple steps are designed to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Philadelphia voters are smart enough to figure it out from there.

I keep reading it, but I am not sure I get it, so please comment if you do.

Kenney's bill would provide Brady (and all other mayoral candidates) with access to a lot of campaign money, and he seems to be suggesting transparency as a way to keep track of it. Which, of course, means that we'd all know it was big checks from PACs and labor that paid for all that television advertising, and I guess that would make the commercials less successful?

I don't buy that for a minute.

And you thought it would be the casinos! (Might still be, actually.)

Please go check out Young Philly Politics, which has a complete compendium of the sentiment on the Kenney bill, including a look at each of the City Council co-sponsors and their vulnerability to motivated opponents. Directly quoted from Dan U-A:

CoSponsors:

1)Frank DiCicco (strong opponent running, who opposes this)
2)Dan Savage (strong opponent running, who opposes this)
3)Donna Miller (strong opponent running, who opposes this)
4)Carol Campbell (strong opponent running, who opposes this)
5)Marian Tasco (very disappointed in this. Generally a very good Councilperson. Now that Evans is opposed, it is important to see what she does.)
6)Darrell Clarke
7)Juan Ramos (at large candidate, with many strong candidates)
8)Joan Krajewski

And Dan concludes: "102 days till election day. Do you really want to do this?"

(ETA: Irv Ackelsberg, a candidate for the 8th council district (that would be Donna Reed Miller's seat) has sent out his statement opposing the Kenney bill and asking Miller to reconsider her support. Read it here.)

And this one, e-mailed in response to the campaign finance controversy, is from John Karr, political director of the Libertarian Party of Philadelphia.

"So called Campaign Finance Reform is a farce. Both parties are corrupt and they’re both writing the rules that are supposed to make them less corrupt."

Read more after the jump...

Chris Brennan, the Daily News' Urban Warrior, has an interesting column Monday that reveals Mayor Street is unlikely to fill 70 jobs he promised in neighborhood health clinics.

Chris also asked the Democratic candidates what they'd do. All but Brady and Evans said they would fill the jobs.

Brady didn't answer. Evans said he wasn't prepared to commit to it, and added that he'd want to make sure that the city wasn't overlapping with the governor's recently announced health plan.

That seems like an honest answer. The one thing about campaign promises now is this: The next mayor is going to walk into a financial mess the day he steps into office. The reason Street likely won't fill the jobs is because he's having to cut all city department budgets (except for the cops).

On the other hand, I imagine these 70 jobs are a pretty cheap way to prevent and treat illness in the neighborhoods.

Stay posted for Michael Nutter's ethics policy paper and Chaka Fattah's small business plan, both coming Monday...

How often do you think we'll be seeing this response to legitimate questions from the print, radio and television media?

[Insert candidate name here] did not respond to requests for comment.

In this case the candidate was Bob Brady responding to Chris Brennan's column about the 70 public health clinic positions that are likely to be cut soon. I've already referenced Brady once regarding avoidance of media questions, but this is an equal opportunity post.

There's been a number of instances in which Chaka Fattah has deflected from questions by assuring us that "he'll be releasing a position paper" soon. Tom Knox gets to play the outsider's "I don't have access to the numbers" card, which is fair enough but then he should also give up his "I knew enough to balance the budget under Rendell" card.

If anyone wants to help out on this and has access either to Lexis/Nexis or wants to comb through our site, the blog and headline archives, feel free to point out instances of "question avoidance" that have already happened. It's something I'll be trying to keep track of as we move forward.

As I said in a recent comment to another post, I'm a big believer that how one campaigns is a good sign of how they'll govern. If the press can't get answers to legitimate questions on a timely basis (ie by deadline time) while someone is seeking votes, what chance does Joe Rowhome have in getting answers or action when that candidate becomes mayor?

On the flipside, if a candidate is responsive, well-versed on issues, and able to chat intelligently with the press and constituents about a variety of different issues, that may be a sign that he or she (I'm not giving up hope for a woman mayor and this applies to council candidates) will be the architect of a responsive government.

Did you happen to notice in today's Daily News a letter to the editor from Mrs. Linda Knox?

RE THE Jan. 31 column "Can this guy actually win?" where John Baer said mayoral candidate Tom Knox has the "charisma of a catfish."

Linda Knox, Philadelphia

Talk about staying on message.

The era of the wives of campaign aides signing fake names to letters to the editor is over!

Does anyone remember to which infamous moment from the 2003 campaign (a campaign with many infamous moments) I am referring? Click on "Continue Reading" for a link to the answer.

Can be read here. It's interesting...he wants to kill MBEC, for example. I will post a write-through after I get a couple of questions answered.

Can be read here.

He wants to convene an independent panel to review all current laws on campaign contributions and spending.

I spent a little time poring over Fattah's small business plan, which he announced today during a roundtable discussion with small business leaders (the attached photo comes courtesy of the campaign).

Some thoughts:

*The plan does not address the number-one issue of business development in the city: Taxes. Fattah himself acknowledges this up front, saying in his plan that he'll announce a tax plan later in the primary and calling the city's tax system "overly complex." But it's impossible to talk about real business growth and assistance without talking about the city's tax structure. It's also out of order: Shouldn't we start the city budget with what we have to spend, and then talk about how we're going to spend it?

OK, that point aside.

As has been the case with many of Fattah's plans, this one is studded with some really good ideas. Among the ones that struck me:

*He wants to tear up MBEC, the city's useless at best and corrupt at worst Minority Business Enterprise Council. He'd put the responsibility for making sure that minority and women owned businesses get contracts with the city with the city procurement department, which is where it should be.

*He wants to create an independent non-profit to give small businesses free advice. This is a really great idea. Law firms have an ethic of pro-bono work. Why not consulting firms? I suspect many do it now anyway, so this way they'd get a little applause for it from the government.

*He wants to pursue joint procurement opportunities among city departments. This idea is just plain common sense.

*I liked the idea to give businesses whose cash flow has been devastated by government projects a bit of a tax break. We can call this the Market Street El Reparations Initiative, since that disaster is undoubtedly behind this point to some degree. SEPTA's El project has restricted traffic and destroyed businesses along West Market, and it seems to have gone on forever. True, he doesn't say how the city should give them a tax break -- it can't be a special rate, so it have to be some kind of tax credit, on the BPT perhaps? -- and true, it would be difficult in practice to decide which businesses get the break and which don't. Still, it's very good to see that someone noticed the suffering down on West Market and in similar locations elsewhere.

*He's big into loan funds, creating or expanding no-interest emergency loans for small businesses in crisis and for businesses that want to move to a new location in the city. He says these loans would be paid for in part by fees on the loans.

*I did like the idea of expanding the van pool program that helps Philadelphians get to suburban jobs. It might seem like SEPTA should do that, but a big regional transit system can't answer all the region's needs, and the truth is that a lot of people have to take several buses and trains to get to their jobs -- which is lousy both for them and for businesses that need those employees.

*And he would grow "green" business in a way that the city should, by buying their services. He's also talking about wage-tax credits for green businesses.

Other things in the plan...he has some interesting points about a need for regionalism in business development -- though he's duplicating some of the efforts that have gone before. He wants to create a regional small business development agency -- though it might make more sense to have Select Greater Philadelphia involved in that mission. And he wants to identify the top ten industries in which Philly has an advantage over other cities -- though that work has already been done incredibly well by the cluster study conducted by Innovation Philadelphia in 2003.

I would have appreciated more information on where the money for these plans (such as the loans and grants) will come from. Those fees won't cover all of it.

And there are a couple of ideas that sound good but actually codify into government something that was designed to be a stop-gap solution to dealing with government. Case in point: a Special Service District Liasion to "take the politics out" of creating special service districts. But aren't those districts just a way for businesses to pay for things that the city should do for them anyway, such as litter control and safety? So do we need a permanent post to make sure that we run our stop-gap solutions without politicking?

I have a similar concern about the "one stop shop" for small businesses that need to do work with the city. It would be called the Office of Small Business Development. How about instead of creating another office, we fix the ones we have?

Finally, one note on the idea to provide a preference to Philadelphia Businesses in city contracting: The charter was changed to allow that last year, and guess who led the charter change effort? Michael Nutter.

All that said --

This is another interesting plan that shows off some strengths: Fattah is a little bit of an outsider of sorts (or, he was an insider of another system) and he uses that to propose new ideas. He does think regionally -- and he knows how to use the feds for what he wants.

The latest in this story, from the Daily News' Dave Davies:

Faced with growing opposition, City Councilman Jim Kenney is now considering alternatives to his proposal to suspend campaign contribution limits in the mayor’s race.

Kenney’s bill lifting the contribution limits in races where a self-funded mayoral candidate kicks in $2 million or more has been condemned the Committee of Seventy, the Chamber of Commerce, Philadelphia Forward and a number of city Council candidates.

Kenney said in an interview he’s now drafting a new bill which would mirror the “millionaires exception” to contribution limits found in the McCain-Feingold federal election law.

“The original bill was a starting point for discussion of this phenomenon we’ve never encountered before,” Kenney said in an interview. “There is an inequity here, and if this isn’t an acceptable solution, we’ll look for another one, or we may decide we have to just roll the dice and see if Tom Knox can buy this election.”

Kenney introduced his bill after the Daily News/Keystone poll showed previously-unknown businessman Knox vaulting into second place in the race after $ 2million in TV ad buys.

The McCain-Feingold law provides for higher contribution limits when U.S. House and Senate candidates face self-funded opponents. The amended limits vary between the House and Senate and depend on the level of millionaire spending as well as the fundraising disparities among the candidates.

Depending on the circumstances, contribution limits may be up to six times higher in Senate races and three times higher in House races.

Kenney said hopes to see both his original bill and the new one debated in a public hearing on Valentine’s Day.

And for good measure, Kenney said he plans to introduce a bill for public financing of municipal campaigns, which would apply to future elections.

And here are some thoughts on Nutter's ethics plan.

First of all, it's a vivid reminder that Nutter was responsible for much of the progress the city has made in in ethics reform lately -- and not just because the plan is written to make sure you don't miss the point. Hey, the guy did introduce the legislation that created the Board of Ethics.

Much of the plan borrows from the Committee of 70's ethics agenda -- with full attribution and thanks (this is an ethics plan, after all). Still, there were some things in the plan that I thought deserved special attention.

One, for sheer chutzpah: He wants to conduct "random financial audits" of elected and senior appointed officials every year and post them on the city's Web site. Whoa! One, the potential entertainment value is staggering. Two, the fear factor that this would create, if it ever had a chance of happening, is also staggering. Three, how in the world do you do this?

Two, for an idea that is important but may be premature: He wants to work with the Philadelphia District Attorney to increase funding for city corruption investigations. He'd also have the DA work more closely with the feds.

I'm all for more investigations, and I understand the argument that the city should police itself. But I don't know how realistic that is, especially given the deep needs of the violent-crime portions of the DA's office. The feds certainly seem to be doing fine in investigating city corruption. Why not let that continue?

In more likely and interesting ideas:

*He would convene an independent panel to review all current laws on campaign contributions and spending. A fine idea, and it's probably smart to keep it separate from the enforcement-minded Board of Ethics.

*He's suggesting lobbyist registration, a common-sense idea.

*He wants all city employees to file, online, financial dislosure information yearly and that candidates for office disclose tax returns (the reporters of Philadelphia say, yay!).

*He would strengthen the role of inspector general -- at some point, someone is going to have to explain to me how this idea, now suggested by several candidates, will work with the controller's office -- and extend the gift ban.

*He would also expand the campaign contribution limits and no-bid contracting rules to the School District -- again, common sense. And he wants to publish a list of all tax breaks and other incentives gotten by businesses.

And my favorite: Televise the meetings of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. No, most folks won't sit and watch this stuff. But televising it does make it a lot easier for reporters to cover it. And that will mean more coverage -- which is a very good thing. It would also expand access to the many activists who are working on these issues but can't get to all the meetings.

My thoughts on this article from Sunday are forthcoming since it is an issue that is very important to me. For now, what do you think? Should the mayor of the 5th largest city in the country (I won't give it up to Phoenix until the next census), have at least a bachelor's degree? Let's try and keep this discussion away from the candidates themselves. If we can, let's try and limit it to the generic mayor/candidate that we're trying to piece together. (The "Franken-mayor")

Regarding the Kenney bill that would have lifted limits on campaign donations in this race -- and on Kenney's decision to change the bill:

I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank you for your advocacy and vocal opposition to Councilman Jim Kenney’s proposal last week to eliminate the campaign contribution limits all candidates are currently operating under. Because of your outcry, it has been reported by this blog that Councilman Kenney has decided to pursue alternative measures to the “outright contribution cap elimination” proposal that was introduced last week. This is a development we should all be proud of; it is only through your tireless advocacy that we will increase access to and participation in a government we must all own.

Read the whole letter after the jump.

There's really only one political story in town today: the expected indictment of State Sen. Vincent Fumo.

This is about as big as it gets in Political Philadelphia.

Two things we know now: 1) This is the ultimate test of both Fumo (who has shaken off one federal investigation before) and of U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan. I don't think it's overstating things to say one or the other is emerging from this.

And 2) Nothing will be untouched by this -- including the election in May.

We know that Bob Brady (not to mention several Councilpeople) is backed by Fumo -- in fact, as Dave Davies reports today, Fumo "worked hard" to get Brady to run.

Brady, in his direct and relationship-based style, made a point of sticking up for Fumo in Dave's story: “It’s not in my nature to turn my back on a friend,” Brady said. “I wish him and his family well.”

Still, the connection to complicated, uber-connected, brilliant and controversial Fumo will be something that the other four candidates will use, subtly or no -- Tom Knox already has -- and will ripple throughout the campaign, especially if the headlines continue.

On the other hand, this is a chance to see if Brady the candidate would and can separate himself a little bit from Brady the machine pol.

It will be a fascinating story to follow.

Here's a decent place to start. The Daily News stories from Monday:

"Feds out to 'embarrass' me" (today's news, by Michael Hinkelman)
"Fumo's clout" (Chris Brennan's look at his other connections)
"He touched lives" (Dave Davies look at Brady's political relationships)
"Bacon? A whole $8 billion pig" (John Baer looks at Fumo's acheivements)

Read the press release

or read the full indictment.

...read this.

We'll discuss tomorrow but feel free to comment tonight.

It's almost petition time!

For those of you who don't know, this is when the campaigns begin circulating nominating petitions. You only have to get 1,000 of them to get on the ballot for the May 15 primary, but getting more is a sign of strength -- Fattah wants to get more than 10,000, for example, and so is recruiting volunteers.

For major party candidates, the petitions can be circulated from Feb. 13 to March 6.

Below the jump, read Fattah's call for volunteers...

It's Al Taubenberger, "a Northeast Philly guy with a cheery disposition and literally just a hundred bucks in the bank," Catherine Lucey reports today.

But seriously folks, I just finished updating the "Fumo" page and if you're a total news junkie, it should provide a pretty good resource. I'll continue to keep that page updated throughout this saga (or at least throughout the campaign) since it's pretty commonly acknowledged that this whole affair will have some effect on the race.

I'd prefer, however, to talk about other things on the blog so I'll just give anyone who wants to comment here on the Fumo story an open thread each morning. Consider this post today's Fumo thread.

In addition to Wendy's detailed breakdown of the Fattah small business plan, there's a pretty heated discussion about it going on over at YPP. What started as one poster's call for a greater dialogue between the city and successful entrepreneurs has became (in some comments) another point-by-point breakdown of Fattah's small business agenda.

It's worth a read.

Meanwhile, on the subject of entrepreneurialism, I would remind readers that one of our Community Forums spent a good amount of time talking about that very topic:

I personally would prefer that we keep the zoning code but that when the city works on rewriting it, they include some input from successful small business owners.

My Google News search this morning turned up for the first time an article/commentary in the St. Joseph's University paper, The Hawk.

It's almost directly a response to the question I asked earlier this week about whether we think a bachelor's degree is a required qualification for mayor. (Which was a response to this article in Sunday's Inquirer.)

To spare you having to register (it's free, but still) here is the author's main point:

We shouldn't judge someone because of their decision not to further their education. Going to college has not always been as important as it is now, and there are many successful mayors and even presidents without college degrees. As a city, we should look at the candidates' beliefs and how they can make Philadelphia a better place and, most importantly, how they can make Philadelphia a safer place.

In a mayor, I am looking for his or her opinion on certain issues, and none of those issues require an academic background. I am more concerned about the casinos, the murder rate that rises every day, education, and the issues of welfare. I want to hear strategies for gun control and ways to improve safety and healthcare. I want to see how the education system could be improved. It doesn't matter to me what the candidates did or didn't major in. These are issues that require one to think regardless of a degree.

I'll admit, I've been on both sides of this issue only because my ideal candidate would have, among other things, the intellectual capacity and curiosity that carries people not only to a successful undergraduate career, but also to an accomplished graduate and post-graduate career that deals with subjects such as economics, law, philosophy, management or (in my dream world) some combination of all of them. Of course, such a candidate would also have to exhibit the person-to-person, "everyman" qualities that Philadelphians love in their politicians (and athletes). He or she would also have to be a saavy media operator who comes across as having "personality" when communicating to a mass audience.

As it stands, while each of the candidates have pieces of this, none of them is the complete package. The consensus, at least among our commenters, those quoted in the Inky piece and the commentary cited above, seems to be that a bachelor's degree is not a make-or-break requirement. After posing the question, to which I was determined the answer was yes, I had a bit of an epiphany and came to a conclusion almost exactly like one of our commenters who said:

jordon:

i don't see this as a problem per se. the incumbent president is arguably the stupidest person ever to hold that position, and he has an MBA from harvard.

i think for some old schoolers in philadelphia, having a degree from an upper crust university could be a looked down upon as elitist. why else is nutter always referred to as the nerdy or uncool candidate?

He hits the nail right on the head. I have no qualms about having a mayor without a bachelor's degree as long as those without degrees don't try to glorify their lack of a college degree or give the impression to young people and parents that today's kids can always just follow that same path to the mayor's office. That would be like LeBron James telling unmotivated high school students that they should just go to the NBA like him.

I agree with the commenter above that since the converted can sometimes be the best spokesperson for an issue, having a mayor without a college degree could be good if they use their own backgrounds to say:

"while in my day it was possible to follow my path, with the increasing globalization, outsourcing and squeezing out of manufacturing and trades work, YOUR generation must get a college degree to succeed."

Such a mayor should make it his goal to insure that every Philadelphia child born during his administration and those in pre-K now, is on a path that will leave them academically prepared and financially able (whether through scholarship aid or more direct funding to CCP as a stepping stone to a 4-year degree) to attend college.

They have to glorify higher education and convince the rest of the people in their generation who have kids that following in dad's footsteps as a tradesmen or a manufacturing plant worker may not be possible. Brady, for example, would be the perfect person to tell all of those union folks who were at his rally that they need to make college the goal for their young children, that it's not ok to be disengaged, that being smart is not uncool. He could say:

"you made a decent living and are raising a family as a tradesman and that may work for your kids too, but the risk is too great that those jobs won't be here when your kids are old enough to go to work. You need to get them ready to go to college - to be a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer, an architect, a mathematician, a scientist, a teacher, a college professor - and if, when the time comes to choose, the carpenter or mason or plumber job is available, your kids follow that path because they chose to do it and not because they weren't prepared for college."

I would never want ANY of them EVER to say, "some people just aren't cut out for college" or "college isn't for everyone." In this rapidly changing economy, and in a city where manufacturing and construction account for only about 2-6 percent of all jobs, college will have to be for everyone.

So they're you have it. Does the man who will be sworn in as mayor in 2008 need a college degree? No. But if he doesn't spend his entire career making sure that the mayor who takes office in 2032 has a college degree - simply because he comes from a city where almost everyone does - then we're in trouble.

Ooh, check out Michael Nutter on Jim Kenney's attempt to soften his campaign finance bill.

Basically, Nutter says the electorate shouldn't buy a compromise -- and should insist Council stick with the original limits.

"Only in Philadelphia could a less bad law be considered better. With city indictments coming down like raindrops and one former councilman in jail, our elected officials should be trying to stop any effort to repeal the contribution limits."

Read his strongly worded release after the jump...

Fattah will host another groceries for guns swap this weekend....

and Tom Knox is knoxing on doors in the Northeast. (Forgive me)

...in the middle of the race, no less.

Kenney has changed his bill, as we said he was planning to do, and Seventy says this new idea also "makes a total mockery of campaign finance reform," as CEO Zack Stalberg said in the Committee of Seventy statement.

“It is staggering to believe that Council would even consider changing the rules of the game in the middle of the mayoral primary. Will there be a new campaign finance law introduced next week, and the week after that? At what point does Council say ‘enough is enough’?”

Read the whole statement here.

So, as we said on our main page, the Democratic City Committee will hold an endorsement meeting today.

Which is more interesting than it sounds because 1) The committee hasn't made an endorsement in 35 years and 2) The city party's chair is...candidate Bob Brady!

Guess who is considered the front-runner for the committee's seal of approval?

And guess who's sign is hanging in the window of the committee's headquarters on Walnut Street? (That's a photo of the headquarters, by Alejandro Alvarez of the Daily News, above.)

And guess which candidate the committee gave $20,000 to in December?

Despite that, the Daily News' Dave Davies reported this week that the other mayoral candidates have been invited to address the party's seven-member policy committee, which then will make a recommendation to the party's 69 ward leaders in a meeting following the policy-committee gathering.

Actually, we hear that the other candidates have been kept to very short presentations -- as short as five minutes. The Inquirer has reported that some hear that some candidates aren't coming at all -- Nutter told the paper he was "a little busy running for mayor." Fattah wasn't sure either. Knox is a definite no -- what's the point of an outsider at the ultimate insider's cabal?

But Evans says he's planning to go. Hey, should be interesting political theater, if nothing else!

We'll be updating this today, so keep checking.

Since there was so much interest in my little post about Fattah getting volunteers for his petition training...

Please note: The location for this has changed. It's now:

Saturday, February 10th
10:30-11:30 AM
The Enterprise Center
4548 Market Street
Philadelphia 19139

1) For the sheer machine-in-action, can-you-believe-this-still happens fun of it: Stay tuned as the Democratic City Committee, which is run by Bob Brady, endorses a candidate today. Despite the fact that there are five passionate, experienced and thoughtful people in the Democratic primary, you can expect that endorsement has already been made out to...Bob Brady, of course.

Which would be just funny if the endorsement didn't also carry with it money and pride of place on the "official Democratic ballot" voting guides that will be blanketing the city come May 15.

We promise to update this when we get some interesting info from today's meeting.

2) Read Catherine Lucey's story in the Daily News on Chaka Fattah's exploratory committee and its spending. This story gets to questions that many of you have asked on the blog: What happens to the money Fattah raised before he declared his candidacy? What if he spent some of it then for services -- such as designing a Web site -- that continue to benefit him?

Specifically, Catherine reports that Fattah spent "more than $10,000 spent on the Web site that now serves as his campaign site," "more than $20,000 to produce videos that are featured on the site" and "at least $7,000 on expenses for the day of his announcement."

"The committee also paid salaries to several staffers who later became campaign employees. And at a series of campaign events, Fattah has been unveiling policy papers developed during his exploratory period," Catherine wrote.

Fattah said these charges are being leveled at him because he is leading in the race (and it's absolutely true that with front-runner status comes increased media scrutiny, by the way).

3) Read this really good story by Marcia Gelbart and Mark Fazlollah in the Inquirer, in which Tom Knox vows that if $15 million of his own money won't get him elected, then Knox will spend more! Wow.

And here's how the events at City Committee unfolded, according to Daily News staff writer Dave Davies.

PS: At the end - I kid you not - you find out who Bob Brady voted for, and it's a doozy.

From Dave:

The suspense is over.

Democratic ward leaders gathered at noon Friday and in an overwhelming voice vote endorsed their chairman, U.S. Rep. Bob Brady for mayor.

It was the first mayoral endorsement in a contested primary most ward leaders had ever seen. The last time the party did that was 36 years ago, when the party endorsed Frank Rizzo for his first mayoral run.

Brady faced the media after the vote, surrounded by dozens of smiling ward leaders.

“The party thought at this particular time that this city needed healing, and they needed somebody who was a unifier,” Brady said.

Neither Brady nor other party leaders could explain why the party had written a $20,000 check to Brady’s campaign fund in December, which was more than a month before his endorsement.

“I can’t answer that,” Brady said.

When the question was directed to party treasurer State Rep. Frank Oliver, who was standing next Brady, Oliver replied, “I have no comment.”

“Did you sign the check?” a reporter asked.

“I sign many checks,” Oliver said.

“Including that one?,” he was asked.

“Evidently you didn’t hear my answer,” Oliver said. “I said I sign many checks.”

At that point, Brady interrupted.

“That issue is over and done with,” Brady said. “Thank you Frank, for all the support you’ve given me and are going to give me again. Now, if you would care to sign any more checks in my name, you can do that without hearing that question.”

Three other mayoral candidates, State Rep. Dwight Evans, U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah and former City Councilman Michael Nutter appeared before the city committees policy committee.

Evans said afterward he told city committee they should vote for an open primary, and that the endorsement of the chairman was exactly the kind of insiders’ game that turns voters off.

“You’re ever going to bring more people into the political process unless you begin to open up the doors,” he said.

Asked if he thought the ward leaders endorsement would be a major factor in the election, he shook his head. “It doesn’t matter,” he said.

Brady said the vote for him might have been unanimous except for the fact that Nutter is leader of the 52nd ward in Wynnefield.

“I actually told Michael Nutter that he was voting for himself,” Brady said. “I voted for Michael Nutter for himself. I was his proxy. Because Michael Nutter is a part of this body. He’s a ward leader, he’s somebody that’s a part of this body and we’re not here to embarrass anybody.”

This was issued by Knox's campaign today. He was the one candidate who didn't bother going to the meeting.

----

Tom Knox dismisses insiders’ endorsement
Mayoral candidate calls Brady move ‘hollow’

PHILADELPHIA - Tom Knox dismissed Philadelphia’s Democratic City Committee’s endorsement today of mayoral candidate Bob Brady, the U.S. congressman who is also the party’s chairman.

“It’s a hollow gesture,” said Knox. “I mean, 69 ward leaders endorsing Bob Brady means he gets 69 votes on May 15 – and that’s assuming they really do want to vote for him, and aren’t just playing along because they’re worried about losing their political jobs.

“The machine has kicked into high gear to protect itself, but the voters are paying very close attention to this race. Frankly, I don’t think it’ll work this time.”

Knox said his campaign doesn’t need conventional party support to get elected. “I’m going to take my message directly to the people. That’s who determines an election, not party bosses,” he said. “I’ll be fighting for the people of this city, not a system of insiders.”

-30-

Because I like to talk process and strategy as much as anyone, what do you think of Knox's strategy as evidenced in the post just prior to this one?

When he speaks of any of the other candidates, he's has nothing but nice things to say. I heard him all but endorse Evans and Nutter in Mt. Airy several weeks ago. But in the space of two weeks, he's now connected Brady to Fumo and set the over-under of number votes Brady will get in May at 69 (it's actually 68 since Brady was gracious enough to cast Nutter's vote by proxy for Nutter).

It seems pretty clear to me what the strategy is early on for Knox and it doesn't just include spending a whole lot on television commercials. Thoughts?

Did you catch the story in today's Daily News about questions that are being raise regarding the money spent during those several months when Chaka Fattah was "finding himself?"

I remember asking similar questions during the Congressman's voyage of issue exploration even before he took one small step for a Congressman (small since he doesn't have to quit his job) and one giant leap for a candidate (by declaring). Ok, so I didn't so much ask questions as be snarky, but you get the idea.

In the end, does it matter when Fattah spent that money and what/whom he spent it on, so long as he returns all of the donations that were above the limits? The net effect would seem to be that he'd be left with the same amount of money. My thoughts are in the comments.

When folks band together, the candidates have no choice but to listen. To wit:

The Crosstown Coalition - 7 Downtown Civic Associations Unite to Present Questions for the Mayoral Candidates

On Friday February 2nd, an ad hoc federation of seven downtown neighborhood associations, the Crosstown Coalition, commenced emailing their 4000 members a questionnaire inquiring of their members what issues should be discussed in the upcoming mayor’s race. A copy of the initial citizen’s questionnaire is attached. As of February 8, 660 responses have been received and approximately 700 emails have yet to be transmitted.

You can read the rest here. It includes contact info for the one of the organizers of this group so that if you happen to live in one of the areas covered you can get on their list.

Sorry. Couldn't resist. The actual headline on the press release is:

NUTTER VISITS GRATERFORD PRISON WITH MURAL ARTS PROGRAM

So his little thimble game piece will be in that red area outside of jail that says "just visiting." He'll be allowed to continue to pass "GO" and collect $5000 (in campaign contributions).

Have a good weekend everybody... that's enough for me.

Sunday, Michael Nutter will release his housing plan...

and on Monday, Chaka Fattah will announce his transportation plan. Stay tuned for reports when the plans are released.

The survey, to determine which issues are the most important to young people living in and around Philadelphia, has already had 300 or so responses, which is great. But if you haven't taken this survey from Young America PAC, Young Involved Philadelphia, the Chamber's Young Professional Network and Committee of Seventy -- well, why not?

Check it out here.

And you can ask him questions from your Web cam -- very high-tech.

This is from his blog on his campaign site...

On Tuesday, February 13th at 7pm, I will begin a series of live online video webchats where you can ask me questions via text or even via video if you have your own webcam. So lets discuss what needs to be done in order for us to make Philadelphia great.

Sign up to participate here.

Evans also just launched a MySpace page, and we know several of the candidates are in Wikipedia. So it made me wonder which other ones are using interactive means -- not just Web sites, but blogs, Flickr accounts, MySpace, Wikipedia and so on -- this campaign. (This is what happens when the only things on TV are the Pro Bowl and Airborne on HBO.)

Here's a quick guide to the candidates' Web bona fides, so far:

Michael Nutter: MySpace, Wikipedia, YouTube, Flickr, campaign blog.

Dwight Evans: MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, campaign blog with video.

Tom Knox: MySpace, You Tube, campaign blog.

(ETA: Tom Knox also has a Flickr. Sorry I missed it the first time around, and thanks, Will, for pointing it out.)

Chaka Fattah: Wikipedia, campaign blog, I don't think he has his own You Tube account, but he appears to have someone who has posted a number of videos for him here.

Bob Brady: Wikipedia.

I looked, but couldn't find anything on Al Taubenberger (R), Kerry Foster (G) -- or Queena Bass, for that matter.

How do you spend your Sundays? If you're like me, you probably spent the day relaxing and watching an NBA double-header and wondering how how you've become so out of touch with professional basketball that you can't remember when Jordan and Barkley were replaced by Dwayne Wade and Lebron James.

However, if you're serious campaign junkie, you braved the cold and traveled to Michael Nutter's campaign office to hear him talk about his housing plan. I get the feeling that most of you probably didn't.

But guess what? It's ok because you can see the whole thing on Youtube. I just watched the first few seconds. I'll stop myself from reviewing Mr. Nutter's performance and try to stick to the points of his plan. (That doesn't mean you can't comment about it.)

Amazing. Anyway, give the plan a read. Either Wendy or I will post our own thoughts about it later today. I'm specifically looking for folks from our new Community Network to give me your evaluations - especially those among you who deal specifically with housing. Feel free to email me and I'll reprint it here on the blog or you can post in the comments.

(edited to add: Just got the email from the Fattah folks. The transportation plan is available here.)

As Wendy pointed out over the weekend, Chaka Fattah will be releasing a plan to improve mass transit.

As someone who actually moved into Center City just so I could walk to work and avoid SEPTA as much as possible, I'll be interested to see this one.

No candidate should put out any plans about SEPTA until they've walked a mile underground, by which I mean walking from 18th and JFK to 7th and Market through the concourse. Anyone who is familiar with that walk knows how far we have to go just to clean up and make safe the subway concourse in the business and tourist district of the city. Just imagine how far we have to go for stops (bus and subway) that aren't in Center City. I welcome any of the candidates to take that walk with me, since I do it fairly often just so I can picture the possibilities.

No candidate should put out a plan about SEPTA until he tries to catch the El from Center City to West Philly at 1 am and realizes that he has to find some bus called "the Night Owl" for which there are no signs to point the way.

No candidate should put out a plan about SEPTA until he actually takes the bus to the King of Prussia mall and realize how freakin' stupid it is that there isn't a train line to that area of the world (ditto for buses that travel along the Roosevelt Blvd. into the heart of Northeast Philadephia).

Feel free to use this thread to unload on SEPTA or, if you feel it deserves it, to heap some praise on our region's mass transit authority.

All that said, I can't wait to see what Fattah has for us.

I've just taken a few minutes to skim through the Fattah Transportation Plan, and here's my initial reaction to some of the points of the plan:

Re-Establish the Office of Transportation.
This will only be as effective as the "leading transportation professional" that Fattah will appoint as Director and as the access that this person will have to the mayor. Just having the office won't be enough. Accountability will be key. What happens if SEPTA doesn't improve? Does Fattah fire the Director of the Office of Transportation? Clearly, it would be SEPTA's general manager who would be responsible but what control does the mayor have over that position? There is some answer to that in the part where he talks about the city's representation on the SEPTA board, so more on that later.

Use Upcoming Lease Negotiations with SEPTA as an Opportunity for Change
Pretty short on details here. What exactly does it mean to "redefine and enhance the city’s relationship with SEPTA?" What ideas does he have for what could be improved with SEPTA? Does he have any specifics for what he would ask for during the leasing negotiations so that operators would no longer "lose sight of SEPTA as an integrated and truly regional mass transit system?"

Increase Philadelphia’s Representation on the SEPTA Board.
Absolutely no argument with that one. Does anyone know why the representation was distributed the way it was when SEPTA's board was created?

Make Regional Rail Funding More Fair.
I understand why this needs to be and I realize that the people in the suburbs won't be voting for mayor but this comes awfully close to playing the suburbs against the city - a form of campaigning that emphasizes an "us vs. them" nature of the relationship between the city and its neighbors. This point essentially sticks a big hand out and tells the suburbs, "put money here." Candidates who use this tactic forfeit all credibility for talking about "regionalism." Perhaps if we talked about radically restructuring the region's funding for SEPTA by doing away with the current system and working with the 4 suburban counties to create a regional transportation tax like they have in Denver, then we could make the funding "more fair" and at least give the appearance of working together to solve the problem.

Work to Expand Service and Keep Fares Low
You want guns? You want butter? (a nod to all those who have taken Economics 101) How about both! Yippee! Seriously though, there's no mention in "expanding service" of expanding it so that the trains are still running on weekend nights when the region's nightlife closes down at 2am. Not that this affects me since I'm in bed by 10pm on Saturday night anyway, but I'm sure there are some folks out there who like to enjoy the clubs but don't have access to Allen Iverson's Bentleys.

Grow and Promote PhillyCarShare
He may just win over some Nutter supporters with his shout out to car share. Friedman? Where you at, buddy?

Explore Instituting a Philadelphia Congestion Charge
I like this idea but it only works IF one makes the fixes to SEPTA first so that people are more willing to give up their cars and hop on the train. Otherwise, you might just get a number of employees who band together and bitch to their employers until those businesses move themselves out of the congestion zone. Then again, the fixes to SEPTA may only be possible if ridership increases thereby providing the funds necessary to pay for those fixes. Little bit of a Catch-22 here...

Work With Faith-Based Groups to Resolve Parking Issues.
Do I detect a subtle dig against a certain opponent who used to represent a district that had a faith-based group with some space issues?

Turn Philadelphia into the Most Bicycle-Friendly City on the East Coast
Tell me you'll build one of these and then I'll believe that you want to make Philly the most bicycle-friendly city on the East Coast. How about some financial incentive (in addition to the savings from not paying to park or for a train) for people to ride or walk to work - even if it's just gift cards to restaurants or sporting goods stores?

Promote Walking by Improving Sidewalks and Lighting in Neighborhoods
This is a good one. I'd wager that much of the improvements in safety and the crime rate in Center City is due to the pedestrian-level street lighting that's been made possible by Center City District.

Contract to Ensure All Transit Stops Have Shelters
Boy that sounds awfully familiar. Guess that means he's listening. That's a good thing.

Work with SEPTA to Provide Maps At All SEPTA Stops
Tell me that the maps will be able to show me where all of the buses or trains on the route are at that exact moment, and therefore, how long I have to wait, and I'll vote for ya. With GPS and the web, this shouldn't be too difficult. How many times have you stood on the El platform to go westbound and had 3 or 4 eastbound trains go by while you're waiting? Why does this happen? Where is your train? Such a map can tell you.

Create an Airport-Based Bomb Squad.
Sure, ok, whatever. Politics of fear... blah blah blah...

Investigate the Benefits of Light Rail Lines for Philadelphia
If we're talking about the trolleys that run through Southwest Philly and clog up traffic even worse than the buses, that's ok, I think we can do without. However, if we're talking about something like the River Line between Camden and Trenton, or anything that would have its own right of way, then I'm all for it.

Anyone else?

Guess who's going on TV?

Bob Brady!!!

We have this sneak peek at Dave Davies' story for tomorrow's Daily News:

Millionaire Tom Knox’s monopoly of TV advertising in the mayor’s race ends today, when U.S. Rep. Bob Brady begins airing his own commercials.

Brady campaign media consultant Ken Snyder yesterday confirmed the campaign had commercials ready to run today, but declined to describe them or say how extensive the purchase of TV time is.

Knox’s self-funded campaign has already spent $2 million on television ads, enough to vault him into second place in the latest Keystone poll with 22 percent of the vote.

Brady placed fifth with eight percent in that same poll, and 50 percent of those surveyed said they hadn’t heard of him.

Brady, who is also chairman of the city Democratic party, announced his candidacy Jan. 25.
If the Brady campaign follows the traditional script, his first ads will be aimed at introducing him to voters and laying out the broad outlines of his campaign message.

Except for Knox, Philadelphia’s mayoral candidates are being forced to think more carefully about their television ad buys in this election, since the city is now operating for the first time with campaign contribution limits.

Due to Supreme Court rulings, candidates’ contributions to their own campaigns are not subject to the limits, leaving Knox able to spend as much as he wants.

And it's Michael Nutter.

Nutter -- a lifetime Philadelphia resident and Penn graduate with an accomplished career of public service, business, and financial administration -- impressed the student organization's members with his reform agenda.

You know, I do believe this would be the first endorsement in this primary!

Read the press release here.

After getting the mayoral candidates to sign on to an ethics agenda -- a feat in and of itself -- the Committee of Seventy has moved on to City Council candidates.

Seventy's asking for them to declare exactly where they stand on issues including the attempt to weaken campaign finance laws, the practice of "councilmanic privilege" -- whereby any district councilperson can stymie development in his or her district, just because they want to -- and hiring their friends and relations.

I won't be cynical, and say something like: "Putting 'City Council' and 'ethics' in the same sentence is a first." Because that's not fair or true. There are councilpeople who take their jobs very seriously, who believe in better government, and who are willing to buck the machine when needed.

However, for those who aren't like that, there are also a host of challengers waiting in the wings to take their jobs.

And one thing we know, thus far in the election: Voters are angry and ready to demand change.

So this is the perfect time to find out just where the Council incumbents and challengers stand on ethics. You can read Seventy's agenda here; we'll be updating that site and the blog through the coming days with responses to the challenge.

Let's take a quick look at some emails that were waiting for me this morning.

From an unfortunately-named staff member at the Nutter for Mayor campaign (really, who names their child Info?), we get this:

Tomorrow City Council will hold a public hearing on a bill that would eliminate or significantly increase Philadelphia's campaign finance limits. I plan to testify against the bill.

If you agree with me that Council should not change the finance limits in the middle of the first mayor's race they will apply to, tell them so by signing our petition. And then forward this email to your friends and relatives and ask them to sign it too.

Sign the petition and tell Council not to raise campaign finance limits

Do with that what you will.

From Brett Mandel at Philadelphia Forward (a member of the rapidly growing Next Mayor Community Network), came some information about Philadelphia Forward's Real Estate Tax Conference:

You are invited to join in the discussion with city and state officials, media representatives, community organizations, and concerned citizens and taxpayers.

Friday, February 23, 2007, 9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Temple University Student Center, 13th & Montgomery Avenue
(Conference Center entrance – side door on 13th Street)

There has been a lot of concern over impending citywide reassessment to be conducted by the Board of Revision of Taxes, so much so that, according to Mandel, City Council is looking to put a question on the ballot that will ask voters whether or not they want to urge the BRT to delay this reassessment. I'll leave it up to the folks with the expertise on both sides of this issue to hash out the pros and cons of the reassessment. However, for anyone interested in learning more about Real Estate Taxes, this conference could be helpful. At the very least you may be able to get your questions answered by the city and state officials who deal with this.

Click here for more info. The conference is free but you have to register by February 20th.

Lest we forget, there are other, very important races that will be decided on May 15th. Challengers are springing up for many of the City Council District seats and the At-Large positions. In fact, 10 of these challengers have formed a hearty band of merry men and women and plan on raising a little ruckus in advance of tomorrow's hearings on campaign finance.

From the wires:

11:15 a.m. ELECTION LAW -- Ten candidates for city office in Philadelphia to denounce an election bill in the City Council. Speakers are Vern Anastasio, Damon Roberts, Haile Johnson, Maria D. Quiñones-Sanchez, Irv Ackelsberg, Wilson Alexander, Jesse Brown, Caryn Hunt, Matt Ruben and Andy Toy.

Location: Philadelphia City Hall, 4th Floor, in front of the security area in the hall leading to City Council chambers. Contact: Rev. Jesse Brown

If any local media need the contact phone number, shoot me an email.

Could this be the beginning of a reform slate?

The future of this city will depend not only on the person who will occupy the mayor's office but also on the group that assembles in City Council chambers for the next four years. With that in mind, we'll be building up our coverage of those races over the next several weeks and hope to have a pretty comprehensive voter's guide available a couple weeks before the primary.

The Daily News and WHYY will be covering today's event so stay tuned for more information.

(edited to add: Josh Cornfield from the Philadelphia Metro did a profile of At-Large candidate Andy Toy, who would become the first Asian-American to serve on City Council if elected.)

As a quick follow up to my comments about the Fattah Transportation Plan, I direct your attention to Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron's "Changing Skyline" blog.

She pays special attention to Fattah's suggestion about considering a London-esque congestion tax. She and I made the same basic point about how SEPTA must be fixed first before you could consider discouraging people from driving in Center City but she also points out, correctly, that driving in Center City really isn't all that difficult right now:

Will someone tell Chaka he's been away from Philly too long? Proposing such a tax for modestly congested Philadelphia suggests he doesn't have a clue about the real nature of the city's car problem. Center City isn't suffering from too much congestion; it has too little. Right now, it's way too easy to drive into town.

Yet another example that if you're going to offer a plan to fix something, it may help to be an actual user of that thing so you know what's wrong. Again, any candidates want to take a stroll with me through the City Hall Concourse?

Man, these plans are long! I remember a certain candidate that I worked for whose most frequent criticism of the policy material that I helped him create was "It's TOO LONG! Cut it in half!"

But seriously, anyone running to be the mayor of the 5th largest city in the nation, the chief executive of one of the largest metropolitan regions, and the face of Philadelphia in the global economy better make sure that he has all of his bases covered.

On to the Nutter paper. My first thought after reading parts of this paper was that I better get myself to Philadelphia Forward's Real Estate Taxation Conference on the 23rd. It appears that I have a lot to learn about real estate taxes.

I also thought this might be a good time to plug this op-ed from yesterday's Daily News by Greg Heller. Heller's a smart guy who has spent a ton of time thinking about these issues and he's ready to call "shenanigans" on any candidate whose plans fail to consider all the necessary angles (at least in private). He specifically addresses the problems that occur for low and moderate-income families when the value of their property increases rapidly due to the revitalization of their neighborhoods. Often, this gentrification leads to an increase in property taxes that leave these suddenly "house rich" and "income not-so-rich" people facing the prospect of losing their house when they can't pay their taxes. He provides some suggestions but my point in bringing up his op-ed is so that we use it as a jumping off point for an analysis of Nutter's plan.

Click "Continue Reading" for that analysis.

The Inquirer and Daily News both did extensive reporting on some additional troubles with the School District budget and some uncertainty with Paul Vallas's future.

Both Nutter and Fattah have weighed in with press releases. I haven't seen anything from the other candidates but judging from these two releases, this could be a distinct difference between Fattah and Nutter.

Finally, all five Democratic candidates for mayor are scheduled to appear on the same stage together.

If it happens, it will be the first time that all five have appeared together at a candidate's forum. And the topic? The environment (as reflected in the Next Great City agenda released in January), no less!

It's supposed to happen Thursday night, at the Next Great City project's mayoral candidates' forum, at the Academy of Natural Sciences. That room is totally sold out, but the forum will be shown by satellite at a number of other locations (see below the jump for where you can view it).

The Green party candidate, Kerry Foster, and the Republican candidate, Al Taubenberger, are not on the agenda at this point.

The five Dems together is a milestone. Not a huge one -- yes, I do realize that all five of them had to appear together eventually. It is a mayoral race, after all.

But now we get to see what happens when they begin to interact, even given the artificial rules of a candidate's forum. Will they stay on the issues raised by the Next Great City agenda? Or will they throw mud during the environmentalists' forum? Who will surprise us with his ability to talk issues in an accessible way? Who will seem uncomfortable or remote?

Getting them together wasn't easy at all. Michael Nutter and Tom Knox were quick yeses, but the other candidates took some work. Credit for making this happen goes to the Next Great City partners, including Penn Future and the Urban Sustainability Council, plus the people working with these groups.

If they are this persistent about the Next Great City agenda, we may just end up with expanded recycling after all.

This from the Daily News today:

In a surprise move late yesterday, Councilman James Kenney decided to hold back his campaign-contribution bills until after the May primary election.

He said there was too much "confusion" over the bills. But what we've heard is not "confusion" but opposition to the bills. Kenney's effort became a rallying cry against machine politics for progressives -- and for challengers to the Council incumbents, who held a noisy press conference in City Hall yesterday.

This is a victory for campaign finance reform, folks.

So this afternoon we attended the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce's annual mayoral lunch -- and so did candidates Chaka Fattah and Michael Nutter.

For those of you who like knowing about these relationship things: Fattah sat at the Innovation Philadelphia table (IP is run by former Street cabinet member George Burrell) and Nutter sat at the table of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau -- since he's the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority chairman.

Street's speech (online here) was legacy-centric -- a run-down of how the city has changed since the first time he spoke to the Chamber, Feb. 4, 2000. There were shout-outs to everything from Citizens Bank Park and Lincoln Financial Field to the Parkway to NTI to, yes, the Navy Yard, which caused a few winces given the recent news there.

But the master pol also managed to mention both the candidates in attendance: Fattah for last-dollar college scholarships for city youth and Nutter for the smoking ban.

Well, now that Councilman Kenney has stepped back from the edge of the "Cliffs of Insanity," we may never get to hear all of the wonderful reasons that his colleagues on Council would have given in support of dismantling the campaign finance restrictions.

One bit of testimony that we can see is this statement, which Adam B. was to deliver and which he posted for all of us on Young Philly Politics. Adam knows a thing or two about (1) campaign financing and (2) the internet's role in politics (not to mention he has a kickass pop culture blog).

Here's my favorite part:

The same is true on the House side – of the top 10 self-funders, nine of them lost their races, and the tenth, Vernon Buchanan of Florida, may have only won because of massive electronic ballot failure in his District. Surely, someone here remembers the example of Michael Huffington, who spent $28 million of his own money to win a Senate seat over Dianne Feinstein in 1994 . . . except for the fact that he didn't win. Or Blair Hull, who spent $28 million of his own money to win a seven-person 2004 Senate primary in Illinois, only to finish with 11% of the vote, well behind Sen. Barack Obama. And in 2004, according to a USA Today article, of the 22 millionaires seeking to win seats on Capitol Hill through their own millions, only one won.

This gets back to a point that I've made a number of times in private but not on the blog yet. One of the most troubling things to me about the Kenney legislation was the profound lack of faith in the people of Philadelphia. He was implying that we could be bought by the guy who put his face on that fancy noise and picture box. In this piece that I heard this morning, he says as much.

As Adam points out with the preceding examples and with his example of the O'Brien-DIcker-Graboyes state rep race, this hasn't been true in places that I consider to be a lot dumber than Philadelphia (I won't say specifically, which ones) and it wasn't even true here.

I understand how powerful television is in politics. If I were running for office, I'd much rather have the ability to go on tv than not have that ability. In fact, I'd agree that being able to run television ads for races like mayor is necessary BUT it is by no means sufficient. I hope that the this primary election proves that and that the best candidate wins. If he happens also to be the wealthiest candidate, then so be it, if not, that's fine too.

I've always had a lot of respect for Councilman Kenney. I think he's one of the smarter guys in City Council (please, spare the puns). Hopefully, now that he's put this aside he can get back to some of the really cool and innovative stuff that he's been working on, like the green roofs and rubber sidewalks. That's some cool stuff.

Oh, and here's my second favorite part of Adam's testimony:

In addition, the Internet allows the candidates the opportunity to speak to infinite audiences for free. Several members of this Council already participate on sites like Young Philly Politics and The Next Mayor, as do several of the mayoral candidates and their staffs
(emphasis added)

Count Philadelphia Forward and the Committee of Seventy among those thrilled that Jim Kenney has shelved his attempt to weaken campaign finance rules.

Seventy suggests that an independent commission be formed to look at all campaign-finance rules. They were gracious to Kenney: “We respect Councilman Jim Kenney’s legitimate fear that a wealthy candidate in the race could conceivably buy the election,” said Zack Stalberg, Seventy’s president, “and we appreciate the fact that he withheld consideration of his bills when he recognized it was too close to the election to change the rules.”

Philadelphia Forward crowed a little: "the public outcry has been intense. Philadelphia Forward and many other groups and individuals condemned the move and Council has wisely decided to retain the current campaign-finance rules and the sanity of a mayoral race conducted under one set of rules."

They aren't nearly as happy with Mayor Street's speech we mentioned earlier today. Read more after the jump...

We're catching up on all the reaction to the shelving of City Councilman James Kenney's bill. Kenney's action means that we won't change the rules of campaign finance in the middle of this mayor's race. And we won't allow unions and PACs to pour money into the race.

Among those reacting: Candidate Michael Nutter, who put out a statement today. As of the end of the year, Nutter had collected $1,393,435 in donations from a very broad base: more than 1,400 donors. (Dwight Evans collected his 1,218,324 from about 1,300 donors; the other candidates had fewer than 500 donors each.)

He's also been vocal against the Kenney bill. His online petition against the bill had collected more than 1,500 signatures.

Read below for other reaction to Kenney's decision to shelve his bill..

Here's a useful forum: The Philadelphia Federation of Young Republicans & the 5th Ward Republican Committee are having a forum featuring Al Taubenberger, the Republican running for mayor, and Republican Council candidates.

The 2007 Candidates' Night will be held Feb. 22, 2007 at 7 p.m. Finnegan's Wake.

The Next Mayor was the first to get to Mayor Street after his speech to the Chamber of Commerce and ask him for his thoughts on the job awaiting the next mayor. Apparently, several other reporters tried to get his thoughts on this subject during the media scrum outside of the ballroom and the Mayor chose to talk about other things. This may be the only place that you can get such a candid opinion from the mayor about the person who will follow him.

In case you don't have Quick Time so that you're unable to view the video on the main page, our good friends at YouTube make it easy for me to put the video here:

I'd say no one knows just how hard the job is more than the man who currently occupies the office. What do you think?

Milton Street just held an impromptu press conference in City Hall to announce that he's running for mayor in the Democratic primary.

According to Daily News City Hall bureau chief Mark McDonald, Street says he's motivated by a desire to fight the easy availablity of guns. He also said he believes candidate Dwight Evans should not run for mayor, but stay in Harrisburg to help support gun legislation.

As for the pesky matter of his recent federal indictment for tax fraud? He said he didn't know why that would be an issue, since, in his words, he hasn't done anything wrong. He pointed out that he hasn't been convicted of anything.

Reporters also asked him about the residency requirement to run for mayor. Street seems to live in New Jersey -- that's where reporters tracked him down on the day of that indictment. He didn't directly answer that question, saying instead something to the effect of, "I sleep where I sleep."

Apparently, it's video day on the blog!

I have to give credit to Dwight Evans for realizing the potential of the internet to reach voters in new and exciting ways. Below is a full video of his web chat from February 13th. Apparently, Google Video allows for much longer segments than Youtube but this same video is available in segments on Youtube. Make sure you turn your volume up and block off about 47 minutes if you want to watch the whole thing. When someone talks for 47 minutes, you're pretty much guaranteed that he's going to get past his "message points" and actually answers the question but I'll leave that for you to decide.

Lest we forget, Councilman Nutter also made himself available on video, though not as interactively as Evans, with his virtual press conference to unveil his housing plan.

Congressman Brady's website also features a number of moderately-produced (ie some photo moves on top of a one camera, one shot interview) "get to know him" videos. According to Brady a policy wonk is someone who will "wonk the policy." Interesting. These aren't as slick as Congressman Fattah's videos but, then again, no one is questioning how he paid for them.

YPP contributor Aardhart brought up a point that's been bugging me for a while:

I am dreading the prospect that the next mayor of Philadelphia will have 65% of the people vote against him in the primary.

If you think about it, it may be even worse. Assuming a similar number for turnout as we saw in 1999 (approximately 290,000 registered Dems), and a roughly even split that sees a winner with about 25% of the vote, that works out to about 72,500 votes. That's about 5% of the total population of the city. If you take out those under 18 (simply because the government has determined that they have no say) and assume that those who don't bother to register, don't deserve to have a say, we're still talking about 7% of registered voters determining the outcome. Even with more generous estimates of turn-out and the winner's share of the vote, we're still only talking about 10 to 15 percent of registered voters.

His post mentions two ideas, non-partisan elections and Instant Run-off voting, that could be used to ensure that the winner of the election is truly the choice of a majority of the people - or at least the eventual choice of a majority of the people. If anyone doubts that Instant Run-off Voting could work in a large city, check out this.

(edited to add:To make it clear, while I've been coming around on Instant Run-off Voting, I think that a non-partisan, everyone included, primary in May that would result in the top two facing off in November, would be best.)

After announcing his campaign: McDonald's at 10th and Market.

Photo by the Daily News' Jessica Griffin.

Dan P. just got out of tonight's candidate forum, presented by the Next Great City project -- the first time the five Democratic candidates for mayor have gathered on the same stage at one time during this campaign.

The forum was a smashing success, with a packed house at the Academy of Natural Sciences and several remote locations.

And we know how the five will act when put together: Well, they get a little testy.

Case in point: Tom Knox mentioned that he thought Chaka Fattah, Bob Brady and Dwight Evans should stay in their current jobs to better serve the city. Which would leave "a race between Michael and me."

So Michael Nutter asked Knox if Knox would lend him a little money, "but at a lower rate, please" -- an apparent reference to Knox's brief history of payday lending.

And those two weren't the only ones...there were moments of squabble through the night. Dan said it was a little like a 15-round fight, "or several 15-round fights happening at once" -- and that some of the participants looked a little tired by the end.

On the substance of the forum -- the event was to talk about the Next Great City's environmental agenda, after all -- Fattah didn't back off on his idea of a congestion tax, despite recent criticism. And when asked what three items on the 10-point agenda they supported most, they replied:

Nutter: Expanded recycling, zoning code reform, improve transit stops
Knox: Recycling and a better-planned riverfront (he didn't get to a third one)
Brady: Recycling, a better-planned riverfront and zoning code reform
Fattah: Said he'd do all 10, but when pressed by moderator Flavia Colgan he said tree planting was his top priority
Evans: Tree planting (and he mentioned his experience with this in West Oak Lane) recycling and zoning code reform.

And a couple of Brady moments to note: He gave 5 minutes of his time to Queena Bass, who promoted her campaign to bring the Love back to Philadelphia. Brady also got a couple of good laugh lines in, including when he thought he was either on the Septa board or the TWU board because he had sat through so many negotiations.

And the race rolls on...

Today, Michael Nutter released his environmental plan -- good timing, given the well-attended Next Great City forum.

This is comfortable ground for Nutter. One small example: His plan opens with a shout-out to Eli Price, who helped found the Fairmount Park Commission (and dramatically increased the city's size).

The big idea in Nutter's plan is to create a Sustainability Cabinet, run by a "Sustainability Coordinator" who would report to the mayor. This group also would be advised by a advisory group of experts. Included in the Sustainability Cabinet would be the Managing Director’s Office; the Departments of Commerce, Health, Water, Streets, Public Property, and Licenses and Inspections; the Housing Authority and housing and community development agencies; the Municipal Energy Office; the Capital Program Office; the City Planning Commission; the Redevelopment Authority; and PIDC.

The cabinet would be charged with developing a plan to save energy in city buildings, with a goal of $10 million in savings by the end of his first term. Half of that money would go back to the agencies and half would go to the Cabinet, to invest in other environmental programs.

He points out that the city already has a plan for energy savings: "Several strategies exist ... and are presented in the Sustainable Energy Management plan produced by Philadelphia’s Municipal Energy Office in 2004, but which were never implemented."

To help city agencies implement their own energy-saving ideas, he would develop a zero-interest, revolving loan fund that agencies can tap. "Many city managers already know how to save energy, reduce waste, or conserve resources, but there’s no money in their annual budgets to implement change, fund training, or to manage an innovative program," he says in the plan. He also suggests bonuses for managers who save energy.

Candidate Dwight Evans has praised the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce for seizing the one part of the violence issue that it can, and challenging the city's business community to create 1,000 paid summer interns for youth.

Also, Representative Evans points out that the House Judiciary Committee will hold its first statewide session on crime, violence, drugs and guns, and that the meeting will be in Philly: at the CORA Services Development Office, 8540 Verree Road, at 10 a.m.

Meanwhile, here's a new way to get your petition signatures: Nutter will collect his during a pub crawl, from a trolley of supporters, no less! (It's boarding at 6 p.m. at Broad and Chestnut.)

Happy Friday, everyone...

There's been plenty of requests for video from last night's forum and we're working hard to get that as soon as possible. In the meantime, you can download audio of the entire event from our server. Please note, this is raw, unedited audio from the feed itself so when things are tough to hear it's because someone's mic wasn't switched on fast enough or a microphone was too far down a lapel, etc. You should be able to get all of the important stuff.

Anyway... here it is:

Next Great City Forum Part 1 (62 minutes)

Next Great City Forum Part 2 (35 minutes)

In theory, if I did this right, you should be able to right click and do a "Save As" to download the entire file. You should then be able to put it on your iPo... sorry, don't want to get sued... generic .mp3 playing device and listen at your leisure.

(edited to add: The files are pretty big so depending on your connection speed and computer speed, it may take a while for them to start playing. So far, it's worked on every computer I've tried it on but it does take about a minute to load.)

If I did it wrong, I wouldn't be surprised at all.

It's not quite the same without the visual but I'd be interested to see how opinions of the candidates' performances differ depending on whether you saw the event or just heard it.

I'm hopeful that we'll have the video soon.

(Edited by Wendy)

We have now posted video of the Thursday night candidate forum, the first time all five candidates were on the same stage. The forum was hosted by the Next Great City project, an effort to inject environmental issues into the campaign; they also provided this video (thanks, guys).

Warning: it's long, almost 2 hours.

The link for the video is here in case you want to try put it on your own blog.

As I was diggging through all of the news from the last few days to update our News Archive, I came across this gem from The Philadelphia Public Record (or as one of my friends calls it "Philly Pravda"):

Awards were presented to John MacLean III of the Managing Director’s Office, Michael Dwyer of the Police Dept., and Donald Limongelli from the American Flag Museum.
...
Limongelli suggested all of the tires in City vehicles be filled with hydrogen rather than oxygen, to lessen air escape; and that a job be commissioned to a City worker strictly for the purpose of checking pressure in all of the tires. All of these proposals could potentially cut costs significantly, not to mention the increased safety measures.

First of all, the tires were filled with oxygen before? That can't be right. Second of all, now they're going to be filled with hydrogen?! And this increases safety?! Third of all, can you imagine what the dinner table conversation would be like for the unfortunate (though undoubtedly well-paid and having great benefits) city worker whose job it is just to check the pressure?

"Hi honey, how was your day?"
"Oooh boy, we almost lost one today. I found a tire that had the summer time suggested 36psi instead of the winter time rated 38psi."
"Wow, what did you do?"
"Got out my trust hydrogen pump and squeezed a couple more pounds in there. But could you imagine what would have happened if I didn't catch that?"
"Oh the horror! The horror!"

Ok... back to work.

As much as I'd love to make this blog a Milton-free zone, I feel like I must direct everyone to this hilarious radio story by WHYY's Susan Phillips. She was among several reporters who caught up with Milton Street at the McDonald's in Center City. I guess running for First District Judge of the Food Court would require too much street money.

Street, who has experience as a vendor and purveyor of fine, cheap foods, may have hit something with his idea of an all "transfat restaurant."

For the really funny (and hopefully ongoing) analysis of Mr. M. Street, I suggest you check out the Philadelphia Weekly blog, Philly Will Do, where blog editor Daniel McQuade has a whole section devoted to Milton's antics. For a slightly more controversial take of the whole thing (judging from the comments) click here.

(ETA: Is this what Milton meant when he said he would be "legally radical" on Good Day Philadelphia today? And, by the way, didja know Bob Brady, Dwight Evans and Tom Knox have been "wimpetized"? And can you believe him asking us to "look at his past"? Dave Davies of the Daily News did that recently; results are here.)

Mayoral candidate Milton Street has been arrested in New Jersey.

According to CBS 3:

Authorities said a Moorestown police officer recognized Street, shopping at the 7-11 store on Camden Avenue and Lenola Road, who had outstanding traffic warrants.

CBS reports that Milton is in jail and can't get out until Tuesday, because no one has posted bail.

ETA: More Milton coverage at:
Philly.com
Philadelphia Will Do
Philebrity
KYW 1060
Action News
NBC 10

Honestly, this is the best story in town.

PS: He's not going to insist he doesn't live in Jersey, is he?

Fattah has released his Opportunity Plan ... via Young Philly Politics.

This is a very interesting development -- the campaign not only uses YPP to release the document, but to stop and say a little bit about Fattah as well. It shows a real recognition of the role of the local blogs -- particularly YPP, which does a great job -- in this election.

Is it a Philly version of the recognition of online media shown by Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama in the Presidential race?

Dwight Evans has posted sneak peeks of his new television ads, which begin airing tomorrow. Scroll down for our take on them.

"Walked the Walk" focuses on his bona fides on crime-fighting, with lots of quotes from newspapers. Sort of your basic qualifications ad.

But "Table" is more interesting. In it, he talks about a safe community as a table that needs four strong legs: 1) A well-trained and visible police force 2) A efficient criminal justice system 3) High quality schools and 4) Parents and communities "teaching young people right from wrong."

What's interesting is not so much the content, but how much the content is an outgrowth of Evans' Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia. The Blueprint itself is not just a crime plan but a neighborhood development plan -- it both informed his work in Ogontz/West Oak Lane and was informed by it. And now he is very much relying on the Blueprint to create his campaign.

If you hang around Evans for a bit, you'll hear the "table" metaphor. I think it's his shorthand for the Blueprint and its ideas.

At lunch the other day, someone who follows the race closely asked if it were possible to identify the key themes of each candidate. Nutter's is his record as a reformist City Councilman; Knox's is the effort of a passionate outsider -- to offer two examples. Evans' is the Blueprint, and all that goes with it.

OK, this is REALLY silly, but we've already had Milton arrested today, so why not?

If you are looking for actual content on the mayor's race, please scroll down and read the posts on Evans' new ads and Fattah's opportunity agenda.

For those of you who like silly:

There's a little semi-friendly flap going on between Knox's camp and Nutter's camp. Seems Young Philly Politics contributors were going on and on about Nutter's performance at the Next Great City forum Thursday (watch it here if you missed it).

Nutter did seem to be lauded by the crowd, according to everyone who was there that I've talked to. In fact, his camp put out a press release afterward claiming to have won, though it wasn't a debate and I am not real sure what that means.

Anyway, in response to YPP, Knox's press secretary, the extremely Web-savvy (and funny) Susan Madrak, posted an amusing comment that began: "When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Michael Nutter. / Michael Nutter does not sleep. He waits. / Michael Nutter counted to infinity - twice."

And so on.

So, today, Nutter's press secretary, the also-has-a-sense-of-humor-and-will-use-it Melanie Johnson, issued a statement thanking Susie.

My goodness.

Over the weekend, NBC-10 released a new horse race poll:

The SurveyUSA poll, done exclusively for WCAU-TV, shows Chaka Fattah in the lead with 32 percent, followed by Tom Knox at 22 percent, Bob Brady at 18 percent, Dwight Evans at 10 percent and Michael Nutter at 8 percent.

Note that Brady gain, compared to the latest Keystone Poll. Fattah is strengthening his lead, as well.

The full report can be read on Steve Highsmith's blog.

Steve also had this to report on the blog:

I have asked most of the candidates for mayor what adjective or moniker would best describe their tenure as mayor. "If Ed Rendell was 'America's Mayor' and John Street was the 'Neighborhood Mayor,' what kind of mayor would you be?"

Bob Brady---------"I will be the mayor for the city of Philadelphia."

Dwight Evans-----"I will be the people's mayor."

Chaka Fattah-----"I want to focus on the citizens of our city and creating opportunities for Philadelphians, particularly those who are in the shadows of prosperity."

Michael Nutter----"I'm just gonna be Philadelphia's mayor."

Tom Knox----------"I'm gonna be Philadelphia's mayor. I'm gonna be mayor for the city of Philadelphia."

In case you were worried: Candidate Milton Street has been released from the pokey. KYW 1060 reports:

After he was released on Monday afternoon, Street told reporters that the traffic cases were from 1997, that he had gone to court on at least one of the cases but admitted that he apparently forgot to return for a subsequent court date.

He said he was now preparing to return immediately to Philadelphia to resume his campaign for mayor of Philadelphia.

And, by the way, KYW quotes police as saying Milton gave a Philadelphia address as his legal address.

Thank goodness. Now he can get back to calling people "wimpetized."

The Philadelphia Cross City Campaign for School Reform is taking the candidates back to school.

According to the press release from last week's event:

On Thursday afternoon, February 15th, students, parents, and community leaders filled a large conference room at the United Way Building to demand that the next mayor of Philadelphia take leadership in improving the city’s public schools. Sponsored by the advocacy and organizing groups of the Philadelphia Cross City Campaign for School Reform, the purpose of this press conference was to let the city and the mayoral candidates know that citizens care about the challenges facing their schools and to show them that citizens will hold the next mayor accountable for addressing these challenges.

The forum will take place the evening of April 12th at Rodeph Shalom (615 North Broad Street).

I think I'd put this idea in the "Bad Idea Jeans" category:

NUTTER TO ISSUE STATEMENT ON MILTON STREET

WHY: Mayoral Candidate Michael Nutter will issue a statement on the supposed candidacy of Milton Street.

It's about ten after noon, now. I hope someone goes to see this because I'd like to know what Nutter could possibly say about Milton that would be good for his own campaign.

A letter writer who goes by "Superdog" checked in a while back to respond to some things he learned a recent event featured on The Next Mayor. As part of their Public Conversation Series 2007, the Urban Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania has been hosting a number of forums titled - URBAN POVERTY & PROSPERITY:BUILDING AN AGENDA FOR PHILADELPHIA'S NEXT MAYOR.

On February 13 the topic was "Public Safety, Poverty, and the Justice System."

Take it away Superdog:

To: WHYY & Daily News & Next Mayor.com
RE: Linking economic growth and poverty

Dear U. Penn Urban Studies,

Thank you for inviting me to your class/ conference on Urban Poverty and Prosperity, yesterday February 13, 200 College Hall.

It is surprising to me that the link between diminishing poverty and economic growth and/or economic productivity growth is still not understood. The more poverty the less economic growth.

The notion that the human being is the smallest indivisible economic actor means that society’s general productivity also depends on the welfare of its parts. One cannot perform and be functional when one is hungry, sick, homeless or skill-less. The presence of anyone of these four variables prevents the actor to be productive. The consequence is that making sure that people are not under any of these four predicaments is one of the ways society can improve its overall productivity and economic growth.

Nutter's statement on Milton Street includes the following:

Philadelphia is a city full of fun and opportunity, a city of neighborhoods with people who appreciate a good joke. Milton Street is not a good joke, he is a bad joke ...

This campaign needs to be about the issues and not a sideshow with someone who does not even live in the state of Pennsylvania....

This campaign is not about one person getting themselves on television, it is about who is best qualified to reform the city and move Philadelphia forward. ...

It is absolutely incredible that a person who does not live in the city and who is currently fighting corruption charges would even think to present himself as a mayoral candidate. ...

And my favorite:

It sends the wrong message about Philadelphia. If Milton wants to run for mayor he should declare his candidacy in New Jersey, where he sometimes gets tired and lays his head down to sleep.

I do have to say, though Dan is right -- Milton is the third rail -- I certainly think if anyone is entitled to go after him it's Nutter. Milton called Bob Brady, Dwight Evans and a third candidate -- who has got to be Knox -- "wimpetized" on Fox the other morning, but saved a special kind of racial epithet for Nutter.

Read Nutter's whole statement here.

Dwight Evans released his agenda for gay Philadelphians today. Among his commitments, he wants to exempt same-sex couples from real estate transfer tax when one member of the couple deeds a home to his or her partner -- a tax exemption that married couples take for granted.

Also, he committed to:

*Supporting openly gay Philadelphians who are running for city offices, including running for judgeships. In fact, he announced his support today for Dan Anders, an openly gay candidate running for Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas.

*Requiring sensitivity training at the police academy and within the police department on issues for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people -- as well as recommending that the Philadelphia School District host similar training.

*Supporting a council ordinance to create the city real estate transfer tax exemption mentioned above. Men and women who are married, and parents and children, already get special tax treatment.

*Supporting state legislation that protects gay workers from on-the-job discrimination -- and asking City Council to prohibit the city from purchasing from companies that don't have explicit policies forbidding discrimination in the workplace.

A couple of his other goals were more general:

*Establishing a Mayor’s LGBT liaison and an active Mayor’s LGBT Advisory Board. He said he would "ensure" that the Mayor’s cabinet and senior management reflects the City’s diversity, though he didn't specify any goals for hiring. Ditto for spending in the city budget.

*Working with the Mazzoni Center, Manna, ActionAIDS, William Way Community Center, Legacy Fund and organizations "to effectively manage Philadelphia’s health care and social service funding and delivery" -- though he didn't give more specifics.

By the way, did you see this in the New York Times on Sunday?

That's not our LOVE statue, by the way -- it's the one near Broadway in New York, I am sure of it -- and I don't know if a gay couple could get away with kissing next to it in Philly or not.

I tried to ignore it. But here you go. From the Michael-Milty show today:

Milton Street promised to drop out of the mayoral race if he fails to draw a minimum of 5,000 supporters to a noon rally at City Hall on March 1, reports the Daily News reporter who was present.

“If they don’t show up, then I’m out,” Street said. “That’s the end of it. You don’t have to worry about me again. All right? OK?”

So, those of you who have expressed your point of view on Milton so clearly -- and hey, good for you -- make SURE you aren't at City Hall on March 1 at noon. Tell your friends.

And yes, Street has threatened to file a lawsuit against Moorestown police, claiming harrassment and political meddling.

Obviously. Can't a man just fail to pay his tickets without getting the fuzz involved?

Actually, I tried that once in Jersey, and the results were ug-ly.

The demands of website construction and video editing have kept me from being able to sink my teeth into the Fattah Opportunity Agenda but I did want to acknowledge the great discussion about it going on over at YPP.

There's some serious back-and-forth going on among supporters of various candidates. Some are also a little more skeptical than others of Fattah's plan to lease out the airport. One commenter also pointed out the entertainment value of the "Comments" to the original Inquirer story. I've long been a fan of the comments of Inquirer on-line users... some of the dumbest sequences of words this side of Milton Street.

Anyway, give the thread a read if you have about a half hour. If I have time later today, I'll try to put up some of my own thoughts.

(And if you're looking from some more classic reader feedback, along the same lines as Inquirer commenters, check out the Letters to the Editor in the Northeast Times. These people actually put their real names to their thoughts!)

When his brother was running for Mayor, where was Milton? According to this archived article from Philadelphia Magazine, nowhere to be found.

Funny how the roles have reversed, isn't it?

Special thanks to Philadelphia Magazine for putting this back on-line.

Just for you...here's the first sneak peek at Dwight Evans' environmental policy. He'll officially unveil it tonight.

I love what cartoonist Jay Bevenour does with Philly's political figures. Here's a clip from this week's "Hoagie Dip" in the Philadelphia Weekly:

One of the things I noticed from last week's Next Great City forum, aside from how often Bob Brady stared at the floor while talking, was how many times Michael Nutter had looks of absolute incredulity on his face when one of his opponents misspoke (or in Knox's case, spoke). Anyway, Bevenour captures the moment perfectly.

Almost every morning, I go through the headlines and try to figure out what to include in our headline archive. This gives me a great chance to sift through and try to put some narrative together for the day that gives a snapshot of the race at any given time.

Let's see what we have today:

If I'm Chaka Fattah's campaign, my first thought about this story is "Yikes" - not so much for the content of the story (I actually don't think more than 2% of voters would actually care what his attendance record was) but more for the headline:

Fattah's absence on votes ranks high

Let me clarify, I don't think 2% of voters would even read this story or if they did, most would forget about it. The only way they would care about it is if someone were to be able to boil the whole thing down into a 5 second image in a 30-second ad. The headline made that a whole lot easier for ad makers to do that. Expect that ad to come before or after the one that says "Fattah voted to raise taxes xx times" where xx are the times he's voted against Bush budgets that cut taxes. Yes, folks, in campaign world, voting against a tax decrease is the same as voting for an increase.

And inflammable means flammable. What a country!

Dwight Evans, meanwhile, thinks that yes, it is, in fact, easy bein' green. Or at least, it's easy to say a lot of things that would lead people to believe you are green. Without committing to an overhaul of the Fairmount Park Commission (using vaguaries like "more inclusive"), how green can you be? But at least we know he drinks lemonade.

Maybe after the Mayor's budget address, neither Evans nor Fattah will want the job.

Thank goodness somebody whose words actually get put into print has started banging this drum. You'll recall, I've already voiced my complaint about a system that essentially gets mayors elected by 10% of the population and City Council members elected by a crowded gathering at the McDonald's on Germantown Ave.

City Paper's Loose Canon (I get it now, "Canon" with 2 n's, ha!), weighs in with his opinion about who won last week's Next Great City Forum. Ok, I won't keep you in suspense. He thought it was Nutter.

I'm going to start a contest on this blog. Submit your guess about who the hell "The Insider" is. C'mon man, put your name to your work. You're not writing The Federalist.

Let's see, what else...

Bill Cosby's still at it.

And did you notice the three different headlines for the story about school district's scores on the Terra Nova tests?

Philly students' test scores continue to lag WHYY News (admittedly, I created this headline based on a line in the story)
Terra Nova scores up Daily News
Phila. schools' national scores hit plateau Inquirer

I guess it's a case of glass half-empty, glass half-full, glass juuuuust right.

To wrap it up, someone got a little dig in on our partners at the Committee of Seventy. In Seventy's defense, though, it's my understanding that the boards of non-profits are a matter of public record and can be requested by anyone.

If you came here from the front page, you already know about this, but if not:

Mayoral Candidates and Researchers to Examine Philadelphia’s Epidemic of Violence

The event will get under way at 6 p.m., in the Wolfington Teletorium, Mandeville Hall, 54th Street and City Avenue, on the Saint Joseph’s campus.

It should be a great contrast to hear a bunch of scholars and experts on crime fighting techniques talk about this issue with the level of sophistication that it deserves and then see which of the candidates can rise to that level.

I'll see you there. I hope to have video from the event on our Google Video site in the next couple days.

Apparently, Michael Bloomberg likes to slum it up with the rest of us cubicoids.

From the Governing.com blog:

For all the innovations that are spinning out of NYC under Mayor Mike Bloomberg, the idea that almost no other mayors are stealing is the easiest one to implement. That's the open-air office, the egalitarian "bullpen" that Bloomberg, whose spare cubicle is no fancier than any of his underlings', brought to City Hall from his media company.

If you want to be like Mike, nothing could be simpler than doing the bullpen thing. We're talking plaster work, not politics.

Talk about ending closed-door government!

This press release from the Nutter campaign just further solidifies what I think is Nutter's 5-word answer to what his campaign is about. In the release Nutter says:

For too long Mayor Street has allowed city government to become bloated and wasteful. Every department in this government has the ability to become more efficient and to cut costs.

"The Insider" in today's City Paper talked a little about what "message" is, calling it:

what voters take into the booth with them — their impressions of, likes and dislikes about, and reasons to vote for or against someone.

Here's my guess at the "message" that Nutter is hoping voters bring into the booth with them: Nutter is not John Street.

It remains to be seen (a)if that will be an effective message, especially if other candidates try to grab a piece of it and (b) if he'll be able to get that message out in an effective way (ie without just saying it).

If he's successful on both parts, which he could be considering that he's the only candidate running a campaign as if he were running against Street, then he may very well be be able to tap into the 58% who view Street as "unfavorable". That's a pretty big chunk of people.

WHYY visited the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce last week for the unveiling of a program designed to provide jobs and career training for Philadelphia's high school children. The video (compliments of youtube) is here:

I just got a call from an older woman who was trying to reach "Councilman Nutter's office." I explained to her that she had reached WHYY and she said that she was trying to get to Nutter because she read something in the paper today that she didn't like. Nutter wants to plant 50,000 trees she said!

She went on and on about how the trees cause litter and the city "don't have the money" to clean up after them and no one cleans them, etc. She was really pretty pissed off. You should have heard what she had to say about the "Orientals" and the Mexicans and littering. Though to be fair, she did say that "the whites" are just as bad.

Having worked on campaigns before I've taken many an irate call from people who disagree with one of my candidate's proposals. With a feeling of relief that comes from knowing that I was not the guy that would have to convince this woman, I passed along the Nutter campaign's number - after I realized that just telling her to "Google it" probably wouldn't work.

A few minutes later, my phone rang again. It was my friend from South Philly (whom I am picturing as the Cheri Oteri character from SNL that wouldn't give the kids their ball when it came into her yard). She had gotten it wrong. It was Evans's ("Councilman Evans," she said) number she needed.

Anyway, there's one less vote for Evans and probably one less for Nutter by association.

This gives me a chance to refer you back to one of my earliest, and favorite, blogposts.

Since we put the first one up and since the Evans campaign blog made me aware that there even is a Google Video, here's Evans's second webchat:

It'll be a while before I get the video from tonight's "crime symposium" captured, rendered and uploaded. If you weren't there, you didn't miss too much.

Here's the ten second version:

Brady didn't show up (put that in the scorecard) sending a state representative in his place. Knox said some things about waste and patronage. Fattah wants to lift people out of poverty. Evans said it was a question of leadership. Nutter said that too many cops are behind desks and not enough in the streets.

Oh, yeah, and the state rep who "spoke" for Brady hit a button that brought the movie screen on the stage down in front of the four candidates sitting on the stage. Yet somehow we keep electing these people.

Anyway, you'll see it on the video.

Just in time for tonight's big forum on crime...Tom Knox has issued his crime plan.

It can be read here.

Among his proposals: He repeats his call for 1,000 additional cops (by the way, recruiting them will be a challenge -- did you see Mark McDonald's story in the Daily News about the possible need to remove the residency requirement to hire additional officers?); he wants to create a Mayor’s Office of Public Safety (probably not a bad idea); and continue the fight for stronger gun laws (good luck with that).

He brings up the idea of a 311 tipline again -- and he has a plan to reduce recidivism by 25 percent and plow the savings into other programs, including the Community College of Philadelphia. (Which is an excellent idea.)

He dwells on the drug fight, which we all know is personal for him. He wants to close drug houses, expand treatment court (which serves drug-addicted criminals) and create a citywide strategy for fighting drugs. You know, I suspect that message may resonate in our community, where so many people have the same kind of familial experience with drug addiction that Knox has had.

As usual, there are places that need more specifics -- I hope to hear more about what Knox sees as the city's role in the schools, though perhaps his crime plan isn't the place for that.

However, I want to give Knox some props for explicitly detailing the cost and funding of his proposals in his plan. Check that out -- that's the kind of specifics that voters need to hear.

I'm heading off to learn a little about Real Estate Taxation in Philadelphia. Talk amongst yourselves for a while.

Nutter has started robo-calling, our spies report...the calls detail why he wants to be mayor...anyone heard it in its entirety?

As Dan said, we'll be adding video of last night's crime forum as soon as it gets edited. But I thought I would elaborate on the moment Dan mentioned in his post...

Brady, as you know by now, did not attend. In his stead, he sent State Rep. Louise Williams Bishop, who was given a few moments of time to speak to the crowd gathered in the extremely high-tech Wolfington Teletorium (what a name) at St. Joseph's University.

It really is extremely high-tech, reports our spies, and so it wasn't really that surprising that Bishop accidentally pushed a button at one point that activated a large screen.

The screen began slowly to descend from the ceiling. It became obvious that the screen was the perfect size and shape to fall right in front of all the other candidates, obscuring them. Slowly it continued its descent, until finally Michael Nutter acknowledged the humor of the situation...

"Bye!" he waved.

I love the mayor's race. What a story.

One of the most eye-opening parts of last night's forum on crime was when the candidates were asked what they would do if the city suddenly found itself with $50 million dollars to spend fighting crime.

Also present that night was Susan Badeau, executive director of the Philadelphia Children's Commission (which is one of the groups that have partnered with The Next Mayor as part of our Next Mayor Community Network).

That question struck a real chord in her.

She wrote us to express how she felt $50 million in found money should be used. Read her response after the jump.

(ETA the Chestnut Hill forum.)

Today, The Next Mayor project is beginning a regular preview of the coming week's most interesting events in the Mayor's race. We're calling it "Seven Days in the Mayor's Race."

Here's the good stuff for next week. And don't forget -- we'd love to add your event. Just e-mail us.

WEEK OF MONDAY, FEB. 26:

Monday, Feb. 26 – 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon (Central High School, 1700 W Olney Ave) FREE
Five mayoral candidates in the Philadelphia mayoral election - Democrats Bob Brady, Chaka Fattah, Tom Knox, and Michael Nutter and Republican Al Taubenberger - will take part in a question and answer forum at Central High School. Among other issues, the city's mayoral hopefuls are debating what they can do to deal with two imporant issues for the future of Philadelphia: crime and education.

Monday, Feb. 26 – 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. (United Cerebral Palsy Community Room, 102 E. Mermaid Lane) FREE
Chestnut Hill Community Association will host a candidates' forum; all five Democratic candidates have said they will be present.

Monday, Feb. 26 – 3:30 p.m. (The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street) FREE
Penn’s Urban Studies Program will host its sixth annual series of Public Conversations titled Urban Poverty and Prosperity: Building an Agenda for Philadelphia’s Next Mayor. This discussion will examine welfare reform with panelists John Dodds, Director, Philadelphia Unemployment Project; Jean Hunt, Director, Campaign for Working Families, Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition; Roberta Iversen, Penn School of Social Policy and Practice; Melonease Shaw, Chair, Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation. The discussion will be moderated by Mark Stern, Co-Director, Penn Urban Studies. www.sas.upenn.edu

Thursday, March 1 - 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. (216 W. Somerset Street) FREE
The Next Mayor project and Congreso de Latinos Unidos have partnered to host a community event to encourage members of Philadelphia’s Latino community to learn more about the upcoming elections. The event will feature stations where attendees can register to vote; learn more about the candidates; discuss voter’s rights specific to the Latino community; practice using a voter booth; fill out surveys that will serve as the issues platform for Congreso’s April 5 Mayoral Forum; and sit for videotaped interviews that will be broadcast on TheNextMayor.com. For more, click here.

Friday, March 2 - 1:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. (Large Auditorium of the Bonnell Building, 17th Street between Spring Garden and Callowhill streets) FREE
As part of its Law & Society Week, Community College of Philadelphia will host a mayoral candidate forum. All Democratic candidates except Bob Brady have confirmed their attendance. Zachary Stalberg, president and CEO of the Committee of Seventy, and Nia Ngina Meeks, a freelance writer and political analyst, will moderate the forum, which is co-sponsored by the College's Center for Law and Society and the College's Phi Theta Kappa, Rho Upsilon Chapter.

If the Anti-Defamation League, Asian Americans United, Committee of Seventy, Congreso de Latinos Unidos, League of Women Voters of Philadelphia and the Urban League of Philadelphia, Inc. had one wish, this campaign season, what would it be?

And in case you're not remembering the reference, check out this interpretation of a classic moment from SNL.

Good Night everybody!

Snow or no snow...there's plenty of news in the race coming this week!

First, a few catch-ups: 1) Don't miss the call for a non-race-based election that Dan wrote up Friday. Obviously, yay. Though I wonder how such an effort is changed by the fact that this race features have three highly qualified African-American candidates and two highly qualified white candidates -- contenders all. Does the fact that really, each of these guys have some level of claim to the office (we're still ignoring you, Milton) change the usual racial campaign effort a bit?

2) Did you see Robert Nix's column in Al Dia comparing the Democrats in Philadelphia to the PRI in Mexico?

Now, as to next week:

1) Chaka Fattah will release his technology agenda on Monday at noon. We'll bring it to you when we get it.

2) There are a number of public forums coming up. They're on our calendar...and in this handy blog post.

The results of a survey of young Philadelphians -- a survey we asked you to fill out, and thanks for doing so -- are in. And you know what's really cool about it?

First, crime continues to be the number-one issue to voters in this race. I am reassured that the importance of this issue is not missed by anyone in this race. Let's be frank: Most of the murders and shootings of last year were probably not in neighborhoods where the survey respondents live (103 live in South Philly, 91 in Center City, and 476 people took it). However, these respondents see crime as a citywide issue. In fact, said the survey's sponsors, crime ranked in the top 5 of responses in every neighborhood.

But you know what's really cool? The number-two issue was public transportation.

Good for them. In the words of one respondent, a 26-year-old woman from Southwest Philadelphia, "Improving the mass transit and making it more affordable will improve so many of the other options listed on this survey - give people a chance to get to work, to work at all, kids get to school ... and the city has nowhere to go but up."

This survey was conducted by Young America PAC, Young Involved Philadelphia and the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce's Young Professional Network with support from the Committee of Seventy.

Those groups are now working on forums around these issues. We will keep you posted as they are announced.

You may know of Metro Philadelphia has that free paper that you can get at just about any transit stop in the region, but what you may not know is that they're doing some great work on covering the day-to-day activities of the candidates for mayor.

Check out their blog (Fight for Room 215) for some good up-to-the-minute reporting.

Today's paper asks the candidates about crime, then asks some experts whether the mayor can really do anything.

Sorry to be late in updating, folks -- I have been obsessed with a project that just this minute wrapped up.

But there's some stuff to talk about. Here's the first: Lynn Abraham has endorsed Bob Brady.

Reports the Daily News' Dave Davies:

Saying the next mayor must provide relief from “the bloody, bloody Philadelphia that we have today,” Abraham yesterday said Brady has the ideas and experience that would make him an effective leader in the fight against crime.

Abraham, who has sharply criticized Mayor Street in recent weeks, said the next mayor shouldn’t “be accepting excuses, running from one failed experiment at suppressing crime to another.”

She was asked if this endorsement was payback for all the times that Brady, as city Democratic party chairman. And she said: “Nothing I have ever done is for sale for anybody at any price ... I don’t believe in political paybacks.”

Dave also reported:

State Rep. Dwight Evans, a rival candidate for mayor, issued a statement yesterday saying he was disappointed that Abraham had chosen “to support the old political machine and empty rhetoric Philadelphians have grown weary of.”

Michael Nutter released his emergency management plan. Hey, amazing timing, what with KYW 1060 picking up the story (which was in US News and World Report some time ago) about that book that says if terrorists bombed the Sunoco refinery during a Phillies/Mets game, it would cause a toxic plume to drift over the stadium, killing the entire staff of The Next Mayor. As well as many others.

As a colleague of mine at the Daily News points out, the author of the scary book didn't write up a Phillies/Diamondbacks showdown on a Wednesday night or something. He picked a Mets game. On Friday night. With 40,000 fans in the house.

Anyway, in Nutter's detailed plan -- and I found thinking about these things surprisingly unsettling, I wonder if he did? -- he addresses the Sunoco-nightmare scenerio.

In still more Mayoral news...Chaka Fattah released his technology plan; it's here. The plan ranges from small to large ideas, and includes a good section on supporting technology businesses. But it does not have the specificity of funding sources that we've just seen in Nutter's emergency management plan or Knox's crime plan.

Among his proposals:

He wants to bring public access TV to Philadelphia, and it's about time.

The idea that we don't have true public access TV in this, the strangest city I've ever seen, is just so wrong.

In a broader claim, he wants to modernize every classroom for grades six through twelve, with interactive digital Smart Boards (makes sense; it will be expensive but maybe we can find a sponsor?) wireless Internet connections (OK, that's smart and cheap) and ... laptops for every child.

Whoa!

Today, the Daily News published a special report on the links between job creation and successful anti-violence efforts.

The stats in the section alone are startling:

*40 percent — almost half — of people in Philadelphia older than 15 were out of work and not collecting unemployment, census data shows.

*Each year, more than 8,200 city public school students drop out -- enough people to pack the Palestra. Over their lifetimes they miss out on more than $2 billion in income.

*One estimate (that of former Councilman Ed Schwartz, to be exact) says that more than 40 percent of the city budget, or $1.3 billion, is spent responding to crime.

But the point of the section is to say that connecting even some of the disconnected, out-of-work youth in our city to real jobs could help lower crime rates.

It's pretty clearly directed at the business community, which seems to be responsive. They recently launched a call for local employers to create 1,000 paid internships for youth.

So we're not talking about the big issues that obviously have to change to build a region that gets its young people to work -- tax reform or school reform, for example. We're talking about the on-the-ground programs now getting some kids connected to better lives.

It's important to note that the current mayor seems to get this. He's been holding jobs fairs -- out of the Safer Streets initiative. He also created a new Mayor's Office for the Re-entry of Ex-offenders.

But there is so much more we could do. And the Would-be Mayors are starting to discuss this: Evans discusses jobs as one of the key points of the "Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia" that underlays his crime and education plans. Fattah has supported career-training programs like those mentioned in the section. Nutter discusses "real alternatives" to crime in his "Safety Now" plan. Knox discusses "new job training and education programs" in his anti-crime plan. Brady called for "city smart enough to guarantee economic opportunity" in his kickoff speech.

It seems that an effort that united the next mayor with the business community toward this goal would be a powerful one.

Read the special report in our Jobs section -- and please share your thoughts here.

This morning when I read the Inquirer and Daily News coverage of yesterday's student forum at Central High, I got two different answers to the most important question of this campaign. Pat's or Geno's?

In the original Daily News story, I saw:

Pat's or Geno's? Brady and Taubenberger said Pat's; the others, Geno's.

The Inquirer, meanwhile, said:

The cheesesteak question brought a 3-2 split, with Taubenberger and Brady choosing Geno's - the shop that made national news last year over a sign telling customers to order in English.

Fortunately, the Daily News posted a correction, which I will correct in our archived version of the story:

A story in Tuesday's paper misstated the cheesesteak preferences of the mayoral candidates. Chaka Fattah, Tom Knox and Michael Nutter all favor Pat's while Al Taubenberger and Bob Brady prefer Geno's.

Personally, I haven't had a cheesesteak since I turned 30 but if pressed, I'd have to go with Geno's.*

* A story in this blogpost misstated the cheesesteak preferences of the blogger. In his cheesesteak eating days he preferred Pat's to Geno's saying, "you gotta chop the steak!" However, he also thinks neither of them could compete with D'Alessandro's or Bruno's or Jim's. Now he prefers the vegan cheesesteak at Gianna's.

(edited to add)
I'm also confused about their all important position on the placement of the Rocky statue. The Inquirer says:

As for Rocky, all but Fattah said the statue belonged at the "top of the steps" of the Art Museum, instead of off to one side, where it is now.

The WHYY story from this morning ended with:

All candidates agreed the Rocky statue should be on the top of the Art Museum Steps.

AHH! Which is it?!

Sorry this took so long, but if you missed yesterday's forum at Central High School (written about here and here and reported on the radio here), The Next Mayor has made audio from the entire event available.

You can click on the following links to open them up in your browser or right click on them and choose "Save As" to download each as an .mp3 file. From there it's just a simple matter of putting it on your mp3 player and listening to it when you're out on your morning jog or riding the train home from work.

Each segment is about a half hour long and about 35MB so give it some time to download if you have a slow connection. Here they are:

Part 1

Part 2

I heard that PCN was there to tape the event so we'll see if we can get some video from them that can be uploaded to Google Video.

For those of you who need the straight dish on the Pat's or Geno's controversy, that's about 12 minutes into Part 2.

It's time to take a quick glance at today's headlines and the press release archive.

Bob Brady picks up the Law and Order endorsement, getting the District Attorney on Monday and the FOP last night. I couldn't be there but I imagine that it went something like this:

Narrator: In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime and endorse Bob Brady; and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders and endorse Bob Brady. These are their stories. Boom Boom.

Word on the street is that Fattah, who is all about futuristic crime-fighting technology, and Evans, championing the return of Miami-Dade chief John Timoney, are going to split the CSI and CSI: Miami endorsements. Nutter, likely the smartest but least-watched candidate, will get the nod from NOVA.

Speaking of Nutter, for those of you who want to avoid a certain rally tomorrow, you can go instead to Welcome Plaza to hear Nutter talk about zoning reform. I'm sure they'll mention something about the city plan laid out by William Penn, a plan which you'll be standing on. Attendees will be offered a complimentary wake-up call at the end of the event. But seriously, this is important stuff.

Philadelphia Weekly has a Fattah lovefest for its cover story today. I guess we have this week's trivia question. Which candidate was formerly known as "Arthur Davenport?" The Congressman has also sent out a letter to his opponents calling for four debates.

The Daily News got some reaction from the candidates to a bill that would provide cost of living increases to pensioners in the city worker pension system. If you're keeping score, all of the campaigns answered this question except for Congressman Fattah, who apparently doesn't have access to a phone when he's in DC. Three of the candidates tread lightly since it seems that about 90% of the city's population is either a city worker or a retired city worker. Evans and Nutter are apparently looking out for the other 10% whose taxes pay for these pensions. (editor's note: these percentages can't be verified) This is not the last time this issue will be brought up.

Finally, an op-ed writer for the Inquirer exhorts the candidates to consider the only R-word that invokes more vitriol around here than "Republican" - "Regionalism."

Regionalism was a big topic at the "State of the City" event conducted by the Center City Proprietor's Association and co-sponsored by the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia (formerly the Pennsylvania Economy League). I have video of the event which I'll get up in the next few days. We can use that video to keep "regionalism," the very first topic we talked about on the Next Mayor, fresh in our minds.

(ETA: Hey, does anyone remember when Michael Nutter suggested that we organize weekly debates -- to expand the chances to see the candidates and hear their positions? -- Wendy)

Hearkening back to a more civil time when Jefferson and Adams debated their disputes via the mail, Dwight Evans responded to Chaka Fattah's debate challenge with the following letter:

Thank you for your February 28th letter proposing a limit of four debates as we pursue the Democratic nomination for Mayor. I agree with your premise that we owe it to our citizens to provide the most informed, substantive and detailed dialogue and conversation about how to solve the challenges facing us. I do not agree, however, that we should limit ourselves to just the four debates you listed.

In the spirit of democracy and civic engagement that I trust you share, I hope that you will join me in as many debates, forums, and exchanges as possible. Thank you again for your letter, and I look forward to your response.

We'll be keeping an eye on where this goes...

This morning, I attended a breakfast hosted by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce on the Daily News' Rethinking Philadelphia report, "Philly has work to do." And I promised you an update.

The point of the section was to make the case that job creation must be a central tenet of any crime-fighting strategy and to suggest ways that the business community could get started. (We've archived it on our Jobs page -- please read it.)

It was quite a morning. The Millennium Ballroom at the Lowe's was packed with people, and the room was a mix of people who work on the streets of Philadelphia, with our kids -- as well as business leaders. I am not sure I've ever heard the two groups talk so frankly before.

A heartrending high point came from a Cheney University executive, who told the group that she loses one or two young men at Cheney to Philadelphia violence every year. As she began to cry, she said she was tired of having memorials instead of graduations for these young, once-promising victims.

The mixing of these two groups was not automatic or easy. Among the community leaders (and I apologize in advance for leaving out many who I am sure were there) I saw Bilal Qayyum of Men United for a Better Philadelphia, many people from the workforce development world (including the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board and the Philadelphia Youth Network) as well as many professionals who straddle the worlds of the boardroom and the neighborhoods, including John Childress of the African-American Chamber of Commerce and panelist David Brown, who runs BrownPartners ad agency as well as being a religious leader, volunteer and relentless advocate for city kids. This group wanted to get the business community to listen to their plea for help, for safer streets and more opportunity. They were desperate, and who can blame them? New York is six times the size of our city, and yet Philadelphia has more murders. Not per capita. In total.

The business community was there in force, with impressive turnouts from Lockheed Martin, PECO, the legal community, Commerce Bank and others. But some of them had questions. Were they being asked to create jobs for kids who would rather be up to no good on street corners? Would they have to shoulder the entire city's problems because educational and criminal justice programs were clearly not curbing the violence?

And yet, both groups stayed, and the groups listened to each other. It was remarkable.

A young man on the panel explained how a Lockheed Martin internship changed his life. He wasn't a troubled kid by any means -- he was just a kid at William Penn High School, with probably not a lot of options beyond struggling out of high school and into Community College. Instead, Lockheed picked him for an apprenticeship, trained him, gave his experience, and hired him after graduation. Now he has an excellent, easily transferable job -- and he's at Community College, too.

That, it turned out, is the point: There are lots of kids like him in city schools. They aren't bad, and they aren't standouts. Similar kids in more privileged circumstances have some, if limited, options. But kids in struggling city schools have fewer options. They may need a break. The goal of the Chamber's call for internships is to give it to them.

I have to give a lot of credit to the Chamber of Commerce for leading the way on this effort. Led by Chairman Joe Frick (of Independence Blue Cross) and former Governor Mark Schweiker (the chamber's CEO) they did not back down from the challenge from anti-violence activists and they did not lapse into pessimism. They presented the 1,000 internship goal as a start, something that the city can do to begin the process of uniting workforce development and violence prevention.

I certainly hope this effort is successful, grows and continues the conversation.

Ok, folks. He may live in New Jersey. He may have a couple of legal issues to straighten out. But Milton Street also ...

HAS A CAMPAIGN WEBSITE. And letterhead!

That would be www.tmiltonstreet2007.com. Oh, and from the site:

"The T stands for Tough, Tough on violence, homelessness and unemployment."

You gotta read the site. I can't stop quoting from it. From his mission statement:

"Don’t be deceived by this distortion of facts. I am and always have been serious about the problems that plague Philadelphians. While my solutions are legally radical and my personality is charismatic, my intentions are honorable and my heart is pure towards the City that I love and have served for many years."

And more...

"I fear no man. I do what is in the best interest of the people at any cost. I have done so in the past at great personal cost to myself and to my political career. ... I am not afraid to be ostracized by the political machine or scorned by the media."

And this, in the contact section:

"If you would like to contact Mr. T.Milton Street to discuss his views or to join his effort to help Philadelphia, please send your email to: info@tmiltonstreet2007.com

However, please forward all communication regarding any business or legal matter involving Mr. T. Milton Street to our attorneys..."

For real.

Please remember that Street has said he would drop out of this race if he fails to get 5,000 people to his rally scheduled for today.

Also, he's now billing this as a stop-the-violence rally. Check out his first press release.