From the American Jewish Committee forum (The Next Mayor)

As the race grinds into an exhausting high gear, with yet another forum every night, we're going to give each of the candidates one chance to lose it slightly.

I think Dwight Evans might have exercised his last night.

During a “lightning round," the candidates were asked how they'd communicate with the public if elected mayor. And, according to Daily News reporter Catherine Lucey, Evans responded:

“Jennifer Hudson,” said State Rep. Dwight Evans. “I was watching her on the Oscars last week. Unfortunately, she didn’t win “American Idol,’ but she won something greater than that.”

Catherine reports that the audience politely gazed at Evans, who continued:

“I announced my economic development plan today and I said I wanted to make Philadelphia ‘the Hollywood of the East’ for people who dream.” He had more.

“Faheem Thomas Childs will never get to be Jennifer Hudson,” Evans said, referring to the 10-year-old shot in his North Philadelphia schoolyard in 2004. “He was going to school. He was shot in the head. He will never get to be a Jennifer Hudson.”

Eventually, Evans wrapped up by saying: “You should Google our records. You should Google our records, look at our records, not what we say.”

(Actually, you don't need Google, just check out his candidate page on The Next Mayor for a run-down of all proposals he's issued.)

Other than that, it was pretty much as usual, with the candidates repeating their established positions...

FYI, earlier tonight Evans picked up the backing of the Black Clergy. Reports the Daily News' Dave Davies:

“The Black clergy will be a part of the Evans administration,” a grateful Evans told a crowd of about 50 ministers who gathered with him for the organization’s official announcement last night in West Philadelphia.

Black Clergy President Rev. James C. Moore Sr., the group’s president, said the organization represents over 450 pastors and ministers whose congregations include more than 300,000 members.

The organization is not a tax-exempt organization, Moore said, so it is legally able to endorse Evans and lend him political support.

Remember that in 1999 this same group backed John Street and actually urged Evans to withdraw from the race.

Asked about that history last night, Moore told Dave, “I’ve learned that in politics there are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies.”

Comments (2)

Dave

With all due respect, the candidates' proposals aren't the same as their records. I'm not sure that The Next Mayor has a rundown of the candidates' records anywhere.

Posted by Dave | March 7, 2007 10:05 AM

I'm going to have to go with "they complement each other." A candidate probably doesn't deserve to get elected unles s/he has some ideas but, at the same time, a record can show you how sincere a candidate is about implementing their ideas if elected. All the candidates probably do have records that "qualify" them to be mayor. However, I think that if you look at certain specific areas of their records, some of the candidates can pretty easily be disqualified, depending on what criteria you're basing your judgements on. Ethics and government reform is one such area, in my opinion. Just take campaign finance, for instance: I hear Fattah's lawyer was just arguing against campaign finance limits earlier today. I also seem to remember Evans initially being opposed to them, before changing his mind and following them. There's other stuff I could also bring up.

Posted by Dave | March 7, 2007 7:50 PM

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