The Next Mayor

The Daily News presents an interesting scenerio (hinted at in an earlier post) today: How about Tom Knox and Jannie Blackwell teaming up?

The logic is as follows: Blackwell wants to be City Council president; Knox wants to be mayor. Blackwell brings Knox votes in West Philly, Knox brings Blackwell support for her attempt at the job now held by Anna Verna.

Mark McDonald and Dave Davies report:

Tomorrow, Blackwell, 61, a four-term councilwoman, says she will make her endorsement for mayor. In the last few weeks, she said her choice had narrowed to Knox and Congressman Chaka Fattah. Yesterday, she wasn’t hiding her warm feelings for Knox.

Blackwell is leader of the 46th Ward in West Philadelphia and when Knox showed up last week, she introduced him as her “friend” and said that he’d do a good job as mayor.

“Tom Knox came forward and said he was supporting me and he thought I’d be good, that I cared about people and am honest and that I’d be a good leader in Council and that he was supporting me as president,” Blackwell said later.

This is not a done deal -- and Knox's people say they have not talked to Blackwell about the Council presidency, and Knox himself says this isn't political dealmaking.

Again, from the story:

Josh Morrow, Knox's campaign manager said that Knox spoke in Blackwell’s favor at the ward meeting without a specific political quid pro quo in mind.

But, said Blackwell:

“What I’m looking for is a partnership,” she said. “I’ve been here long enough to have an opinion on what is needed. I’m interested in someone with forward-thinking ideas and an openness and willingness to form a partnership to deal with the problems.”

If it happens, what does this mean for Knox's "outsider" claim?

We seem to have emerged from the blog blackout that we had about an hour ago. I wasn't able to start an open thread for folks to comment on Congressman Brady's performance on Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane.

If you heard it, feel free to comment. If you missed it, you can listen to the podcast and let us know what you think.

And please, we've already gotten plenty of posts that unfairly challenge everything from the Congressman's literacy (for the record, he reads very well) to his diction (some folks probably didn't like JFK's Boston patois). Please keep the discussion to the more substantive issues that were discussed by Congressman Brady and Marty.

So, we've all written about the so-called "527" ads attacking Tom Knox, playing our role to spread the message for free.

And we know that the group called Working People for Truth has paid for air time to broadcast the message.

Here's my question: Have you seen the ads?

Please note: I am NOT talking about the Brady campaign's attack ad, which is labelled that it is paid for by the campaign (and ends with a big "FAKE" stamped across Tom Knox's mug shot.)

I am talking about two other ads, one called "Record" and one called "Service." I haven't seen the ads (and they aren't on the Internet anywhere that I can find, which doesn't surprise me.)

I've posted the scripts behind the cut so you can check them out.

But the question is, have you seen them?

Michael Nutter announced today that he has raised $3.4 million dollars for his campaign. That's to date, since he announced his candidacy.

Still, that's a lot of money.

And some of it has been coming in lately: $325,000 was contributed in the last four days alone.

We'll see fund-raising disclosures by the other candidates this week -- the deadline to report is Friday -- but by releasing this news early Nutter is clearly trying to underscore the idea that he's peaking in prime time.

A recent poll -- and the ad starring his daughter, Olivia -- may be erasing any fears out there that a vote for Nutter is a vote lost, which is something that more than a couple of people had expressed to me in the weeks before his momentum seemed to turn.

It's not on their website yet, nor is it on NBC 10's site (or if it is, it's as hidden as the rest of their political reporting), but SurveyUSA has released it's latest poll. Josh at FFR215 has all of the numbers so I'll let you click over to him to check that out (and one of our commenters posted them too if you care to find it) but I'll just say that it appears folks are coming around on this Nutter guy.

I continue to express reservations about the accuracy of the SurveyUSA poll due to the recorded-voice, push-button-answering method of the poll. But I guess if you just stick to comparing numbers across time for the same poll instead of across different polls, you can get some idea of how support for a candidate is moving. Polls are just a snapshot, though, and it remains to be seen what the picture will look like in two weeks from today.

For those of you who with access to Comcast's Video OnDemand service, there's yet another way to get some information about the candidates, straight from the horses' mouths as it were.

"Candidates On Demand" is available in the "Get Local" section of the VOD service.

Notice, WHYY also has a button in the "Get Local" section which can take you to all of the video content that we've been doing for The Next Mayor Project.

Union sources tell us U.S. Rep. Bob Brady will get the endorsement of several member locals of the city’s blue collar union tomorrow -- though the umbrella organization, AFSCME District Council 33, will remain neutral.

The sources said president Pete Matthews decided District Council 33 would endorse no one in the Democratic primary, even though Brady was the overwhelming favorite in a straw vote of union delegates last month.

Matthews is close to State Rep. Dwight Evans, sources said, but many members were uncomfortable with his willingness to consider changes in the city’s employee pension system.

Matthews decided to allow the 13 member locals to make their own choices, and many, including local 427 representing sanitation workers, will go with Brady.

One source said the unions endorsing Brady represent about 6,000 of the roughly 10,000 workers represented by District Council, the largest city employee union.

Brady has already been endorsed by the police and fire unions. U.S. Rep. Chaka won the nod of AFSCME District Council 47, 3,500 member white collar union.

Remember Ken Smukler, the Brady aide who had to resign very quickly last week after it was disclosed that he worked for Brady's mayoral campaign, in violation of the city campaign-finance ordinance?

A fact that came to light when it was revealed he met with a local PR operative to stir up "independent" attack ads against Tom Knox?

He is trying a new approach.

He's created his own attack ad, bought one spot on Channel 6's 6 p.m. newscast -- and posted it on YouTube. (He also made sure the city's reporters knew it was there.) His hope is that the community will love this ad so much that they will donate to a 527 to keep it on the air.

The ad targets Knox's background in payday lending, his contract with the Convention Center (misidentified in the ad as a "city" contract) and his Maryland HMO. You can see the ad here, or read the script below the jump.

Now, I am not boosting Knox here. And I sure don't have a problem with other candidates challenging his record or his claims, aggressively, in advertising. Good for Bob Brady for putting his money, and his name, to his attack ad.

But I began to suspect something was up when I realized that precious few of us have actually seen the 527 ads that everyone has heard about. Perhaps they've been written about, talked about -- but not really aired that much?

And now -- an attack ad by disgraced staffer Smukler -- which was carefully leaked to the media (with an embargo of exactly 6:30 p.m.) so we can all carry, at no cost to Smukler, the story of his one-man campaign?

And that ad sitting on the Internet with a virtual collection box in front of it?

I'll just quote this Knox release verbatim. I think it's pretty clear.

PHILADELPHIA – Tomorrow morning, Democratic mayoral candidate Tom Knox will announce his recommended ballot for Philadelphia City Council. All candidates supported by Knox are committed to putting an end to pay-to-play politics in Philadelphia.

Invited to attend:

Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell

Councilman Juan Ramos

Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown

Vern Anastasio

Cindy Bass

Bill Green

Cecil Hankins

Matt McClure

Matt Ruben

Sharif Street

There will be some relatively big endorsement announcements today, from elected leaders backing Dwight Evans, to Jannie Blackwell endorsing Knox and Knox endorsing City Council candidates, to an oddity: most of the locals that make up the powerful city blue-collar union group District Council 33 will go for Bob Brady, but DC33 itself will not endorse.

So that led me to compile a list -- no doubt I have missed something, so just comment if I have -- of endorsements to date in the race.

There are some large groups here. I know that the police (endorsing Brady), fire fighters (Brady) and Pentecostal Clergy Political Action Committee (Fattah, and it represents more than 50 churches with 25,000 members) will be able to get their vote out on Election Day. But some of the other groups...which are smaller, and have members that live outside the city and can't vote...

What role do those endorsements play?

And what role do pols who endorse other pols play, except to let voters see the dealmaking before we have to go to the polls? (We appreciate that, by the way.)

Please discuss.

Marcia Gelbart has an story in today's Inquirer that repeats a familiar refrain of the politically connected in this election: This election is kinda, well, boring.

He focuses, among other things, on a lack of political posters and buttons this time around.

"I don't think I have any political buttons. You have any buttons?" he asked. Handed a small orange one with a picture of the Liberty Bell, from U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah's campaign, Street said it was the first Fattah button he had seen.

I've heard variations of this comment before -- that this election is "boring," "quiet," that the candidates haven't inspired enough heat.

I wonder what it really means?

I know I am too close to it, but even when I step back I find that comment a little suspect. It may be that in some ways this election is "boring" -- if by "boring" you mean that there is a lack of blood in the water. At this point in the traditional Philadelphia election, we're supposed to be in High Philadelphia Campaign Mode -- meaning candidates with knives drawn for each other, dirty tricks, and unsavory alliances with people who can deliver voters to the polls on election day. (You could almost hear a sigh of relief, of "This is how it's supposed to be!" among Political Philadelphia when we had that Frank Keel-Tommy the Loan Shark flap last week.)

We don't quite have that yet. We have five major candidates who stubbornly want to compare crime plans and debate how much influence the mayor has with the state-run schools. The acts that seem like name-calling -- the attacks on Tom Knox -- are at their core a question of campaign-finance reform, its strengths and its weaknesses.

And then there is the matter of campaign finance, which has sidelined PACs and unions and given many big-money Philadelphians a easy exit from this race, since it's inexpensive to give to all candidates -- and a few employers, including some big law firms, have told their monied people not to give at all.

High-minded candidates and the absence of big money in this race -- and the glaring exception to that, the endless money of Tom Knox -- have made it different. It's also meant that voters are having to think harder about who to vote for, which is leading to a high number of undecideds late in the election. (I am concerned it will also lead to low turnout.)

But that's why political Philadelphia finds this election really hard to deal with. The changes aren't enormous, but they are enough to unsettle professional politicians, even the smart ones (and I would include John Street in that.) When you've given yourself to a system that runs a certain way, and then things change, it's hard to handle.

I am not sure, however, I would trade unlimited campaign finance donations for more buttons.

Continuing on her week of in-depth interviews with the candidates, Marty Moss-Coane will have Michael Nutter in the studio at 10 AM today.

Since someone may be reading this blog for the first time, I'll once again include this link, which you can use for instructions on how to listen live to WHYY 91FM via the interweb's series of tubes. Or, you can go the old fashion way and tune your old Philco to 91 FM. a link for the podcast of the show. Just right click and save as to download the whole show and listen at your leisure.

Here's the promo for the show:

Today at 10 am RADIO TIMES will feature former City Council Member and Philadelphia Democratic mayoral candidate Michael Nutter. He is a former Philadelphia City Councilman who was first elected in 1991. He represented the City's fourth district that includes Wynnefield, East Falls, Mt Airy, Overbrook, Manayunk and Roxborough. He resigned on June 27, 2007 to become eligible for a mayoral run. He recently served as Chairman of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority Board; and currently serves on the Board of City Trusts, which manages the City's charitable assets. He is also the current Democratic leader for the 52nd Ward.

Consider this your open thread to discuss candidate Nutter's performance.

(Edited to add) Apparently, Nutter's appointment with Marty Moss-Coane didn't rate a mention on his published itinerary for today.

Now that Michael Nutter has approached front runner status with his statistical tie with Tom Knox in the last two public polls, can he expect to become a target of the same kind of challenges (I am no longer using the words "negative" or "attack" to describe such tactics unless they are factually incorrect or go after personal aspects of a candidate's life that have no bearing on his ability to govern) that Tom Knox has faced?

The scuttle, from at least one independent observer whom I've talked to, is that Mayor Street will be setting his sites on Nutter and going public with some challenges. It never helps to be the subject of criticism by the sitting mayor when you're seeking to replace him, regardless of how low that mayor's approval rating is. But on the other hand, it might play into Nutter's overall change message, and solidify his message of "I am not John Street," in the minds of voters when they step into the booth on May 15th.

Thoughts?

What if you threw an endorsement party and nobody came?

At Knox's event this morning -- where his support of Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell was made public, as was Blackwell's support of Knox -- Knox was to endorse an odd set of City Council candidates.

But only three -- Vern Anastasio, Matt Ruben and Jannie herself -- showed up. And Vern and Matt wouldn't commit to a Blackwell presidency.

Now, many of the people on the Knox list are associated with other candidates, so that makes sense that they wouldn't show. But still, the whole thing is just weird.

Evans will pick up the endorsement of residents of public housing tomorrow. And -- as a smart Daily News reporter pointed out to me -- check out where he's having it.

Mayoral Candidates Dwight Evans will be joined by representatives from the Resident Leadership of Public and Assisted Housing tomorrow, May 3rd, at 11:30 AM in front of the Abbottsford Homes to proudly accept endorsements from this broad coalition of supporters.

...That of the Northeast Times.

The Inky has just posted a story on Philly.com that says Alex Talmadge has been subpoenaed by the city ethics board. This isn't a terribly surprising development, given the fact that the board had promised to examine Talmadge's "Working People for Truth" group closely. Sounds like Talmadge is going to give the ethics board the same info he'll have to file with the state on Friday -- contributions, spending, etc.

But the real scoop is farther down in the story. Someone fell for Ken Smukler's plot:

The group ... laid out $35,000 this morning to purchase time for ads that are to air tomorrow and Friday, TV station records show. That ad was produced by political consultant Ken Smukler, Talmadge said.

Oh, good grief, someone stuck dollars in Smukler's online donation jar?

Told you it was a day of endorsements...Here's the latest roundup. Click here for the full list.

Nutter picked up the endorsement of the City Paper and the PhillySkyline site. Tomorrow he'll be endorsed by Clean Water Action as well.

Fattah picked up the endorsement of the Philadelphia Taxi Owners Association today, and tomorrow he'll be the pick of the "Valiants," the African-American firefighters association.

Dwight Evans basked in the approval of a long list of state senators and representatives:
State Sen. Anthony Williams, Sen. Leanna Washington, Sen. Shirley Kitchen, State Rep. Michael McGeehan, Rep. Tony Payton, Rep. Curtis Thomas, Rep. Babette Josephs, Rep. William Keller, Rep. Harold James, Rep. James Roebuck, Rep. Ronald Waters, Rep. Jewell Williams, Rep. Cherelle Parker, Rep. John Myers, Rep. Mark Cohen, Councilwoman Marian Tasco, Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, Councilman Juan Ramos, Sheriff John Green, and City Commissioner, Edgar Howard.

And Tom Knox picked up his first endorsement, that of endorsement of El Hispano, the bilingual weekly newspaper.

Programming note: I will be sending in a few live reports from tomorrow morning's Chamber of Commerce/Delaware Valley Healthcare Council of HAP forum, which kicks off at 8 a.m. Event information can be found here -- and registrations are still being accepted.

So, check in here before you listen to Marty Moss-Coane's interview with Tom Knox at 10 a.m.!

So we're underway quickly at the Chamber of Commerce/Delaware Valley Healthcare council forum.

Knox and Brady are no-shows.

And moderator - and Daily News reporter - Dave Davies just asked a good question:

"Tell us about a recent experience that shows your leadership traits."

The answers ranged from the illuminating to the familiar:

Evans: Discussed the privatization of Martin Luther King High school, and said that for him it illustrated that there had to be a crisis to get people to take brave action.

Fattah: Discussed his development of the CORE program to get students to college, and touched on the city's extraordinarily high dropout and poverty rates, which he called the major problems facing the city.

Nutter: Talked about his role in re-starting the Wage Tax cuts that were almost halted by Mayor Street (which was a home run in this crowd, which marched in the "briefcase brigade" up Broad Street and got the small cuts reinstated).

Taubenberger: Brought up his business-building cred as head of the Northeast Chamber. Had a sobering quip about a bakery that used to be one of the chamber's smallest members - but has since closed.

(Wendy bumped up slightly to make the chronology clear -- W)

We're getting right down to the issues this morning: SEPTA funding and taxes have already been addressed. Here are the most intersting things so far:

Fattah has discussed his interesting idea for an incentive to lure businesses from other cities: Tell them that, if they move operations to Philadelphia, they can pay either the rate they were paying in their old home or pay Philadelphia's rate, whichever is less. The incentive would be good for 5 years and is designed to remove tax concerns from the decision of whether to move a business to Philly.

Evans has played on his experience in Harrisburg, talking about the need to work better with the legislature to fix the hole in mass transit funding - as well as the crisis in the city's maternity wards, which have been closing. He talked specifically about aligning the city with Gov. Rendell's broad health care plan, which seems like an excellent point.

Nutter and Taubenberger both backed the Tax Commission suggestions for re-working the city's tax code. They are the strongest on tax cuts this morning. Nutter also managed to deliver shout-outs to his work on disclosing city contracts and ending pay-to-play.

The city's Minority Business Development Council - as it had existed - was soundly (and, to be honest, deservedly) trashed. Nutter pointed out that the Convention Center (hey, didn't he used to work there?) did better in minority contracting. Evans suggesting outsourcing business development - it's not clear if he means minority business development or more broad business recruitment - to a non-government agency.

Tune in to 91 FM right now or click here for instructions to listen live on your computer.

Download the podcast of Tom Knox's hour with Marty Moss-Coane on this morning's Radio Times.

Here's the promo copy:

Today at 10 am, RADIO TIMES will feature Democratic mayoral candidate Tom Knox. He is a businessman who has managed and owned a number of companies in the Philadelphia region. Until 2006, he served as Chief Executive Officer of United Healthcare of Pennsylvania. He has worked as a state rehabilitator for Fidelity Mutual Insurance, served as Chairman of Crusader Bank, and served briefly in Mayor Ed Rendell's administration as deputy mayor for management and productivity reporting to Rendell. He lives in the Rittenhouse Square area of Center City.

Have at it!

Oh, do they. Frank DiCicco, Jim Kenney, Marian Tasco, Donna Reed Miller, Joan Krajewski, and Bill Greenlee - obviously, none of them on the official Tommy-Jannie ticket - today opposed the idea that a candidate for mayor is making his will known on who should be council president. Usually, such deals are shielded from the public eye.

Mayoral candidates State Rep. Dwight Evans (D), Congressman Chaka Fattah (D), former City Councilman Michael Nutter (D), and Al Taubenberger (R) all signed the "Fair and Clean Elections Pledge" this morning, calling for public financing for city races.

I should say that Dwight Evans gave a strong shout-out to public financing at the Chamber breakfast this morning -- also calling for free ad time on TV for candidates.

Twenty-five other candidates for city office also signed the pledge. Want to see if your gal or guy did? Check it out here.

The pledge was created by Common Cause Pennsylvania, MoveOn.org Political Action, Philadelphia Forward, and Public Campaign Action Fund -- and released on Young Philly Politics.

From the press release:

“We have already taken a strong step towards making our elections cleaner and fairer,” Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg of YoungPhillyPolitics.com said. “But now it is time to finish the job, and make Philly a model for cities for others to follow. Do we really want New York, with its partial public financing law, to have a fairer system for their elections than ours? We can do better than that.”

PS: If you are interested in the mayoral candidates' positions on other ethical issues, check out their responses to the Committee of Seventy's Ethics Agenda.

That would be Bob Warner's piece on Unity 2001, the PAC that is run by one of Brady's congressional aides. It's also headquartered at Brady's 34th Ward office.

The real question here: Are unions skirting the campaign finance laws by giving the max - $20,000 - to Brady, and then by giving money to PACs that also gave to Brady?

From Bob's story:

The Daily News reported in February that three labor unions that gave maximum $20,000 donations to Brady last year - the Metropolitan Regional Council of Carpenters, Plumbers Union Local 690 and the Washington office of the painters union - also made significant donations to other political organizations supporting Brady.

Unity 2001 was one of the PACs cited by the Daily News.

Nearly all the money that Unity 2001 raised in 2006 - $52,500 out of $56,000 - came from the same three unions that gave maximum donations directly to Brady: the carpenters, the plumbers and the painters.

Is here:

On tomorrow's editorial page. From the press release:

“When people talk about Philadelphia, they talk about a city on the verge – not of bankruptcy, but of greatness. That’s why the next few years matter so much. That’s why we endorse Michael Nutter for Mayor.”

“Nutter has the intelligence, the vision, and the experience necessary to take this city into its rightful future, and to rewrite the old “corrupt and content” story of machine politics, insider deals and pay-to-play,” according to the editorial.

Check out what's being offered in today's Clout!

What a mayoral campaign! ...

As state Rep. Curtis Thomas said Wednesday, "Vote like you've lost your mind!" Because, if you've been paying attention, you have.

The bad news is that in 11 days, all this will be over. The winner of the May 15 primary will be elected mayor in November over Republican Al Taubenberger (unless the city’s tiny GOP band concocts a mind-altering drug to reverse the party registration numbers.)

The memories of the craziest election in Philadelphia history will live on, however, thanks to Clout. We’ve produced a limited edition, high-quality set of mayoral candidate trading cards.

Each of the eight candidates has a card featuring photos and autograph on the front with statistics and a fun facts cartoon on the back.

Collect ‘em all, trade them for Phillies cards. Put the losers in your bicycle spokes after the election!

Here’s how to get your own set: Send an e-mail to mayorcards@phillynews.com with your name and address. Or send the same information to Clout Mayor Cards, Daily News, Box 7788, Philadelphia, PA 19101.

Yes, this is for real - I saw the prototypes - and they are really funny. They're even autographed. As they should be.

We interrupt this blog to tell you about a really cool event.

On Sunday, at 8 p.m., The Next Mayor project will give you your best chance yet to see the five major Democratic candidates in action.

We will present a Candidate Forum, which will be broadcast - live - on WHYY TV12, on 91FM and on both www.TheNextMayor.com and www.WHYY.org.

But wait, this gets better.

This is not your standard, stilted candidate debate. This is a discussion among the five candidates, moderated by WHYY's Marty Moss-Coane. And the candidates will hold this discussion in front of an audience made up of civic groups from throughout the city who have been a part of The Next Mayor's Community Network.

(I'd like to see the candidates try to dodge a tough question when an advocate for the city's children, or for business, or for crime victims is sitting right there in front of them.)

In fact, those groups helped write the questions for the forum.

Helping us to present this forum is the Philadelphia Inquirer's Great Expectations project -- and some of the citizens who are helping to inform that effort will be in the audience, too.

And it gets even better!

After the forum, the audience will discuss what they heard in a special Town Hall meeting -- which will also be broadcast on TV, radio and the Internet. The events will also be re-broadcast on TV12 and WHYY's digital channels, made available via Comcast On Demand, and archived on this site.

Please tune in to watch (8 p.m. Sunday - set the TiVo) and visit here to comment.

We deeply appreciate your interest and attention to one of the most important elections this city has had in years. Obviously, we're very proud of this event, and we believe it will help you make up your mind about which candidate you believe will best serve the city.

Although, sadly, it's not because someone realized that a disgraced former Brady staffer making his own Knox attack ads and begging for money on the Internet to air them is really smarmy.

It's because of a lawyer's letter.

Bob Warner reports in today's Daily News:

An anti-Knox group calling itself the Economic Justice Coalition for Truth had purchased about $40,000 worth of airtime to run the ad last night on stations WPVI (Channel 6) and WCAU (Channel 10).

Each station backed away after receiving a threatening letter from Knox's lawyer, Paul R. Rosen. The letter alleged that the ad was "false, misleading and illegal," and suggested that the anti-Knox group had tried to circumvent the city's campaign-finance laws.

The charges were denied by Alex Talmadge, a lawyer involved with the anti-Knox group.

Actually, WVPI says in Bob's story that it pulled the ad not because of the lawyer's letter but because of an "internal review that began before the station received Rosen's letter."

(Wendy ETA: Did you notice the Smukler quote at the end of the Inquirer's story on the nature of this race's 527s? " 'When you confront a guy who essentially says, 'I am going to spend whatever it takes in order to get into office,' recognizing that the other candidates face severe spending limitations,' Smukler said, 'I look at it as a moral imperative to do the 527.' ")

This, published in today's Clout, does take some explaining.

As Clout says:

Mayoral candidate Michael Nutter has been bashing lame- duck Mayor Street in his TV ads. Last week both were at Alma de Cuba on Walnut Street for the "Dining Out for Life" AIDS fundraiser.

Street was on his way upstairs when he passed Nutter. Spotting a photographer, Street stopped, announced, "Here's something that'll make some noise - I mean make some news," and dramatically hugged Nutter.

You will not be seeing this photo, snapped by colleague David Lee Preston, in campaign ads.

Besides the baseball cards, and the picture of the day, Clout also raises an intriguing question:

Where's Tommy the Loan Shark?

He's been gone since the now-famous Frank Keel flap (we've got the audio of the whole affair here), which was a week ago. His buddy, Jim Nixon, explains that TTLS has been taking finals.

Oh, and on a far more substantive point:

Clout quotes the governor on the subject of Tom Knox. Yesterday, the Inquirer quoted Rendell saying Knox was "abrasive." (I actually thought the entire quote sounded honest and was relatively positive: " 'One of the immediate challenges is to get the city's finances under control; no one is better than Tom' ... The downside: 'His abrasiveness. In the political process you have to suffer fools and bite your lip. I question whether he can achieve that.' ")

Still, Rendell wanted to get the record straight:

"Obviously neither Tom Knox nor anyone in the administration, myself included, single-handedly turned around our budget deficit," Rendell told Dave Davies, "but Tom was a very important and vital part of that initiative, and his work was responsible for significant cost savings and productivity enhancements.

"If he was elected mayor," the governor added, "he would know how to cut costs and wouldn't be afraid to kick some butt in the bureaucracy."

As I write this, we are nine minutes away from the 5th and final candidate interview on WHYY's Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane. Today's guest - Dwight Evans.

Click here to listen live (if you do it now, you'll hear an interesting story from the BBC about the elections in France).

Here's the promo copy for the Evans interview (just to catch everyone up):

Philadelphia Mayoral candidate #5: DWIGHT EVANS. He is a democratic candidate for Mayor and currently serves as state representative for Pennsylvania's 203rd district in Northwest Philadelphia. He also is the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. This is his second run for mayor. He ran unsuccessfully in the 1999 democratic primary. Evans is founder of the Ogontz Avenue Revitalization Corporation, a community development organization in the city's West Oak Lane section.

I'll have the podcast link after the show is over for those of you who missed it. And here's the podcast of today's interview with Dwight Evans. Yes, I'm talking directly to the one caller who said he only heard the show with Brady and that he wished he could have heard all of them. Get connected, dude!

Have at it in the comments!

So we've obtained a copy of a lawyer's letter to NBC-10 over the attempt to air the Smukler ad.

Youch.

There are some very, um, strong statements underlined and in bold. Let's just say the province of the ad -- and whether or not the groups that were paying to air it are violating the campaign finance law -- are the least of its claims.

Take a look for yourself.

Is that it raised $64,500 from three groups:

The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers -- which gave $50,000 of that amount
The ironworkers union
The sprinkler-fitters union

That's from its campaign finance filing, which we got at a quick press event that was just held (conveniently) in our building today.

At the event, the group -- led by attorney Alex Talmadge -- said its Ken Smukler-created ad had been rejected by Channel 3 as well. They called for help from the ACLU with this series of station denials.

And they called on the stations to pull a Knox ad that calls Economic Justice for Truth "illegal." They called that claim "blasphemous."

All the campaigns and political action committees must reveal their latest campaign-finance filings today. We'll bring them to you in concise "The Economics Of" posts as they come in today.

(Wendy ETA, at 6:42 p.m.: Economic Justice for Truth also said it plans to prepare a defamation suit against Knox, his campaign and his attorney, and file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission against the local TV stations.)

I know it's easy to get sucked into talking about the polls, the money, the horserace, "men in fish suits," Milton, shady alliances and all the other fun stuff that makes Philadelphia politics a real contact sport.

But...

We have to remember why we got into this project in the first place - to discuss the issues and how the next mayor can and should tackle those issues.

No issue looms larger in Philadelphia than race relations. Just because this campaign has been free of the divisive appeals to race that we've seen in the past, doesn't mean that it shouldn't be the time or the place to have a frank and open discussion about race. With many of the candidates enjoying that elusive "cross-over appeal," this may be the perfect time for one or all of them to engage in this discussion. So far, they've been pretty quiet about it. That's good because of lack of divisive appeals, bad because we haven't moved forward.

Thankfully, some folks who have given this a lot of thought and are very passionate about it are talking about it. Please go to YPP and join in the discussion that has been started by this fantastic piece by YPP's Dan UA.

After you read that, feel free to share some of your thoughts here as well.

Here's the skinny on Dwight Evans' fund-raising:

He's raised $1,426,899.61 since Dec. 31, and received another $5,144.03 in in-kind gifts. He had $1,273,355.93 left over from the last filing period.

After expenses, he's got $542,825.42 in cash left for the final 11 days.

Here's the skinny on Al Taubenberger fund-raising:

He's raised $8,825 since Dec. 31, and received nothing in in-kind gifts. He had $5,100 left over from the last filing period.

After expenses, he's got $11,622.52 in cash left.

Please feel free to comment on them...

From Tom Knox:

From Michael Nutter: