GOP courted Nutter, Evans (The Next Mayor)

So you've been wondering why the city's GOP ran Al Taubenberger. It's an understandable question, given last week's news that Taubenberger has raised less than $80,000 during the primary (compared to $7.5 million from Nutter, who now has 40 times the cash on hand that Taubenberger has) and that Taubenberger hasn't cracked double digits in the polls, which could lead to a historic landslide vote for Nutter.

Today's Daily News has an answer: They looked hard for another candidate. Arlen Specter even solicited Michael Nutter and Dwight Evans to switch parties before the election:

“That’s true," Specter says in Dave Davies' story. "I also asked ... Lynne Abraham.”

But no one was particularly interested in the suicide mission that is running as the GOP mayoral candidate in Philadelphia in a year when the national party is more of a millstone around the neck than a help.

“This year the elected officials we have just don’t long to be a mayoral candidate," says GOP counsel Michael Meehan.

Still, this election looks to be a major embarrassment for the Philadelphia Republicans, almost certain to be the biggest rout of the GOP in mayoral primary without an incumbent ever (the next-closest: Rendell v. Egan after Rizzo died mid-campaign, which Rendell won 64 percent to 30 percent).

And there's apparently an attempt at change brewing in the party, from young turks and even from the party bosses.

“I want everyone in the party to recognize where we are,” Kevin Kelly, a developer and Republican chairman of the 5th ward in Center City, told Davies. “We are at rock bottom.”