It's hard to imagine any political figure who embodies "Philly" as much as former Controller Jonathan Saidel, our own Happy Warrior from the Northeast. Now, however, Saidel is thinking about expanding his horizons as he explores a run for lieutenant governor in 2010. (This development was first reported by Dan Gross earlier today in Philadelphia's other newspaper.)
A number of people have asked me to run or lieutenant governor and I said I would give it serious consideration," Saidel told Heard in the Hall. 
What is he thinking? After all, the job usually involves little more than checking the pulse of the governor.
"There are two ways of looking at it," Saidel said. "One is political. If I was on the ticket we would draw support from this part of the state, if the candidate for governor was from the other part of the state; it would bea good composite ticket."
Not for nothing, but Saidel is close friends with Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, a leading possible Democratic candidate for governor who used to be the county's controller.
And besides, Saidel said, it could be possible in the right circumstances to make the No. 2 post substantive, much as Vice President Cheney and earlier, Vice President Al Gore, did at the federal level.
"If you’re given the opportunity to be involved in the government you could end up being influential," Saidel said.
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