Michael Nutter won a resounding victory in the Democratic primary for mayor, defeating his nearest rival, Tom Knox, by 11 percentage points. It was a blowout by Philly standard -- it certainly was a far more convncing win than anyone (including me) expected two weeks ago.
Everyone said this race was abotu crime, but the Nutter victory shows it also was very much about reform. Combined, the two "reform" candidates -- Knox and Nutter -- won 64% of the Democratic electorate. Bob Brady, Chaka Fattah and Dwight Evans split the remainintg 36%.
It also was very much a post-racial election. Two numbers stand out: Nutter, the black candidate, got anywhere from 25% to 33% of the vote in the white wards in Northeast Philadelphia. Previous black candidates had trouble breaking out of the teens on that turf.
Knox came thisclose to meeting his goal of getting 20% of the black vote. My cursory check of the ward-by-ward totals, showed the white businessman getting 15% to 20% of the vote in black wards throghout the city.
All in all, a good night for the reformers who sought to cross racial lines in their appeal to Philadelphia's 750,000 Democratic voters.
-- Tom Ferrick
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The Age of Reform
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Great Expectations is a civic engagement project brought to you by The Inquirer and the University of Pennsylvania. Check out the Great Expectations Web site.
Chris Satullo is an Inquirer columnist and former editor of The Inquirer's Editorial Page. He was a founder of the Great Expectations project, which focuses on civic engagement and the issues in Philadelphia's 2007 mayoral race.
Tom Ferrick, a former Inquirer reporter, worked on the Great Expectations project throughout 2007 and into 2008.Other members of the Editorial Board will be weighing in on the blog, as will Harris Sokoloff and Jodie Chester Lowe, members of the Great Expectations team.
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