All of our national and international readers, I hope you will indulge me for a brief moment while I discuss Philadelphia mayoral politics. Philadelphia is probably the most Democratic city in the country and it does not really have a functioning Republican opposition. As a result, the real election for mayor is not taking place in November, but in the primary on May 15th. Our incumbent mayor is term-limited out. The Keystone Poll (warning .pdf) is out and the numbers are interesting.
Q14. If the DEMOCRATIC primary election for Philadelphia’s mayor were being held today and
the candidates were… (rotated), would you vote for…Jan 2007 (left)
Apr 2007 (right)22% 24% Tom Knox
26% 17% Chaka Fattah
8% 16% Bob Brady
12% 12% Michael Nutter
10% 10% Dwight Evans
22% 21% Do Not Know
For reference:
Tom Knox: Former Mayor Ed Rendell’s Deputy Mayor for the Office of Management and Productivity.
Chaka Fattah: House of Representatives (PA-02). (He has some funky tunes on his mayoral website).
Bob Brady : House of Representatives (PA-01). The BIG MACHINE MAN. Go to his site and listen to his voice. You’ll get the idea.
Michael Nutter: City Councilman (4th District) for 15 years. A semi-regular at Philly for Change and Drinking Liberally. The man behind the smoking ban.
Dwight Evans: Democratic Appropriations Chairman in the state house of reps.
This next part won’t shock anyone in the city of brotherly love.
What do you think is the MOST IMPORTANT PROBLEM facing PHILADELPHIA today?
Jan 2007 (left)
Apr 2007 (right)71% 72% Crime, drugs, violence
8% 9% Education, schools, programs
2% 6% Government, politicians, leadership
5% 4% Unemployment, economy
3% 2% Social problems
2% 1% Improving city cleanliness, appearance, entertainment
1% 1% Housing
2% 1% Taxes in general
1% 0% Standard of living
3% 3% Other
2% 1% Do not know
Knox has spent a TON of money on television commercials and it appears to have worked. Bob Brady has also spent a lot of money on advertising and has doubled his numbers, despite an abysmal positive/negative ratio of 28%-24%. By comparison, Knox’s ratio is 42%-11% and Fattah’s is 34%-19%.
Fattah was in first place in January, but he has fallen behind.
I’m still undecided in this race. I have only eliminated Brady and Fattah from consideration. I wanted Brendan to run on a garbage/snow removal platform. But we couldn’t raise enough money.
this race is so interesting to me.
trippi is working for knox (isnt susie madrak also working for him?) and i think he is running a great campaign…..he is running the campaign a smart dem could run in 08…..anti insider….the campaign hagel is going to run and could win the rethug nomination with.
nutter was my favorite…i really love that guy….but his campaign sucks…its about as bad as seth williams campaign for district attorney….they could be blowing everyone away but they are disorganized and their ad message is like a weak drink….no pizzaz….not enough spirits….no cherry.
im not crazy about evans mainly based on the fact that one of his staff members is a bald faced liar and jerk off….and evans supports him in his bullshit ways….then hides.
fattah is coming off as corrupt as brady….he should have released his financials….i think he is going to suffer from insider politics disease.
brady is just a plain old fashioned crook and everyone knows it…..didnt bryant in nj just get indicted for no show political favor jobs….brady is the same….im hoping he and fumo will someday share a much deserved jail cell.
Yup, Susie’s working for Knox.
Press Secretary I believe 🙂
I actually mentioned that platform to Michael Nutter and he looked at me as if I’d grown an extra head.
Expand the streets department, train and employ the unemployed as sanitation workers, landscapers, etc.
I did a salary search: average salary for a Philly sanitation worker is $24,000. That’s not a lot but it’s better than clerking by a long shot.
Besides, I’d be a lousy mayor: as my blog makes clear, I’ve become a misanthrope over the past few years. “Vote for Brendan: He Hates Everyone.” Not much of a slogan, and besides, we already have a misanthrope for a mayor, and look how well that’s worked out…
PS: I haven’t made up my mind either, but Fattah and brady are definitely not on my list.
“Philadelphia is probably the most Democratic city in the country and it does not really have a functioning Republican opposition. As a result, the real election for mayor is not taking place in November, but in the primary on May 15th.”
I don’t think this is true at all, or at least it hasn’t been historically. Many highly Democratic cities have Republican mayors, mainly (it seems) because urban people tend to be liberal when it comes to far-away topics but fairly conservative at home (wanting strict law-and-order stuff, low local taxes, etc.). That’s why New York hasn’t had a really competitive Democratic candidate for a while, as the most obvious example.
Even in Philadelphia, Sam Katz made two strong runs for the mayor as a Republican, despite having no real qualifications. I remember a lot of liberals saying, “Well he’s not really a Republican, he’s pro-choice, he used to be a Democrat, blah blah, maybe I’ll vote for him, God I hate Street.” It often bordered on racist.
If this year’s different, then thank God (I don’t live in Philly anymore). Never heard of Knox, but I always liked Fattah (lived in his CD). What do you have against him?
Katz was competitive once, not twice.
I don’t have anything against Fattah. I want him to stay on the appropriations committee where he can do some real good for the city. I’ve talked to him about his vision for the city as mayor and I had a lot of different opinions. He’s a good man. But I think Nutter would be a better mayor. And I’m still open minded on Evans and Knox, too.
Agreed, but the funny thing about Katz is he seemed like he was going to be competitive the second time as well. Before the election, many people seemed to believe (wrongly, as it turned out) that he might do better the second time around.
But you said there was no way you’d vote for Fattah, and I’m still not sure why. I’m curious as to what issues you differ on (I have some Philly nostalgia, despite my lack of personal involvement with its politics). I admit I came here because of the Atrios link, but it’s reinvigorated my interest in Philly politics.
Fattah is my congressman and I have voted for him and will do so again. I just feel certain that I prefer Nutter to Fattah as mayor. I’ve narrowed my choices down to three.
My reasons? A lot of my reasoning comes from off the record stuff. Nothing scandalous, nothing awful, but stuff that I can’t report because it was told to me off the record. Ultimately, I don’t think Fattah is really the right guy to be mayor, but he’s a good congressman.
I need to get a little more educated on this race…haven’t had a chance to pay much attention because of schoolwork. Only person I absolutely won’t consider is Brady. I’ll have to read up on the others before making a choice.
Candidate for City Council, 1st District, is running on a snow removal/constituant services plank:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP7kIQA6s-U&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Evernanastasio%2Ecom%2F
http://www.vernanastasio.com/
blech!
both choices suck
brady – never would i vote for this guy. brady has the support of the Ward system here in Philly which, sadly, is what impacts voters more than any other factor from what i’ve seen. people are given an “Official Democratic Ballot” by the Democratic Executive Committee (which brady is the chairperson of and which also gave brady’s campaign $20k before the votes were tallied) and people go and push buttons accordingly.
knox – made his money (MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS) with HMOs and predatory lending and is now running tv commercials about how he used to hear his mom cry because they didn’t have money. he’s been putting families in that position for awhiles now. he initially loaned himself $5M for the race and blew that quickly. the difference between simply self-financing and loaning? under the law, he may how hold fund raisers and collect of any amount to recoup that loan so the influence peddlers are not out of the picture by a long shot. knox can and will outspend everyone else and he isn’t afraid to say it. me and my girlfriend get literature from him all the time, it’s crazy. he’s on tv everywhere.
fattah – he should stay in DC and bring Philly some much needed pork. not the bad pork either. i’m talking about the good juicy stuff which would provide money for our failing public schools system, finding money to get SEPTA (our mass transi) out of the shitter and of course money to revamp our crime ridden city which is sadly known as killadelphia by many. he has no place in this race. there is money to be brought to philly from DC, not from Harrisburg (our capital city).
evans – i don’t know much about this guy except he portrays himself as a bully, at least at the few forums i’ve seen him live. he’s managed budgets before in the State House, so he knows his stuff. i don’t know enough about him.
nutter – the guy knows everything there is to know about this city and has become 200% more personable in the last 6 months or so. his personality is actually coming through along side his wonkiness. as of now, he’s got my vote. he also has the luxury of not having a job during the campaign season allowing him to be at almost every single forum – evans, brady and fattah are all voting members of their respective Congresses; knox has been a no show on a few occasions and i’m not sure what was on his schedule to prevent him from being present.