Fattah rallying religious community

Chaka Fattah got a chance to get his message to the people, filtered only by how the ministers attending an event this afternoon decide to relay Fattah's vision of ending poverty to all.

"Never again will anyone try to separate the life chances of the citizens of this city from the city itself," Fattah preached. "If Philadelphia is going to be lifted up, it's only going to be through lifting up Philadelphians."

Or, this gem: "The fruit from trees that you don't plant is difficult to catch."

Fattah was endorsed by a group of clergy, representing a cross-section of citywide religious organizations. From methodists to baptists to pentacostals.

With the least amount of money of any of the caniddates, Fattah has been forced to rely on both free media and grassroots organizing to get his message out. He's making sure at every corner that voters see him as the candidate best suited to tackle poverty and provide opportunity, the crux of his campaign.

He's made pointed references at least three times so far today at an editorial in the Inquirer yesterday that takes his goal to cutting poverty in the city to task.

But his stated goal, ending poverty, isn't really within a mayor's reach. His plans for it seem gimmicky and vague.

On his Radio Times appearance this morning, he tried to differentiate himself as the only candidate that cares about ending poverty. He even took Michael Nutter to task for a brief line in his transportation plan released earlier in the campaign that says "generations of experience has shown that confronting social challenges like poverty requires the resources of the state and federal governments"

"My good friend Michael Nutter says poverty is someone else's problem," Fattah said on the air. "I'm the only candidate who wants to deal with poverty. It's either because I'm absolutely wrong [that] we need to focus on it, or it's because people want to deal with things that really please the voters in a polite way."

UPDATE:  The event for Fattah today was from a group of church leaders who have broken ranks with the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity to back the congressman over state Rep. Dwight Evans.

For fairness, here's a link to Evans' rally with the full Black Clergy from Sunday night.

Comments

[dude]

You might be surprised at how many Laotians there are in Philly... enough to warrant an outreach group, at the very least (they provide lawyers, social workers, etc).