Keystone Poll: Nutter by 10

Michael Nutter has a 10-point lead over Tom Knox, with 31 percent of the respondents to the latest Daily News/Keystone Poll saying they're behind the former Councilman.

Nutter leads in both white (37 percent) and black voters (27 percent).

Knox, who is beginning to put Nutter into the crosshairs of his direct mail campaign, has 21 percent support. Chaka Fattah, who once held a commanding lead in the Keystone Poll, fell to 13 percent support.

That's followed by Bob Brady with 11 percent and (you have to feel for the guy) Dwight Evans lags behind with a mere 3 percent.

There are still 21 percent undecided, however, and pollster Terry Madonna points to the importance of Election Day operations (which Fattah and Brady are assumed to have the best of and Knox will be paying lots of cash for) and the chance that a low-turnout election could put things into flux.

Poll stats: 385 Democratic voters between last Wednesday and Monday; 5 percent margin of error.

Meanwhile, the Inky gets around to looking at Nutter's alleged ethical indescretions that other campaigns are bandying about. The reporting seems to say it's either not so (no proof of any no-show job at Econosult as Tom Knox told viewers on NBC's Live at Issue last weekend) or things like a contract for his wife's nonprofit came about before she even started there.

As to his past political relationship with Carol Campbell, it's pretty hard to deny, but Nutter defends his pushing for a contract between her company and the Sheriff's department, a deal that eventually fell through.

Comments

"pretty hard to deny", "Inky gets around", talking about Nutter's wife and her nonprofit...is Frank Keel in charge of this blog now?

and right from the Inky article, Nutter was on appropriations so of course a contract matter would come up before him

[Robert]

its good to see the one person who has not gone negative is the one now in the lead.

slow and steady, wins the race.

[dude]

I think I'll be voting for Knox to go off the island next on philly.com's poll...

Jon Doc has sunk Tom Knox's campaign, as soon as the goon endorsed him, Knox's numbers started crashing. As a FORMER supporter of Knox, he really disappointed. Count me among the Nutter voters.

Yeah, I think Knox made a huge strategic mistake by aligning himself with the worst elements in Philly politics. I assume he thinks he needs their GOTV machine, but it just shows a lack of integrity and a shocking ignorance about what voters are looking for this year. The more people get to know Tom Knox, the more they are underwhelmed by him. It's just the opposite for Nutter. No, he's not perfect, but he really has run a stellar campaign and has his finger on the pulse of voters looking for change. The guy really is smart and, I think, gives voters a sense of security in having a guy like him managing the city.

It's too bad Evans didn't connect with voters better, but I think he has a bright future and can probably count on Nutter's support for any position he may want in the future (Fattah's seat? Brady's seat? Spector's seat? Mayor 2015?).

[JoshCornfield]

To the first anonymous poster who thinks Frank Keel is running the blog...

I wasn't attempting to make an editorial statement about media coverage, only saying that the Inquirer did some reporting into the claims beind made by other campaigns. It seems to say that most if not all of the claims aren't as questionable as they're being made out to be.

As to Nutter's past political relationship with Carol Campbell, that's pretty well-known, isn't it? Both are powerful political figures from the same district and supported each other. Now, not so much.

The allegation is that Nutter helped Campbell try to secure a contract. Nutter says he did it because of his Council position. Sheriff says it never went through.

Just laying out the facts.

[Tim O'Leary]

Knox has been a fraud from the beginning. He has not signed any of the election reform issues... all (including Brady) of the other candidates have.

His campaign has spent record amounts of money ($900,000 just this past week) to create a mirage to distract and confuse the voting populace.

He has created smear campaigns designed to demolish his opponents and disenfranchise voters.

He sought to remove a candidate for technical purposes wasting the taxpayers time and money with a frivolous lawsuit.

He has strip-mined wealth from the poorest communities with predatory lending tactics and engaged in union-busting with the closure of his distillery.

Simply put, Knox is unfit to lead the city.

[Tim O'Leary]

By the way, I wonder how Keel and his local 98 brethren feel about supporting a documented union-buster.

See Inquirer 5/8/2007 - How Knox Drew Wrath of Treamster's Chief.

I thought that if you belonged to a Union, you should support organized labor. Knox has a track record of demolishing unions every chance he gets.

Knox is unfit to lead this city.

[JKFriz]

Last I checked, Nutter actually sent a letter to ward leaders opposing the special election process that put Carol Campbell in his seat. I don't think they're exactly best pals.

[JoshCornfield]

That's right, I believe, but before that they had a good political relationship. That move by Nutter set Campbell off.