FightforRoom215

Brady camp trying to maneuver into comedic Nutter press release territory

Couldn't be done for the day without giving some props for this release from Bob Brady's campaign.

Brady already has the negative ads against Tom Knox, now they're making comedic reference about the validity of Knox's own ads.

" Congressman Bob Brady today warned Philadelphians of a dangerous deluge of fake advertising expected to hit television airwaves in the coming days. In an apparent strike of the panic button, Tom Knox increased his brazen disregard for campaign finance limits by spending an astonishing $767,420 on broadcast and cable television advertising in just the next six days.

“"We all knew that Tom Knox wanted to buy City Hall, but now it looks like he might make a run at buying the entire Avenue of the Arts too,” said Congressman Brady.

Brady on 527s

Even though former Bob Brady adviser Ken Smukler says that the first phone call about 527s came to him from Johnny Doc while he was driving home from Washington with Brady, the congressman said after this morning's debate that he had absolutely no idea anyone connected to him was working on setting up the independent operations.

And he called on the two anti-Tom Knox 527s now operating to cease and desist.

Or, as Brady says:

"Get out of town. We don’t need them. Don’t want them. I don’t need them, I don’t want them. They ain’t doing me any favors. I don’t care about them. I’ve got my record. I do what I need to do. Don’t. Want. Any. 527s. Don’t think they need to exist, never did. Swift Boats. Don’t like them. Don’t want them in the city of Philadelphia."

Anonymous signs of the possibility of all hell breaking loose

This, mind you, is unconfirmed, but people on message boards and blogs throughout the city are talking about alleged thuggish tactics going down against mayoral candidate supporters.

From an anoymous e-mail:

I wish to remain anonymous.
I put a Bob Brady for Mayor sign in
my window last night. When I left for work
this morning, I found that both of the passenger
door windows of my car had been smashed.
I live in the Whitman section of South Philadelphia.
What do you suppose ?

Fed up In Philly.

We'll let you know if we can confirm any of this later on...

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.

DeLeon forsees anti-Nutter 527

Metro columnist Clark DeLeon takes a look at the mayoral race today, with his view on the "truth squads" ramping up anti-Tom Knox ads.

He sees Michael Nutter as the leader now  ...

While the long knives were sharpening to carve up Knox, Nutter has emerged down the stretch like Smarty Jones at the Preakness. Unless yesterday’s rousing endorsement by the Philadelphia Inquirer jinxes him, Nutter should now be seen as the frontrunner.

... could a 527 against him be next?

In which case you can expect to see attack ads from a newly formed 527 called Barroom Smokers for Truth. Cough, cough, cough.

More from today's Metro on the mayoral race:
What the candidates are saying about the pending fiscal crunch.

Ruminations from KYW Debate

Some talk about the issues — not enough for Chaka Fattah, who made it known that he wanted more time to talk about them — but not much new from this morning's KYW debate.

There were some interesting moments...

Like when Bob Brady denied ever telling PhillyMag that he was just "spinning the shit" in his role spreading the theory that the bug in Mayor Street's office was a Washington Republican conspiracy. That was the first question (nice curveball, Mike Dunn) and one Brady, surely, wasn't prepped for.

"That's a reporter reporting something," Brady said, "sometimes you're (Dunn) not quite accurate." He says the "spinning" was just him reporting "what the FBI wouldn't confirm or deny." UPDATE: Steve Rodrick, the author of the PhillyMag story in question, stands by it. "Congressman Brady was quoted accurately and I stand by the story," he writes. ...

If you watched Robin Macintosh do his job in the media-mix with the candidates afterwords, you would think the biggest issue coming out of the debate was who was right: Bob Brady claiming 95 years of service between the four public servants in the race, or Tom Knox's 74-year figure. Quick arithmetic says, well, it says it depends what numbers you look at. If you only consider Brady's nine years in Congress, Knox's number is right. Take into account Brady's service to the city before Congress, and the 95 works. Can you say controversy? Yeah, me neither.  ...

Knox was hit with a few curves from Dunn and Steve Tawa on his past business practices. He had a chance to say that his 18 months with payday lending was a bad idea, but instead Knox kept to his line that it was a service that people needed to make ends meet. As mayor, he would work to provide microloans to those same people. ...

The second to last question of the debate was who each candidate would vote for if they couldn't vote for themselves. Knox was the only one to give a straight answer. He'd vote for Dwight Evans. Expect a press release from Evans' campaign any minute now.  ...

And, Brady on what he was hoping for from the "Breakfast with the Candidates": "I'd like to get some ham, some sausage, some eggs, some pancakes." ...

The candidates all have busy schedules ahead of them today ... we'll check back with updates from the trail.

UPDATE: From Evans, as promised:

"I am honored that Tom would voice his support for my candidacy this morning,” Evans stated after the debate.  “Tom has circulated a petition to support my bill to give Philadelphia our power back to make our own gun laws, he has promoted my record of leadership on public safety in one of his television commercials, and now he has publicly stated he would vote for me.  Maybe I should have asked for a campaign contribution from him this morning, too!”

Smukler, Stalberg do Smerconish

Ken Smukler and Zack Stalberg both made their way to Michael Smerconish's 1210 show this morning.

According to Smukler, he was trying to ENFORCE campaign finance rules by advising people how to set up 527s.

"What I was doing was trying to enforce the law, not just the 527 law but the campaign finance law that says a candidate can only have one committee," Smukler said.

He said Johnny Doc first called Bob Brady about the possibility, not the other way around.

He then called on Tom Knox haters the world over to "pony up the money into 527s, I don't care what 527 it is."

He also said that the 527 IRS code doesn't preclude someone from talking about setting one up while working for another candidate.

UPDATE: Seeing how Smukler basically called Frank Keel a liar (Keel says Smukler came to him and Johnny Doc, Smukler says Doc called Brady), we give Keel a chance to chime in. From an e-mail:

"Ken is desperately trying to cover his ass. The Brady campaign did NOT want him to go on air today or to continue to talk about this issue.  They dumped him immeditely, for God's sake. They want to distance themselves from him as quickly as possible.

"They want this story to die, for obvious reasons. I told the truth. This scheme was hatched by the Brady campaign and presented to me by Smukler.

"Just prior to our February 9th meeting, he attended the City Committee endorsement of Brady as a member of the campaign inner-circle. They ought to stop the charade already.

"I hope to have the opportunity to provide testimony to the Board of Ethics. When you have the truth on your side, it's a very comforting feeling.

"I don't dislike Ken Smukler, but he ought to stop talking before he digs himself in deeper."

Fire up the ol' transistor

Forget Howard Stern, Preston, Steve, or Woopi, AM radio is the place to be Monday morning.

First, Ken Smukler, fresh from his resignation from Bob Brady's side, is scheduled for an appearance on Michael Smerconish's 1210 show around 7 a.m.

Then, the candidates will debate for a third time on KYW 1060 at 8 a.m. The live debate will be moderated by Larry Kane (he of the scoops that aren't really scoops) with questions from Mike Dunn and Steve Tawa.

Then, over to FM, Chaka Fattah opens the week of mayoral candidates talking with Marty Moss-Coane on Radio Times, 90.9, 10 a.m.

Let the preachin' begin

The Inquirer gives us its endorsement of Michael Nutter in a lengthy editorial today, but only after a feature on Jesus White, everybody's favorite homeless, yarmulke-wearing mayoral candidate.

No mention of Bob Warner's Clout scoop last week that White's statements in campaign literature that he served as a city manager, mayor pro term and president of DeRidder, La., City Council aren't true, according to officials there.

Also, a look at the racial and religious dynamics in the race between the candidates and the surprise of the race so far: voting has yet to break along racial lines.

Then, there's the massive editorial laying out why voters should vote for Nutter, or Dwight Evans if they can't get themselves behind Nutter. But not Bob Brady, Chaka Fattah, or Tom Knox, "not so much an outsider as a novice."

U.S. Rep. Bob Brady is charming and loves his city. He's the cooler head who can prevail when labor tiffs around town grow nasty. But he is also the chief custodian of a Democratic machine hip-deep in petty corruption.

U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, erstwhile frontrunner, has lost his lead in the polls with an odd, listless campaign. To his credit, he has contributed a needed focus on the city's heavy burden of poverty, and the role of education in ending it. But his stated goal, ending poverty, isn't really within a mayor's reach. His plans for it seem gimmicky and vague.

We'll see if a weekend filled with anti-Knox TV ads and this pretty strongly-worded reason on why not to vote for Knox has any affect on polls.

When it comes to running a complex government, he clearly doesn't know what he doesn't know. He imagines it's just like running the many businesses he's owned and sold off. His performance in campaign forums betrays his limited grasp.

By his own account, his idea of leadership is telling people to jump when he says jump, and firing those that don't. He does not have the personality to persuade or to inspire.

In his lone, brief, much-hyped stint of government service, as a deputy in Gov. Rendell's first mayoral term, Knox showed his undoubted genius with numbers. He also showed his lamentable lack of people skills, which is why he was edged out the door.

Unreported (but probably true) link between Doc and Knox

Not much reporting here except for my eyes, my memory and a Saturday afternoon drive on the Vine Street Expressway. UPDATE: Did the reporting and, while this isn't officially a Local 98 billboard, it was purchased by the National Electrical Contractors Association and Knox's name was added at Johnny Doc's suggestion, says Frank Keel.

A billboard on 676 which has been paid for by Local 98 for at least the last three ads is now shilling for both Tom Knox and Seamus McCaffery, who is running for a state judgeship. Left half of the billboard features Knox, right side for McCaffery.

The billboard featured a controversial "Local 98 Thanks Rick Santorum" message before his race last November against Bob Casey and most recently featured a straight ad for 98, the electrician's union headed by political powerbroker John Dougherty.

Mayorpalooza reported last week that 98 looked to be backing McCaffery. Doc and Knox pow-wowed over breakfast at Famous Fourth Street recently, too.

UPDATE: Frank Keel checks in to say that the billboard isn't purchased by Local 98 ... but by the National Electrical Contractors Association.

"John has influence, but it's NECA's decision," Keel writes. "Local 98 has not endorsed Tom Knox or anyone else at this time."

UPDATE 2: And, of course, "influence" means "John suggested adding Knox to the planned McCaffery billboard, whom NECA is supporting." Keel says Doc and Knox "have a great rapport" and many members of NECA and 98 have "expressed their intent" to vote for Knox.