Street on his pal, the next Mayor

Mayor Street held a hallway press availability this afternoon to talk about his best friend, Michael Nutter, winning last night's election. He said he won't do anything to hamper Nutter's transition into Room 215.

He didn't take any shots, per se, at Nutter, but made sure to note that Nutter could be in for a "rude awakening" as a tax-cutting former Councilman coming into a position where he has to be "all things for all people."

"You can't be for lower taxes and higher services," Street said.

On Nutter’s “we had a really good day” line Tuesday night and whether that was a jab at you?

He should of had a good day. I think it was a good day for Michael Nutter. He ran a strategic campaign, he was smart about it and he wound up winning. In this business you run to win. ... He’s the Democratic nominee and we’re all going to support him in the general eleciton and he’s going to be the next mayor.

[I'll put up a Q&A with Nutter in a little bit, but he says he wasn't going after Street at all with that line. "It has nothing to do with the mayor’s famous singature line. I hadn’t even thought of it."  His full quote was "We had a pretty decent week. We had a pretty good couple of weeks. We had a really good day."]

Will there be a smooth transition despite your past relationship with Nutter? 

(Gutteral chuckle) We will do everything we have to do to make sure a new administration is prepared to assume the responsibility of the mayor’s office. I think it will be a smooth transition. There are literally millions of people whose lives are at stake here and whose services are at risk. I personally wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize those people.

Was this a referendum on your administration?

I actually don’t see it that way. It’s real interesting, I watched a lot of this with great amusement. I saw candidates make claims that they coudln’t keep in a billion years. I was constantly amazed at candidates who were talking about hundreds of millions of dollars of missing money. I saw one blurb where candidate Knox said we have to find the missing money. There’s no missing money. Thers’s not hundreds of no-show employees. This is the kind of rhetoric that goes on in the campaign.

Does it stick in your craw that Nutter went after your record and won?

It doesn’t bother me that Michael Nutter was successful. I have some small concern about the nature of the allegations that he made. I think it’s unfair and inappropriate for Councilman Nutter or anyone else to suggest that I or anyone in this administraiton are indifferent to homicides. We care a lot about the homicides that are happening and the violence. For him to go on television and say, ‘this mayor has an indifferent attitude about homicides,’ I think was uncalled for and I think it was a low blow and probably somebody should of said something.

Comments

[Tommy the Loan Shark & Jim Nixon]

Hello!

This is Tommy the Loan Shark & Jim Nixon. Tommy and I were very busy with final exams, so we had to basically put the breaks on things… We never endorsed a candidate (for what that is worth… haha), as it seemed very close to us right through the end.

For the record, we were never part of any campaign. We stand by that 100%.

And again, Mr. Keel’s obnoxious intrusion into our press conference was not why things slowed a bit. We really were very busy.

TO THE GOOD NEWS!!!!

We achieved our goal in keeping Knox out of City Hall (not that we take a large share of credit for that, we were just doing our part). As we have said all along, that was our one and ONLY goal. We congratulate Mr. Nutter, and feel he will make an excellent mayor. Good for you Mike!

If anybody needs to contact us, please e-mail us at: [email protected]

Mr. Nutter, if you need campaign assistance I’d be happy to help out. My friend who played Tommy is taking a summer abroad (and yes, I am jealous). –Jim

Thanks, it was a great time!

Tommy the Loan Shark and his sidekick Jim Nixon

[Tommy the Loan Shark & Jim Nixon]

We are especially happy that in Knox failing, we will not see Janie Blackwell, John Dougherty, Frank Keel, or Mr. Youngblood get any grip on City Hall! I guess loosing is what he gets for associating with the bottom of the barrel...
We are also thrilled that all that money could not buy City Hall!!!! I cannot imagine spending over $10,000,000.00 and countless hours for nothing...
Congratulations to Mr. Fattah, Mr. Brady, and Mr. Evans! You all ran very solid issue-based campaigns. Compared to the norm, it was very enjoyable and classy!

[Frank Keel]

Jimmy and Tommy,

I exposed your connection to Smukler and the Brady campaign on that fateful Friday at City Hall. Although you vowed to return the following week to continue your juvenile and useless harassment of Tom Knox, you vanished, just like the gutless dopes I knew you to be. Go away for good. And thanks for the memory. I will always savor the taste of grilled shark.

[Dope and Idiot Monitors]

Keel you a certified "Dope and Idiot" - you have earned it!

[Michael]

I’d come to buy into with you one this subject. Which is not something I typically do! I love reading a post that will make people think. Also, thanks for allowing me to speak my mind!