No monstrous turkey sandwiches this week, but Johnny Doc checks in again with his take on the mayoral race.
Doc gives some kudos to Tom Knox for his pasta dinner in South Philly last week. Doc says 600 people showed up when only a couple hundred were expected. “Whoever his advance people are are doing a real nice job,” Doc says. “He knew neighborhood people by name. He made it more personal than people expected.” No word on whether the penne and meatballs lived up to expectations.
With Knox established in the lead in the latest Keystone Poll, he should expect the negatives to start to flow now, Doc says. Tommy the Loan Shark is only the first of what we assume is many attacks against Knox's 18 months as a payday lender.
Doc sees Bob Brady bouncing back from not getting the AFL-CIO endorsement (the group representing 120 some unions voted not to endorse any candidate, we suspect Doc’s lobbying has something to do with that).
“I believe the next wave of commercials will be real important to Bob,” says Doc, who says Brady needs to go more issue-oriented with the ads to help counteract some of the negative stories being written about him.
Doc notices how Chaka Fattah hit the streets last week for some hand shaking and expects him to move back up in the next round of polls after the release of his first ad today.
Then there’s Michael Nutter and Dwight Evans who still lag on a lower rung than the top three.
Evans “has to find something to catch; it’s just not catching,” Doc says, although he notes that a strong contingent of AFL-CIO unions will get Evans support on election day.
As for Nutter, Doc says his John Street attacks don’t seem to be catching on and the issues he’s perceived to be most interested in aren’t firing anyone up.
“I don’t believe people are worried about smoking in bars right now,” Doc says. “They’re worried about the smoke coming out of the end of guns.”
