FightforRoom215

Evans tries for some of the Rendell Vote

Dwight Evans is finally playing up his favorable Ed Rendell quote in an ad. (Gotta love how much politicians crave a good line from Rendell.)

Evans has the Rendell quote and his other endorsements — the black clergy, black police, and Philadelphia Tribune — up on this ad they plan to air this weekend.

Evans on Fattah and his place in the polls

It appears Dwight Evans is finished comparing the records of his opponents to meat products. But he's not done taking on the candidates he's looking up at in the polls.

He asked Tom Knox where the beef was on his public safety record and then said Michael Nutter's plan on crime was "all sizzle, no steak."

Today, he went after Chaka Fattah, saying his ideas about fighting poverty in the city are unrealistic.

He said Fattah's plan to lease the airport is just a dream and that while the city can't solve poverty on its own, working toward ideas like Evans has, including raising the minimum wage, are what's needed.

Evans held his news conference in front of the U.S. Mint and, while I was all for allowing him to talk about the issues, the overriding reason we had to track Evans down today was to talk about his place in the polls. According to the latest Keystone Poll, he only attracted 3 percent of the 385 voters polled.

"There’s no way that 350 people should decide the outcome of an election," Evans said. "Not one single person has voted."

D-Mac comes down pretty hard on Evans and his place in the polls.

But the real news in the poll is Dwight Evans' plummeting stature. In the new Daily News/Keystone poll, Evans' is in last with just three percent. Three percent! Did Dwight Evans murder a hooker and I didn't notice? Aren't all the state legislators who endorsed Evans like at least five percent of the voting public?

UPDATE: Should have gotten this in yesterday.

Fattah maintains that his airport lease plan is possible.  If it falls through, he’d be willing to raise taxes, he said at Monday night’s debate, to provide the services needed to help the poor.

“Fattah is alone among the candidates in calling for the bold change Philadelphia needs,” said Fattah senior adviser Rebecca Kirszner.

Tribune endorses Evans

The Philadelphia Tribune announced today that it is endorsing Dwight Evans.

From the editorial via a press release:

“This group of mayoral candidates is the best this city has seen in quite some time and State Representative Dwight Evans is the best of the lot.”

It reasoned that Evans is the best and most qualified to lead the City because of his experience and “track record working to help all Philadelphia citizens, not just the most notable ones.”

Payday lender donates to campaign - Evans turns it down

(Edited to add news from campaign: They got the check, but aren't using it.)

We'll launch a post a little bit later with the rundown on all of the campaign finance reports that catch our attention as they're posted on the city's campaign finance Web site today, but this one certainly caught our eye.

It looks like one of the giants of the payday lending industry - Advance America - made a $20,000 donation to Dwight Evans' mayoral campaign, but the campaign tells us that Evans turned down the contribution.

Advance America Cash Advance Centers PAC (of South Carolina) donated $20,000 on April 5.

"They did send us a contribution but we did not accept it, we have not cashed the check," said campaign spokesman Tim Spreitzer.

Payday lending has been a big issue in the campaign obviously, with opponents of Tom Knox bringing up the 18 months a bank he owned was involved in giving out the high-interest loans that Advance America specializes in.)

"It just felt like it was something we didn't want to accept," Spreitzer said. "It's something that's bene a focus of the campaign for obvious reasons. It was something we didn't want to accept."

We're waiting for the campaign's response, but this could explain why we haven't really heard any talk from Evans about Knox's payday lending experience. Evans has gone hard at Knox, but it's been a question about his experience fighting crime, not payday lending.

It should be an interesting day, folks. Today is when we find out who's bankrolling the five Democrats looking to take over City Hall. Hold on tight.

Evans' announcement: Like lunchtime in Harrisburg

Felt like a cafeteria in the Capitol this afternoon at Dwight Evans' campaign office, as he stuffed a lineup of mostly state lawmakers behind a podium to prove their support and loyalty.

"Vote like you've lost your mind," State Rep. Curtis Thomas told the assembled media. "Push your button for the only voice that can be the real choice for Philadelphia. For 2007 and beyond, the honorable Dwight Evans."

"Dwight is right," they chanted.

The list, according to the campaign (not all were in attendance): State Sens. Anthony Williams, Leanna Washington, and Shirley Kitchen;  state Reps. Michael McGeehan, Tony Payton, Curtis Thomas, Babette Josephs, William Keller (who sounds just like Artie Lange, minus the cursing, when he talks), Jewell Williams, Cherelle Parker, John Myers, and Mark Cohen; Councilwomen Marian Tasco and Donna Reed Miller and Councilman Juan Ramos; Sheriff John Green and City Commissioner Edgar Howard.

Evans to get endorsement, then hand out more hamburger buns

Dwight Evans has found the message he hopes to drill into voters' minds: Tom Knox's record is like an empty hamburger bun.

Evans will pick up the endorsement of AFL-CIO Local 6 (the bakery, confectionery, tobacco workers and grain millers union) tomorrow at a ShopRite in Southwest Philly. Then he plans to give out more hamburger buns to continue with the whole "Where's the beef?" message.

If Evans wins this race, it'll be the greatest triumph of bread over dough the political world has ever seen.

I came to this 80's press conference and all I got was this stinkin' Wendy's bread?

Chaka Fattah brought Shaft to town yesterday, so I guess it's OK for Dwight Evans to bring a message straight outta the 80s into the campaign.

Evans held a press conference in front of the Wendy's at 15th and Chestnut streets this afternoon to ask Tom Knox, "Where's the Beef?"

Philadelphia mayoral race, welcome to 1984.

Evans has his point, of course. Knox has no record on public safety other than an 80,000-strong petition sent to Harrisburg about stopping guns, something Evans let us know with a chart.

"Deceiving, distortions, distraction," were the three 'd' words Evans quoted when Vernon Odom (who I finally introduced myself to today after a year and a half covering Philly, and after a Saturday night where we ate at the same time at a Main Line Chinese restaurant; "look, look, it's Vernon Odom," said my starstruck friends) asked if Evans was calling Knox a liar.

He then gave out what us starving reporters thought were Wendy's burgers. Uh-uh, they were merely buns, with no meat.

Knox's campaign says Knox's 40 years of success in the business world show he'd be a capable leader.

(Photos: Wikipedia, Rikard Larma/Metro.)

Evans' new "comparison" ad

                 

Here's a look at Dwight Evans' new video, where he compares himself to both Tom Knox and Chaka Fattah. (Fattah's name is misspelled in this draft of the video, but it will be fixed before it goes up on the air, Evans' campaign tells us. 6ABC also misspelled Fattah's name in the press release detailing yesterday's debate. a) Chakka, b) Chakkah, c) Chaka. C is correct.) Evans repeats his attack against Knox that he doesn't have a record of fighting crime and throws a quote back at Fattah in which he says there's "nothing a mayor can do to immediately lower the murder rate." Michael Nutter also has a new campaign ad up. Another speak into the camera job with Nutter laying out the facts.

Evans to 'Do Something'

Tom Knox has his pasta dinners. Bob Brady has his 'Taking it to the Streets" tour.

Today, Dwight Evans launches his own direct to the voters initiative, with his "Do Something" tour. Evans starts with a tour through North Philly, where he will "emphasize that public safety is integral to building a community where education, commerce and culture can thrive."

Evans also launched a new Web site, endtheviolence.com, which includes a pledge to, well, end the violence.

The two new campaign tactics come as Evans continues to sit at the bottom of the polls, his ideas gaining as much traction as a Honda Civic on a mountain of ice.

Evans has been at the bottom of almost every poll (sometimes sharing the spot with Michael Nutter, other times with a few more points than Nutter), including the poll released yesterday by NBC10.

Tom Knox extended his lead in that poll and is now safely alone in first place with 32 percent support. Chaka Fattah (18 percent) and Bob Brady (17) follow, with Nutter pulling down 14 percent and Evans at 10. There is a 4 percent margin of error.

Lawyers spar on Knox-Brady appeal

Attorneys for the Tom Knox supporters trying to get Bob Brady booted from the ballot asked that a judge not give in to Brady’s request to have the appeal go directly to the Supreme Court in a filing today.

Knox attorney Paul Rosen argued in his petition that Brady’s attorney are “forum shopping”  to try to get the decision out of the hand of the Commonwealth Courts, which Rosen says have ruled against candidates like Brady who left required financial information off their disclosure forms. 

“Commonwealth Court has ruled on two separate occasions that pensions are not governmentally mandated,” Rosen wrote.

Brady attorney Stephen Cozen says that the appeal should be heard directly by the Supreme Court to expedite the process of public importance. He says the Knox and Dwight Evans campaigns are just trying to slow Brady down.

“The Knox and Evans campaigns are attempting to keep this issue alive in order to impede the Brady campaign,” Cozen wrote in a filing last week.

A judge ruled last month that Brady should have included a pension that the local carpenters union credits for him, but that it wasn’t a fatal flaw and could be amended.

Rosen writes that the court’s decision was made “solely because it disagreed with the Legislature. Pennsylvania courts have repeatedly imposed this same sanction on other candidates for the same violence.”

Commonwealth Court is expected to hear arguments next Monday but a decision could come sooner than that.