He's the man of the hour, shaking more hands, getting pats on the back, having his cell phone filled up with messages to the point that he can't accept any more messages.
Unless Republican Al Taubenberger also knows how to perform magic tricks, Michael Nutter is your next mayor. He spoke with Metro on his way between Day After appearances this afternoon.
Has it sunk in yet that in about 250 or so days you’ll likely be running the fifth-largest city in the country?
I haven’t really thought about it in that fashion. ... I know it happened and I know I won. It is certainly a monumental challenge which I’m preparing myself for and I’m certainly up for. I’m very excited about it and I’m hopeful for the future.
When did you feel that you legitimately had a shot of running away with this election?
I never put a tremendous amount of faith in the polls. I always assumed that I was behind and just needed to keep my head down and keep working hard. I certainly received messages form the public that my candidacy was getting some positive response, but I just figured the best thing for me to do was stay focused, keep disciplined and keep working hard and the voters would take care of the rest.
How much were you involved in the decision processes over when and how to get your message on TV?
That was all a very collaborative process with our campaign hierarchy weighing in on a variety of decisions. I was certainly an active participant but it’s not the kind of thing where the candidate is the sole decision maker.
On whether your “we had a really good day today” line was a jab at Street?
I think I said, 'we had a really good day today.' It has nothing to do with the mayor’s famous signature line. I hadn’t even thought of it. I think if you look of any tape I’m almost sure we said, 'I had a really good day today.' No jab or anything at the mayor.
When do you begin the process of lining up the people you want in your administration?
I think that is very far down the road. I’m not making any assumptions and I still have an election to run in November. There’s a lot of work to be done on the ground. It’s much too early for me to even think about things like people to work in the government. I have a real election coming up in November. I’m going to spend most of my time making sure we have the right campaign people, that were coordinating the efforts, that Democrats and independents and Republicans who are friends of mine to run the strongest campaign that we can.