August 21-27, 2003

political notebook

Mayor of the Streets

by Mary F. Patel

A Democratic incumbent mayor in a city where Democratic voters outnumber Republicans 4-to-1 should not have to work as hard as John Street, who is crisscrossing the city daily and nightly foraging for votes in his race against Republican challenger Sam Katz.

The last Democratic mayor who struggled for re-election was Woodrow Wilson Goode, who had more serious problems than Street. It was Goode who authorized the bombing of the MOVE house that killed 11 people, including five children.

Street has no such baggage but he does face a stiff challenge from Katz, whom he just narrowly defeated in 1999.

What's up with that?

Dr. Mary Ellen Balchunis-Harris, assistant professor of political science at La Salle University and a former top assistant to Mayor Goode, said that Street's re-election difficulties are national.

"It's a bad time for mayors and governors when they get so little money from the federal government," said Balchunis-Harris, who wrote her doctoral thesis on how Goode was able to be re-elected after MOVE. "There are 35 states with budget problems now and the states often do not give money to the cities," added Balchunis-Harris, whose students are engaged in both Street's and Katz's campaigns.

Street made a brief campaign stop and picked up some checks last Thursday night at a fundraiser held in his honor. Zarwin Baum DeVito Kaplan Schaer Toddy, P.C., a high-profile firm known for civil litigation, hosted the event in its Center City office. Former Daily News columnist Harriet Lessy, who now heads her own public relations firm, Buzz, organized the fundraiser.

The mayor took center stage and recounted for his guests what he considers his key accomplishments since taking office almost four years ago.

"Center City is doing just fine," said Street. Discussing the allure of the city for employers, he described a survey of employees. "They said, "No, we don't want to go to South Jersey or further out to the counties. We have an opportunity to be in Center City, we want to stay, we want to be able to come out of an office building and go to Borders and Banana Republic.' You know there is a lot of stuff to do."

"There are a lot of young people that we want to keep here," said Street. "We have a program called the One-Day Campus Program. It's a collaboration between Innovation Philadelphia, the Commerce Department, and GPTMC [Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation] to attract more students to the city."

But Street wants to be known as the Cleanup Mayor, the Green Mayor and the Mayor of Snow Removal.

Street said that before him, the prosperity of Center City could not be felt in the neighborhoods. "There were abandoned cars and open-air drug markets," said Street. "We removed abandoned cars that had been sitting there for years.

He also touted the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, trash and dead-tree removal, planting thousands of trees and clearing snow off thousands of miles of roads.

Street then breezed out to his next event.

Supporters attending the mayor's fundraiser included Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown and a surprise visit from NAACP local president J. Whyatt Mondesire, who was once at odds with Street.

In other news, former Assistant District Attorney Seth Williams, a member of Zarwin Baum since February, said he is considering running against District Attorney Lynne Abraham in 2005's Democratic primary.

The 36-year-old Williams, who attended the Street affair, said he left his position with the District Attorney's Office because there was no room for advancement. "They need to have more diversity," said Williams, who is black. "But I'm not saying there's a glass ceiling. What makes me qualified to run is my experience in the District Attorney's Office, my love for the city and my vision for improving that office in how they prosecute cases. My vision is a community-based prosecution where the District Attorney's Office works with the community to identify what the problems are."

"There are 27 new assistant DAs coming into the office, seven are minorities," said Eleanor Dezzi, Lynne Abrahamís campaign director. "The District Attorneyís Office is the largest and most diverse law firm in the city and 21 percent of the lawyers are minorities; 31.8 percent of all the employees in the office are minorities."

As for Seth Williams mulling a run against Lynne Abraham, Dezzi said, "The DA is not thinking of running; she is running and running a strong campaign."

Running Schwartz

Itís only August, but State Sen. Allyson Schwartz picked up a major endorsement for her congressional race next year. EMILYís List, a national womenís organization with very deep pockets and more than 73,000 members, endorsed Schwartz.

A four-term senator, popular with progressive, pro-choice voters, Schwartz appears to be the Democratic front-runner for the 13th congressional seat formerly held by Democratic Congressman Joe Hoeffel. Hoeffel opted not to seek re-election to run in next year's U.S. Senate primary. The winner of that race will take on incumbent Republican Arlen Specter.