The three Republicans on City Council, Councilman Brian O'Neill, who represents the 10th District, and Councilmen-at-large Jack Kelly and Frank Rizzo, have decided to wield more power by voting as a bloc.

Republican interests are often overruled by the overwhelming number of Democrats on council, but Republicans have been creating their own, individual alliances with Democrats on specific issues. But these days, the divisions among Democrats means that winning the votes of a coalition of three Republicans can be vital to passing legislation, thus putting them on a par with some of the Democratic factions. This can be a very useful bargaining chip for getting some of their own legislation passed.

"We decided to vote as a unified bloc," said Kelly. "Like Billy Meehan wanted Republicans to do." Meehan, the GOP boss who died in 1994, was known by both parties as the heart of the city's Republican Party, who was a master political organizer and an important figure in state politics.

O'Neill, the minority leader and Rizzo, the minority whip (he must be whipping Kelly), attended Kelly's fundraiser last Thursday with special guest, former Gov. Mark Schweiker, who is now the president and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.

Rizzo said he thinks the Republicans on Council have not always been unified, though they have tried.

"Brian and I will vote for some kind of smoking ordinance while Jack is against it," said Rizzo. "But usually we'll try to be on the same page. David Cohen used to call us 'measly Republicans,'" he reminisced about his Democratic colleague Cohen, who passed away Monday night of heart failure.

O'Neill said that when it came to important budget issues, Republicans voted their individual consciences.

"We met over the summer and decided to vote as a bloc on core issues such as tax reform, the ethics bill and anything against pay-to-play," said O'Neill. "We may not agree on the smoking bill — I'm for a total ban, and Jack's against it — but on all reform issues we will vote together. If any Democrat wants support from me individually, I will say, 'I will talk to my colleagues first.'"

Schweiker attended the fundraiser because Kelly supports business reform and tax cuts, priorities of the Chamber. Kelly, who started out, after his 2003 election, as an ally of Mayor John Street, now does not support the mayor's tax increase plan. Nor do Schweiker and the Chamber. Schweiker appeared before City Council in February asking them to repeal the onerous business privilege tax, lower the wage tax and not to raise parking lot fees because it may hurt the hospitality industry.

Kelly's fundraiser on the Top of the Phoenix, the pricey high-rise near the Parkway, drew an eclectic crowd. Guests included Joe Mammana, who brought Beth Twitty. Mammana is paying for the lawyers who will investigate the disappearance of Twitty's daughter, Natalee Holloway, who was last seen in May on a senior trip in Aruba with other students.

Mammana is a Kelly supporter.

With Fall Comes the Draft
It's not the Philadelphia Black Clergy that's drafting U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, it's the Philadelphia Council of Clergy (PCC). Rev. Dr. Anthony Floyd, the president and CEO of PCC, said that thousands of flyers have been dropped off at various locations throughout the city announcing the draft. Recipients are asked to write a letter to Brady's constituent services office on South Broad Street.

"I am supporting Bob Brady because I believe he can restore to the city the powers of city management that have been stripped away by the state," said Floyd, who oversees the Majestic Temple in North Philadelphia. "What I am saying is that we need someone with his expertise, with his kind of cohesive relationship with many of our people in power to get things done and not take anything away from Mayor John Street, to get this city in an up-going direction."

The PCC is an interdenominational and multiracial organization with a membership of 200 churches and 425 ministers representing around 500,000 parishioners.

"We are very powerful," said Floyd. He added that more flyers are due to be distributed at the Frankford El terminals at 69th Street and Bridge Street this weekend.

Karen Warrington, Brady's communications director, said Brady "believes that Rev. Floyd is an important part of the community. But neither he, nor his office, are aware of the flyers and have not seen any letters."

Journalist Bobbi Booker is one of 25 critics, editors and reporters chosen to participate as fellows by Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism in the second annual National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Arts Journalism Institute of Classical Music and Opera.