Doc v. Farnese v. Dicker v. Fumo

by Mary F. Patel

Expect a large crowd of IBEW Local 98 workers to pack a courtroom Friday morning, as their boss' supporters try to toss an opponent from the April primary ballot. Union head John Dougherty is running for the same state Senate seat as Larry Farnese, and two of Dougherty's people, Keith Olkowski and Theresa Paylor, are challenging Farnese's candidacy, claiming that more than 1,500 of the 1,800 signatures on Farnese's petitions are invalid. Five hundred signatures from valid, registered voters are needed for a state Senate candidate to appear on the ballot.

Farnese's campaign manager, Renee Gilinger, says the campaign is prepared for the case. Attorney Cliff Levine is representing Farnese and Sam Stretton is representing the plaintiffs.

Is the union footing the legal bills?

Dougherty campaign manager (and former CP managing editor) Brian Hickey says he can't comment on sensitive ongoing litigation. Stretton says he has not received a check yet, but "I assume it will come from the union's PAC."

Farnese and Dougherty were once allies. The former jumped into the Senate race only recently; he had been planning for two years to run against state Rep. Babette Josephs. He dropped out of that race after Local 98 worker Bob Gormley entered it as a possible spoiler.

Now Farnese and Dougherty will face off in court while their opponent, incumbent Sen. Vincent Fumo, recuperates in the hospital from a heart attack he suffered Sunday night. (Activist Anne Dicker is also running.)

Gilinger says Farnese is already up and running with local cable TV ads. Farnese raised a good deal of money for his race against Josephs, but may not be able to count on at least one source of funding anymore: the gay community. In the Senate, Fumo has long been an advocate for gay rights, and has an openly gay staff member. Look for the gay community to stick by Fumo, despite the fact that Gilinger is a past co-chair of Philly's gay and lesbian Liberty City Democratic Club, and despite the incumbent's legal troubles.

Dougherty postponed his campaign launch announcement, which had been scheduled for Tuesday in South Philly, because of Fumo's health issues. According to Hickey, Dougherty had not been planning to say anything negative about Fumo. Dougherty's "campaign isn't about bashing anybody," he says.

Fumo intends to stay in the race.

City Hall

During his campaign last year, Mayor Michael Nutter stressed the importance of resurrecting the position of deputy city representative for arts and culture (which former Mayor John Street eliminated). But he has yet to appoint anyone to the role. Press secretary Douglas Oliver says that Nutter is very committed to the promise, and will name someone soon. He says $2 million has been allocated in the budget for it, and added that the vetting process is already under way.

In the past two mayoral administrations, the position in question fell under the City Representative's Office in combination with the Commerce Department. Oliver says it's not yet known if the job will stay under Commerce or fall under the chief of staff.

The new appointee would determine how the budget will be used to advance the arts in the city.

Carol Lawrence was the last person to serve as the arts and culture czar, before Street decided the position was unnecessary. During former Mayor Ed Rendell's tenure, Diane Dalto held the reins. Despite the perception that Rendell started the arts job, it was actually former Mayor Wilson Goode who appointed Oliver Franklin as the first city official for the arts.

This and That

Mark Nevins has been named Pennsylvania communications director for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Nevins, currently with the Dover Strategy Group, a communications/fundraising company, was the state communications director for former presidential candidate John Kerry and communications director for Mayor Street's 2003 re-election campaign.

He has also worked on several congressional campaigns and was U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein's deputy press secretary.

(rcpatel@aol.com)