Fighting for Control

by Mary F. Patel

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton breezed into town Tuesday to thank supporters and talk about her future plans.

Clinton made her appearance at the Wolf Block law firm in Center City, first to a small group of heavy hitters, and then to a larger, more general audience.

The former first lady conceded to her Democratic rival, Barack Obama, in June, when it became clear she did not have the delegates to beat him.

Richard Schiffrin, a Main Line attorney who raised close to $1 million for Clinton in the past year, said Clinton was traveling around the country, making similar appearances and working hard to pay off her campaign debt.

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"It is the right thing for her to do," said Schiffrin. "I doubt Obama will ask her to run for vice president. So I can only guess what she is feeling right now."

Schriffin says he is now standing behind Obama and will begin fundraising in the fall.

"I think it will be a closer election than people think," said Schiffrin. "But with the economy the way it is and after four years of George Bush, I can't imagine a Republican getting elected again."

Local Republicans are eyeing up the race for city controller next year.

Unlike the nomination for district attorney, which appears safe in the hands of Scott Sigman, the nod for controller could be up for grabs.

Al Schmidt, the executive director of Republican City Committee, is said to be interested in running, as is Kevin Kelly, former chairman of the Federation of Young Republicans.

Schmidt joined the city committee last year after working a federal job in D.C.

Schmidt would most likely receive the endorsement of the GOP City Committee via party bosses Michael Meehan and Vito Canuso. Kelly, whose goal has been to bring young people into the party, and who hosted large and successful candidate forums in past years as the Young Republicans' chairman, is at odds with Meehan, who referred to Kelly's confabs as "wine and cheese parties."

Republicans have been pushing for reform in City Hall since the days of former Mayor John Street and his federally bugged office. The party has called for the row offices such as district attorney and city controller to be a different party than the ruling party, the Democrats, to prevent corruption.

Incumbent City Controller Alan Butkovitz, a Democrat, will most likely seek re-election.

Speaking of bugs in City Hall, local filmmaker Tigre Hill was out and about at last week's 100th anniversary celebration for Philadelphia magazine at the Kimmel Center.

Hill refrained from comment on his latest project, 13th and Locust, a documentary about convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, but other sources revealed Hill is in heavy edit mode and expects the film to be finished by December. Kevin Kelly is one of Hill's executive producers. Hill's next project will be a documentary about the twisted life of mass murderer Charles Manson.

Recently elected State Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery is moving his offices to new digs atop the Centre Square building at 1500 Market St. A former Superior Court judge, McCaffery will continue to use his old office at Sixth and Walnut with the other Superior Court judges for a few more months. McCaffery says one of his new initiatives in the high court will be to develop a mental health court statewide, specifically for crimes committed by the mentally ill. Within that court will be the veteran's court, for veterans who are acting out due to war stress.

"Many of them are self-medicating," says McCaffery, "and need help getting back on track. So this court will be especially for them."

McCaffery's career took off when he launched a nuisance court at Eagles games as a Municipal Court judge.

(rcpatel@aol.com)