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Surrounded by his parents, wife and children — and bushels of fresh produce — Republican mayoral candidate Sam Katz delivered the first official speech of his campaign in South Philly last week.
Katz told supporters from a podium near Eighth and Washington at Captain Jesse G’s seafood market that the city must end its days of "managing decline" as its residents and businesses disappear.
"I see Philadelphia as a growing city," Katz said last Thursday, "growing jobs and businesses, rebuilding housing, infrastructures, schools, parks, libraries and rec centers. My goal is for Philadelphia to become the fastest-growing city in the Northeast."
That same day, Mayor John Street marked the first anniversary of Operation Safe Streets, attending events around the city and stealing some of Katz’s spotlight.
The mayor’s reelection campaign also has begun airing two commercials on cable television, touting his success at addressing the financial problems of the school district.
With neither man facing a challenger in the May 20 primary, they are getting straight to campaigning for November’s general election.
Katz’s speech touched on all the dominant issues — schools, taxes, jobs and crime. Asked why he chose South Philly as the place to deliver his first official campaign speech, the Republican gave a canned candidate’s reply.
"I came to South Philadelphia because of the diversity of this particular spot," Katz said, noting the mix of Italians, Asians and blacks populating the surrounding blocks. "This is the melting pot of Philadelphia right here."
Translation: Katz needs more minority support if he is going to defeat Street.
The incumbent defeated Katz in 1999 by just 2.2 percent of the vote despite that registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in Philadelphia by a ratio of more than 4 to 1.
Racially, the city is 45 percent white and 43 percent black, with the balance mostly comprised of Hispanic and Asian minorities. According to the nonprofit political watchdog group Committee of Seventy, Street received 91 percent of the votes cast in the city’s black neighborhoods. Katz carried 83 percent of the votes cast in predominantly white areas.
Eighth and Washington falls in the Second Ward, and except for a few minority pockets surrounding that intersection, the voting population of the ward (east of Broad Street, between South Street and Washington Avenue) is largely white.
It is also predominantly Democratic, but party affiliation proved not to be a factor in 1999 when the Republican candidate handily won the Second Ward. Nor was the party’s dominance evident in the First Ward (east of Broad, including most blocks between Washington and Mifflin), 39th Ward (east of Broad and everything below Mifflin) or the 26th Ward (west of Broad, south of Passyunk Avenue). Those neighborhoods also are stocked with white Dems, and Katz still won each.
Street took Wards 30 (Lombard to Washington, west of Broad) and 36 (most blocks between Washington and Moore, west of Broad) last election. Both have mostly black populations.
The mayor also won the 48th Ward (most blocks between Passyunk and Moore, west of Broad), which is split almost evenly between white and black voters, but also includes a large number of other ethnic groups.
The Katz camp recognizes it must steal some of the mayor’s minority support. Katz said his most recent campaign will promote "a message that unites Philadelphians … that lays out a future of economic growth and opportunity and prosperity for all Philadelphians."
To help that cause, the challenger has named former Street ally Carl Singley one of his campaign co-chairs.
Singley, a prominent black attorney, had been one of Street’s main advisers during his first mayoral campaign. Not long after Street took office, the two had a falling out. The rift was serious enough that Singley endorsed Katz in March.
The Street camp seems to recognize this racial divide, too, or at least it did during the 1999 campaign, when the mayor’s team avoided white wards on Election Day in favor of squeezing every last vote from the black neighborhoods.
This election, Street is taking the tack of appealing to Democratic voters’ party loyalty. In March, he named some of his party’s most powerful elected officials as campaign co-chairs. Among them were congressmen Bob Brady and Chaka Fattah and Council President Anna Verna. Gov. Ed Rendell was selected honorary chairman.
As for Katz, he has realized he cannot ride the GOP coattails very far in this city. Signs with the slogan "Democrats for Katz" dotted the crowd during last Thursday’s speech and attested to the candidate’s attempt at crossover appeal.
Likewise, visitors inclined to visit his campaign’s Web site — sam2003.com — will not be bombarded with party rhetoric. They will probably even find it difficult to spot a mention of the word "Republican." It’s not in the candidate’s bio or his vision for the city, but there are links to the city’s Republican Web site, as well as the sites for the Northeast Philadelphia Young Republicans and the moderate Log Cabin Republicans. SPR
Anastasio loses ballot bid
First District Councilman Frank DiCicco became the certain winner of the Democratic primary three weeks before any votes were to be cast.
The seven justices of the state Supreme Court delivered a knockout punch to challenger Vernon Anastasio’s campaign last Thursday with a 4-3 decision to keep him off the May 20 ballot.
Common Pleas Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe removed Anastasio from the ballot in March for mistakes on his financial statement that constituted "fatal errors" under state law. The judicial action came in response to a complaint filed by First District Democrat Sarah DeRose. Anastasio subsequently appealed the decision to a panel of Commonwealth Court judges, who upheld the ruling against him. The candidate then appealed to the state Supreme Court.
The former president of the Bella Vista United Civic Association has maintained his mistakes — which involved his failure to list his income as a city employee and chief of staff for state Rep. Babette Josephs — were "minor clerical errors." Shortly after the complaint was filed, Anastasio attempted to amend his forms.
Anastasio had recently suggested he would mount a write-in campaign if the Supreme Court kept him off the ballot. He could not be reached to confirm these intentions.
–by R. Jonathan Tuleya
