Philly Race: No Brotherly Love

There's been no brotherly love lost in the race to be Philadelphia's next mayor.

The candidates have dredged up racial animosity, hinted at fiscal irresponsibility and aired negative TV ads with embarrassing images almost two decades old.

Voters went to the polls Tuesday to choose among five Democrats who hope to succeed Edward G. Rendell as mayor of the nation's fifth largest city. The winner will face businessman Sam Katz, who was unopposed in Monday's Republican primary.

Big-league political consultants have been involved in the race, which experts say could be one of the most expensive mayoral contests in U.S. history, costing up to $20 million.

Marty Weinberg, who is white, emerged from obscurity a few months ago to mount a serious challenge to former City Council President John F. Street, who is black.

Polls showed another black candidate, former state Welfare Secretary John White Jr., 50, gaining momentum in recent weeks. The other two candidates are state Rep. Dwight Evans, 45, who is black, and Happy Fernandez, 60, a former council member who is white.

Weinberg, 62, making his first bid for elective office, expects to do well in the blue-collar rowhouse neighborhoods of this city of 1.5 million people, more than 40 percent of them black. Weinberg, a lawyer, served as campaign manager for one of Philadelphia's best-known mayors, the late Frank Rizzo.

Historically, eight of every 10 white Philadelphia voters have voted for white candidates. Blacks have shown a greater willingness to cross-racial lines, but they also tend to vote most often for other blacks.

There are more registered blacks than whites in the Democratic Party, although precise numbers are unreliable since city voters don't have to declare their ethnicity on registration forms.

Weinberg, who used a nearly $4 million advertising campaign to move from last place in the polls into a close second, has employed a hard-nosed strategy that some criticize as mean-spirited. He sent a flier to voters that featured a picture of a bullet on the cover and said: "Protect your family. Elect Marty Weinberg mayor. Not John Street!"

Weinberg also began running television advertisements that use 18-year-old images of Street, then a young councilman and community activist, shoving a television reporter to the floor. In another ad, Street is shown throwing water in the face of police officer. Each advertisement asks: "John Street for mayor? You decide."

Weinberg has also run commercials that cite Street's past financial problems, including bankruptcy, and ask voters, "Does this sound like someone who should be in charge of $2.7 billion?"

During a campaign stop Monday, Weinberg told reporters his commercials are taking their toll on Street. "It's hurting him," Weinberg said. "His handlers of the last few years have tried to clean him up. It doesn't sell."

Black leaders have responded by repeatedly urging one or two of the lack candidates to drop out of the race in order to give the third a better shot at winning. They even sent a letter to Evans that said: "By remaining in the election campaign you are one of Martin Weinberg's greatest assets."

Street, who had stayed relatively positive throughout the campaign, finally responded over the weekend with a TV commercial accusing Weinberg of racial divisiveness. "The people of this city are tired of the negativity," said Street, 55. "They're going to punish the negativity. They're just not buying it."

Still, the GOP's Katz also has gone negative, unleashing attack ads against Weinberg and White. U.S. Rep. Robert Brady, the Philadelphia Democratic chairman, recently called the spots "gutter politics."

"This has been a very nasty and very dirty campaign," said Rendell, who oversaw Philadelphia's recent economic recovery but is barred from seeking a third consecutive term. He has endorsed Street.

The candidates have spent some time tackling more substantive issues, including the city's wage taxes, education, crime and Rendell's legacy.

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