All of our national and international readers, I hope you will indulge me for a brief moment while I discuss Philadelphia mayoral politics. Philadelphia is probably the most Democratic city in the country and it does not really have a functioning Republican opposition. As a result, the real election for mayor is not taking place in November, but in the primary on May 15th. Our incumbent mayor is term-limited out. The Keystone Poll (warning .pdf) is out and the numbers are interesting.
Q14. If the DEMOCRATIC primary election for Philadelphia’s mayor were being held today and
the candidates were… (rotated), would you vote for…Jan 2007 (left)
Apr 2007 (right)22% 24% Tom Knox
26% 17% Chaka Fattah
8% 16% Bob Brady
12% 12% Michael Nutter
10% 10% Dwight Evans
22% 21% Do Not Know
For reference:
Tom Knox: Former Mayor Ed Rendell’s Deputy Mayor for the Office of Management and Productivity.
Chaka Fattah: House of Representatives (PA-02). (He has some funky tunes on his mayoral website).
Bob Brady : House of Representatives (PA-01). The BIG MACHINE MAN. Go to his site and listen to his voice. You’ll get the idea.
Michael Nutter: City Councilman (4th District) for 15 years. A semi-regular at Philly for Change and Drinking Liberally. The man behind the smoking ban.
Dwight Evans: Democratic Appropriations Chairman in the state house of reps.
This next part won’t shock anyone in the city of brotherly love.
What do you think is the MOST IMPORTANT PROBLEM facing PHILADELPHIA today?
Jan 2007 (left)
Apr 2007 (right)71% 72% Crime, drugs, violence
8% 9% Education, schools, programs
2% 6% Government, politicians, leadership
5% 4% Unemployment, economy
3% 2% Social problems
2% 1% Improving city cleanliness, appearance, entertainment
1% 1% Housing
2% 1% Taxes in general
1% 0% Standard of living
3% 3% Other
2% 1% Do not know
Knox has spent a TON of money on television commercials and it appears to have worked. Bob Brady has also spent a lot of money on advertising and has doubled his numbers, despite an abysmal positive/negative ratio of 28%-24%. By comparison, Knox’s ratio is 42%-11% and Fattah’s is 34%-19%.
Fattah was in first place in January, but he has fallen behind.
I’m still undecided in this race. I have only eliminated Brady and Fattah from consideration. I wanted Brendan to run on a garbage/snow removal platform. But we couldn’t raise enough money.
