Michael Nutter Can't Have It Both Ways

Today on 1340-AM WHAT, the Voice of the African-American Community:



Mary Mason was talking about Michael Nutter calling for John Street to declare a State of Emergency in high crime areas throughout the city (this is something we agree with as we feel John Street has not done enough, if anything at all. Text Messages and curfew are not going to cut it). A caller called in and said the Michael should be careful calling people out because he is STILL USING HIS CITY ISSUED CELL PHONE FOR PERSONAL BUSINESS. Mary was trying to get to the bottom of this and then went on to say that she is not sure if he is still using it but she had the number and as a matter of fact Michael uses that number on Election Day when he was going about the ward on election day to handle ward business.

While we find it appalling that he is still using the cell phone after he resigned, it is even more appalling that he uses it for Democrat Ward Business. Michael Nutter can't have it both ways. One day he is a holier than thou, man of the people, uber-progressive and the next day he is a ward leader and riding the status quo.

While Michael has done some good things in Council, he has to decide which Michael Nutter is running for Mayor. One day he is lobbying on behalf of Carol Campbell to get an $80K contract from the Sheriff's office and the next day is he is asking Bob Brady not to endorse a candidate (read Carol Campbell) for his vacant seat (we believe that Michael did this to appease his new liberal base, all the while realizing that this was done for publicity).

Michael, where do you stand? Are you a ward leader, a member of the Democrat City Committee and a proponent of business as usual or are you man of the people, progressive, and outside the establishment? You are either one or the other, you can't have it both ways.

Ed Dixon's Letter on Brendan Boyle's Inconsistency in Yesterday's Northeast Times

A little consistency

please, Brendan

While reading the recent media coverage regarding the state House rematch between Rep. George Kenney and Brendan Boyle, I find a recurring item quite amusing.
Brendan consistently challenges Rep. Kenney due to his vote in favor of the controversial state pay raise, but he fails to mention that his boss, state Sen. Mike Stack, took the raise after not voting for it.
Personally, I find the politics behind not voting for the raise but still accepting it a more offensive issue. The public has been heard, the raise revoked, and now Rep. Kenney has to defend his vote. But apparently, according to Brendan (and Stack), voting against the raise but reaping the rewards anyway is somehow acceptable?
Although I disagree with the subject raise and how it was conducted, at least Rep. Kenney is holding himself accountable due to his vote. And as a result of the aforementioned, Boyle continues to spin the issue in his favor despite his boss’ acceptance of the same monetary benefit.
Since both parties accepted the raise, both are equally liable. Voting "for" or "against," in this particular instance, is effectively irrelevant.
Please let the hypocrisy rest.
Ed Dixon
Bustleton resident, member of Neighborhood Civic PAC

Daily News: "Cummings Continues to Climb"

Dan Gross
Cummings continues to climb

Mayfair Civic Association President Scott Cummings is gaining some support in his bid for the late David Cohen's at-large City Council seat. The Republican candidate met Sen. Rick Santorum for breakfast at the Mayfair Diner Sunday morning before they attended church together at St. Matthew's, on Cottman Avenue.
They later joined Sen. Arlen Specter over at North Philly's Bright Hope Baptist Church.

ACORN Turns in over 3000 Bad Voter Registrations to Philly City Commissioners

Allegations Trip Up Voting Rights Group
Voter Fraud Allegations Still Tripping Up Voting Rights Group Weeks Before Election

Oct 2, 2006 (AP)— An advocacy group that registered more than a million voters two years ago is facing new allegations of voter fraud and sloppy work just weeks before crucial midterm elections.
Philadelphia's municipal voter registration office has rejected about 3,000 cards submitted by ACORN the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now since April because of missing information or invalid addresses...

10/3/06 A Party On The Precipice

The Republican Party in Philadelphia is at risk of being demoted from concerned bystander to rounding error unless concerted action is taken to revive it as a viable alternative to Democrat one-party rule.
Over the past 12 years (from November 1994 to September 2006), the Republican Party has suffered a net loss of more than 28,000 registered voters [187,276 to 159,116] despite the addition of nearly 200,000 total voters to the voter rolls [799,470 to 994,884]. It now accounts for only 16 percent of registered voters in Philadelphia County. Surprisingly, the Democratic Party has been unable to directly capitalize on this decline, having held steady at approximately 75 percent of the registered electorate [581,189 to 746,596 or 73 percent to 75 percent]. The beneficiary? The number of voters registered as "Other" has tripled over this same period to nearly 10 percent; an increase of nearly 60,000 voters [31,005 to 89,172].
While maximizing voter participation regardless of party in elections is always a commendable goal, non-aligned voters as a whole agree on no platform and, therefore, can provide no organized counterbalance to absolute power absolutely corrupting City Hall.
This 12-year period is also important because it covers the time since the National Voter Registration Act, also known as the "Motor Voter Act," has been in effect in Pennsylvania. Republicans may blame "Motor Voter" for packing the voter rolls with more phantoms than Eastern State Penitentiary on Halloween, but it is not to blame for the net decline in Republican Party registration.
Though it is no secret that "Motor Voter" has done great harm to the maintenance of accurate and current voter registration lists due to onerous and expensive requirements that must be met before removing even the demonstrably deceased and fraudulently fictitious from the voter rolls, neither it nor the much talked about Democratic National Committee's grassroots party-building efforts have apparently resulted in any noteworthy increase in the percentage of Philadelphians registered Democrat. If there is a silver lining for Republicans, this is it.
The decline of the Republican Party, however, should be of concern to all Philadelphians, regardless of one's positions on national-level foreign or domestic policy. The same assumption supposedly motivating voters to divide power in Washington, D.C., is theoretically no less applicable to our own city. It is the responsibility of the Republican Party to offer a viable alternative, rather than serving as a wholesale supplier of sacrificial lambs, or a platform for disaffected Democrats to make an end-run for higher office when they find their way blocked by other Democrats.
So what is to be done? Three things: First, learn to love the political machine and use it before it rusts solid. Unless you can think of a better way to turn out the vote block by block, division by division and ward by ward election after election, start by filling those vacant committee person spots with likeminded friends and neighbors. If you are reading this and live in a division where a vacancy currently exists, approach your ward leader and volunteer to fill the spot. Remember, committee persons choose the ward leader, not the other way around. Second, appeal to party leadership to agree on a consensus-driven platform for our Party. I know what I believe, but I'll be damned if I can tell you what the Philadelphia Republican Party's position is on a host of concrete and timely issues. Republicans need to be more than "not Democrats." And third, support those who are keeping our Party alive and doing our work for us. Joe DeFelice, for example, is a veritable Atlas carrying the Philadelphia Republican Party on his shoulders. Contact Joe at electionday@pagop.org and find out how you can help share the load.
The sooner Republicans get this message across to their fellow Philadelphians, the sooner Philadelphians will realize that they need the Republican Party as much as the Republican Party needs them.
Albert Schmidt, Ph.D., is a former Senior Analyst for the United States Government Accountability Office. He is currently a Republican Committeeman in Fairmount.

Inquirer: "Vote Republican" in Special Election; Scott Cummings, Most promising

Editorial Your Ward Leaders Know Best

A most undemocratic party

Decades of dominance have made the Democratic Party in Philadelphia fat and arrogant.
This fall would be a good time for voters to send the city's complacent and corruptible power structure a little message.

The Democrats' method of choosing their three candidates for City Council recently highlights the problem. As the only real political power in town, Democrats had an obligation to city residents to conduct an open process to pick party nominees for this special election to fill three vacant seats.

The party's leaders know full well that their candidates will win in November, so the Democrats' nominating process was the only chance for the people to have a say.

Instead, U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, the city's party boss, and his lieutenants went back to their tired playbook. In a closed meeting of Democratic ward leaders, they anointed three candidates - Carol Campbell, Daniel Savage and William Greenlee. All three are ward leaders.

When a political system lacks a viable opposition party, corruption becomes more likely. Perhaps a stronger city Republican Party could have acted as a check against the pay-to-play abuses that have so weakened the Street administration. Instead, hampered by its national party's bad behavior and its long history as a complacent junior partner in City Hall patronage, the city GOP is a weakling.

Voters sick of corruption and arrogance need to take steps to shake up the city's Democratic cliques.

Here's one possible way: Vote Republican in this year's Council elections, simply as a protest against the fossilized status quo.

The Republican candidates are Scott Cummings, Mayfair Civic Association president; Joseph Gembala III, a lawyer; and Gary Grisafi, a former candidate for the state house.
Full disclosure time: The GOP chose its candidates in the same undesirable fashion - a meeting of its ward leaders. But given the Republicans' long history of futility in city races, the Democrats' selection process held bigger implications for the future of city government.

The Democrats' nomination of Campbell is the most troubling. A longtime ward leader from West Philadelphia, Campbell has repeatedly demonstrated arrogance and bad campaign-finance habits.

In 2003, Campbell finished a year of probation for breaking state campaign-finance law, an offense for which she paid a $1,250 fine. Now she is again facing questions about how a political action committee she founded, Genesis IV, spent its cash. The PAC has ignored inquiries from the state Bureau of Elections since Jan. 31.

Last week, she paid a $1,700 fine to the city Board of Elections regarding late campaign-finance filings from her City Council race in 1999. Campbell's belated attempts to clean up her record should fool no one. If she hadn't done so, she would be ineligible to be sworn into Council.

These are the actions of someone who is paying attention to the law only because she sees the brass ring within her grasp. She has already inquired where she will sit in the Council chamber as representative of the Fourth District. Michael Nutter resigned the seat to run for mayor.

Savage, leader of the 23rd Ward, is running for the seat vacated by Democratic Councilman Rick Mariano, who is serving a 61/2-year sentence in federal prison for corruption and fraud. Greenlee is hoping to win the at-large seat of his longtime boss, the late Councilman David Cohen.

The Republican candidates know they face long odds. The most promising is Cummings, who leads one of the city's largest civic groups. A father of three, Cummings, 44, has a laudable record of trying to improve his community.

Gembala is an attorney and part-time law professor who has waged uphill battles before, for Common Pleas Court judge and city controller. Grisafi, a professional musician who lost two bids for the state House, appears to be the least attractive of the GOP candidates.

It would be a political miracle for any one of these Republicans to win the special election, and they know it. In all likelihood, the city's Democratic machine will again prevail.

But voters who are tired of the way Democratic leaders have taken them for granted should strongly consider voting for Republican Council candidates - as a wake-up call to leaders who regard democratic process as their personal plaything.

Next year, when the entire Council is up for election, let's see some real, open competition in the Democratic primaries, particularly in the Council districts where this fall's insider trading occurred.