Nutter Wins Easy Election as Mayor of Philadelphia

by KYW's Mike Dunn

With more than 82 percent of the votes, and with an impassioned speech to supporters, Michael Nutter became mayor-elect with a vow to remake Philadelphia. 
  
Philadelphia mayor-elect Michael Nutter says "it's a new day" for Philadelphia. The Democratic nominee easily beat a weak Republican opponent in a city where nearly 80 percent of voters are Democrats.

The former city councilman was elected mayor Tuesday after promising to take new steps to fight gun violence, crack down on corruption at City Hall, and improve the city's famously beleaguered psyche.

To the cheers of hundreds of supporters, Nutter offered "a new day" to those packing the Warwick ballroom (right) and to the thousands of Philadelphians who had handed him a landslide victory.
 
It was a victory, Nutter said, that would silence the cynics:

“They said that we were a city whose time has passed. They said a reformer could never get elected. Well, they were wrong. They were wrong!”
 
During his speech Nutter mentioned a conversation he had with one suburbanite who had moved back into the city after Nutter earned the nomination -- and he said more should be thinking about doing that.

Nutter began his victory speech by asking for a moment of silence out of respect for all those slain in the city -- including Philadelphia police officer Chuck Cassidy, who was gunned down during a doughnut store robbery last week.
    
Nutter was challenged by Republican Al Taubenberger and Socialist Workers Party candidate John Staggs. He takes office in January.
    
Nutter, who spent 15 years on City Council, promised to use "stop, question and frisk" tactics to cut down on the city's surging gun violence and vowed to crack down on no-bid contracts in the wake of a federal corruption investigation that netted nearly two dozen people.
    
Republican Al Taubenberger, leader of a local business organization, raised little money and gained little momentum during his campaign.
    
Nutter, 50, an adversary of two-term outgoing mayor John Street since their days together on City Council, built a reputation as a reformer who helped create a city ethics committee and pass a smoking ban for most bars and restaurants. He came back to win a five-man Democratic primary in May, fending off two congressman, a millionaire business executive, and a state legislator.

KYW's Paul Kurtz reports from Taubenberger headquarters that defeat arrived early for Al Taubenberger, but the longshot candidate said his double-digit showing was at least a moral victory:
 
"I was projected to get eight percent. I'm over 18 percent, and I think it's going to go a little higher yet. I've already beaten (former gubernatorial candidate) Lynn Swann and I'm closing in on George Bush."

There was no apparent bitterness or disappointment from the loser, who finished with about 17 percent of the votes. Taking the podium, Taubenberger congratulated Nutter on his victory and offered to help the mayor-elect in any way he could:

"The next mayor has a great deal of difficulty ahead of him: union contracts, crime in the streets -- which is not just crime in the streets, it's really amounted to a war. And we have to have better schools, teaching conflict resolution -- something I talked about as well."

As for his own future, Taubenberger says he is ready to slide right back into his post as president of the Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.

Election Category: MAYOR

97.03 % 1631/1681 Precincts Completed.

KYW's Steve Tawa reports that the ballroom of Nutter's headquarters hotel was filled with supporters, including one former city councilman who gave Nutter his first City Hall experience.
 
Angel Ortiz (at far right), who served on City Council from 1984 to 2004, brought Nutter aboard as his campaign manager, then as his chief of staff in the mid-'80s.

Ortiz says Nutter bested the other candidates in the bruising Democratic primary last spring because he could best explain the issues:

"We had a couple of hundred forums. After every one of them I would get a phone call with someone saying, 'I went in for Chaka (Fattah),' 'I went in for Dwight (Evans).' But I came out for Michael."

Ortiz says Nutter best explained the problems of the city, and quietly made the stops and phone calls to raise campaign funds:

"Michael outraised everybody. And he did it without going public. No one knew."

Ortiz believes the incoming Nutter administration will be focused:

"He's going to go after the best and the brightest."

He says that Nutter will settle for no less than excellence:

"Good will not suffice."

(Photo: KYW's Dennis Abdul-Jihad)

And one leader in the African-American community thinks Mayor-elect Nutter's feet will be quickly held to the fire on some key issues -- and one of them is municipal contracts.

Local NAACP president Jerry Mondesire says folks are talking about crime and stop-and-frisk, but taxes are right up there, too:

"First thing he faces is a tsunami of contracts."

Mondesire says it is a big question mark how the mayor-elect will pay for all of the municipal contracts coming due without raising taxes:

"Every contract -- blue collar city workers, white collar city workers, school district, police, and fire -- all of those contracts come up in the first year."

He says that when Ed Rendell was mayor he faced down municipal unions:

"He can't repeat Ed Rendell's tactics because the unions gave back a lot of their health benefits."

And former mayor Frank Rizzo was criticized for giving away the store:

"Back when Rizzo was mayor we had more jobholders who worked for private companies."

Mondesire says the ratio has changed dramatically, with more folks now on the public payroll.