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Philly mayor election turned on fbi bug Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/7185827.htmhttp://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/7185827.htm
Posted on Wed, Nov. 05, 2003
ELECTION TURNED ON BUG, BUSH
TIMING OF PROBE, BEHAVIOR OF FEDS PUSHED VOTERS TOWARD STREET
By WILLIAM BUNCH
bunchw@phillynews.com
It wasn't really that much about race - but about political party.
And it wasn't that much about Sam Katz, either, but about a cast of characters who were largely offstage - President Bush, John Ashcroft and even the late J. Edgar Hoover.
It was about a makeover for Mayor Street from a prickly, hard-to-like budget wonk to a populist civil rights standard-bearer - all because of the stunning discovery of an FBI bug in his City Hall office four weeks ago.
And in the end, it wasn't even close.
Street, 60, won an improbable landslide victory yesterday and a second term as Philadelphia's mayor, winning his rematch with Republican Katz with almost six out of 10 votes.
His margin was largely the result of thousands of white voters - angry at both the bug and at the GOP administration in Washington - coming home to the Democratic Party. Street was running close in liberal-leaning Chestnut Hill - where he lost by a lot to Katz in 1999 - and gained hundreds of votes in some predominantly white wards in Northeast Philadelphia.
"I just think he [Street] got a bum rap," said a woman at Temple Beth Zion in Center City. "That [federal probe] was a low blow."
G. Terry Madonna, the Millersville University political scientist and pollster, said the "nationalization" of the race moved thousands of whites to Street while boosting black turnout.
About 11:15 last night, Street declared victory from the jam-packed stage at the Wyndham Franklin Hotel, surrounded by his wife, Naomi; his family; Gov. Rendell; and the key cogs in the Democratic machine. He quoted from a fortune cookie he got last week in Chinatown.
"It said, 'Your principles mean more to you than any money or any success,' " Street said to cheers.
Katz, 53, who has now failed in three tries to become mayor of America's fifth-largest city, told a gathering at the Radisson Plaza Warwick Hotel that he could not have foreseen the events that led to his defeat this time.
"This is a strange business," he mused before pledging to work with Street to seek to close the wounds on race and other issues that were inflicted during the bitter campaign.
Face-off with feds
What began as a sluggish rematch is likely to be recalled as both a turning point and an epic moment in Philadelphia political history - largely because of the federal probe of City Hall and the way voters reacted to it.
With no specific allegations against Street, the FBI-led investigation became a blank slate upon which the overwhelmingly Democratic electorate of the city projected its fears and its suspicions - about Bush and his chief lawman, Ashcroft, about the legacy of former FBI director Hoover, about race and politics.
After Oct. 7, the election was no longer Street against Katz.
It was Street against The Man.
And in Philadelphia, stickin' it to The Man is a good strategy.
"Pearl Harbor came on Dec. 7, and the bug came on Oct. 7, to excite people and drive them to the polls," said Jack Collins, a longtime Democratic consultant.
"I think that the bug and the unfortunate leaking created the impression - whether it was right or wrong - that there was a political intent to smear Mayor Street," Gov. Rendell said Monday. "I don't think that the bug was deliberately political - but then after the bug was uncovered, the five straight days of leaking when the TV cameras were there, when the FBI actually served the subpoenas, that type of stuff made people thing it was political."
Different world
At times, it seemed as if two different men were on the ballot than the John Street and Sam Katz who'd run such a civil, issues-oriented campaign in 1999. In fact, the candidates didn't change that much, but the world and the city did.
Four years ago was the zenith of both peace and prosperity, and the Philadelphia contest seemed to center largely on continuing the momentum of the hugely popular Rendell. But today, in a world made more cynical by jobs going overseas, by terrorism and war in the Persian Gulf, the election took on a nasty and partisan tone.
In the early weeks of the contest, Street sought to link Katz to Bush and the national Republican Party, but voters weren't seeing the link - until the investigation was revealed. Many wondered why the U.S. Justice Department would bug a sitting mayor so close to Election Day. Some compared it to the GOP's hardball tactics in the 2000 Florida recall and the California recall election.
"The nationalization strategy was DOA until the bug was found, and then people were receptive to it," said Larry Ceisler, a Democratic consultant. "A lot of people in this city believed that the Bush administration would be capable of hijacking this election. A lot of people thought this was a way to send a message to George Bush."
From Day 1, a Katz victory depended on two things: a lack of enthusiasm for Street that would hold down voter turnout among his black base, and a turnout as good as or better than 1999 by white liberals in places like Center City and Chestnut Hill.
But that didn't happen yesterday. As returns trickled in, it seemed likely that voter turnout would slightly surpass the 438,000 people who went to the polls four years ago - even though experts think the city's population has shrunk. Street was winning black wards in North Philadelphia by even larger margins than in 1999. In middle-class West Oak Lane's 10th Ward, Street was getting 97 percent of the vote, compared with 91 percent four years ago.
But Street also was running well ahead of 1999 in mostly white wards. While race was the deciding factor in 1999, the early evidence was that party ID proved critical in 2003 - bad news for Katz in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 4-to-1.
Election Day had an ugly tone that reflected the bitter nerves exposed by the rest of the contest. More than 170 serious complaints were referred to the district attorney's office by the end of the day, most by Katz supporters.
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Staff writers Carla Anderson and Jim Nolan contributed to this report
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