Michael Nutter
Initial Impressions
I think the phrase "policy wonk, but no charisma." I think I absorbed it off a blog somewhere.
Actual Research
"My name is Michael Nutter, and this is the saddest day of my life."
Or so my TV series based on Michael Nutter would start.
Leaving his perennial heart-broken appearance aside, Michael Nutter's got a lot going for him. He's a lifelong Philadelphia resident who went to Wharton and then stayed here. After a career in Investment Banking, he went into public service. He was a councilman the gaping maul that is the Philadelphia 4th district. He quit to run for mayor.
He's been described as a "maverick." He's been at pretty strong odds with the Street administration for the past 8 years. He's got strong policy based ideas. He championed a bill to repeal the business privilege tax only to see Street veto it. He's pushed a lot of policy through, including the quixotic ethics reform package.
I don't agree with his martial law idea for the heavy crime areas. It does sound a little draconian. But I don't live in one of those areas. If the people that live in those neighborhoods vote for him, they'll be saying they're okay with it.
I also don't like that he's on the list of the DLC's 100 to watch for 2003. But let's face it; he's a Democrat who went to Wharton. He's automatically going to be loved by the DLC.
I came into this exercise liking Nutter the most. As of now he seems to me to be the most qualified candidate, who's in a distant second in even his own polls. (In others he's down by more)
He's an extremely qualified policy-wonk, lacking charisma, and trailing? That's just my kind of underdog.
I'm not going to say I'm voting for him just yet though. I haven't dismissed Brady or Fattah yet. I've got a sum-up post left to write.
Comments
@Maureen I have no rebuttal to your clearly well thought out criticisms.
I have no real criticism of him. It's true that he isn't as charismatic as, say, Rendell, but he definitely seems to have the best grasp on local issues of all the candidates and the corruptions allegations I've heard about him, mostly related to ward leader Carol Campbell are very mild relative to most of the other candidates (except maybe Knox, but he seems to have to pertinent experience and I'm kind of turned off by his TV ads, which I consider to be very misleading).
BTW, I don't think Nutter deserves the criticism he's getting for his "state of emergency" idea, which I wouldn't liken to martial law. There was a radio show on WHYY a while back (see link I provided in URL field) that explains how "stop and frisk" programs have been implemented in other cities. It really isn't as bad as people are making it sound (and, yes, I think that, if it's done right, people in the high-crime neighborhoods are probably willing to give up a little if it'll bring down the level of violence).
Posted by: anonymous at April 21, 2007 9:27 PM