My Mayoral Choice
If you just want to cut to the chase, my choice is Michael Nutter. Michael Nutter has my vote for mayor in the 2007 Democratic Primary (or as I like to call it, the actual vote for mayor that matters.)
If you want to hear my reasoning, here you go.
Despite having no real knowledge of the race before researching it I had a vague preference for Nutter before I began. I probably picked it up without thinking from my blog reading. But as I researched, I started to see a guy who actually thought about public policy, and the effects that policy can have on the city. Policy defined here for these purposes being the all encompassing actions and statues that a governmental body has influence over, as opposed to "plans," "Initiatives," and "programs" which are just usually media attention catchers. This is not to say that Nutter doesn't have Initiatives or programs, he does, but he also has policy ideas.
He's running against Mayor Street, which I definitely dig.
Nutter is familiar with the way Philadelphia government works. He was an effective member of city council who actually got ethics reform passed, and tax reform through before Street vetoed. Those are tough pieces of legislation to get passed in Philadelphia. I see this in sharp contrast to Brady and Fattah who are well connected to the Philadelphia machine, but not the governance. This is also a contrast with Knox, who had, as far as I can tell, one job in city government.
Nutter also is pushing for an immediate addressing of the crime problem. This is in sharp contrast to Evans, who has plans, and talked about education being the solution. (It's a long term solution yes, but we need a band-aid in the meantime.)
I could go on. But I think I don't want to bash the other candidates. Nutter is the best guy for the job. I'm voting for him. I think you should too.
Comments
Posted by: Jeff Porten at April 25, 2007 3:08 AM