Karen Brown Seems To Seal GOP Mayoral Race Victory

Karen Brown, the Democratic committeewoman recruited to run for mayor by GOP leaders in Philadelphia, appears to be mathematically out of reach for her primary election challengers, John Featherman.

Brown held a 57-vote lead on Featherman in last Tuesday's primary before the Philadelphia City Commission started counting absentee, alternative and military ballots today.  That count gave Brown 81 more votes while Featherman picked up 80 votes.

That increased Brown's lead to 58 votes.  The City Commission now says it has 50 GOP provisional ballots left to count.  That would seem to cut off a path to victory to Featherman, who isn't conceding the race until he sees the final tally.

"If it's 50, I'm in trouble," Featherman told us this afternoon. "If it's even close to 50 I'm in trouble."

On this, he and Brown finally found a topic that they can agree on.

"Even if we split them, he's not going to catch me," Brown said. "Even if he takes all 50, he's not going to catch me."